We all know this time is very challenging both personally and professionally. As my client, i’d like you open the power point presentation here and follow the commentary which is listed below.

Beating Coronavirus_– POWER POINT DOWNLOAD LINK

I’ll be reaching out to you all this week to discuss how the current pandemic could be effecting your business and what you need to do moving forward.

Slides 

  • The financial impact is going to be significant
  • We need to prepare for the economic effect of the disease
  • Whatever you thought 2020 was going to look like, however you thought you were going to perform, it’s different now
  • All of the plans you had up until today are going to need to change
  • Economies are different, supply chains are different, we are going to see different spending patterns from our customers
  • We have to turn panic into plan and to come out with a plan as to what you need to do in the next 90 days (in the first instance)

Slide 1 – Communicate

  • When crisis happens people worry, when worry happens people turn negative
  • Your team
    • How are you communicating to the people in your team about what is going on?
    • You need to be communicating daily, not weekly, i.e. here is what we are doing, here’s what is changing, here is what we are up against etc.
    • If you need to be communicating with your team via video then do it, but do it daily
  • Your customers
    • You also need to be communicating with your customers
    • Telling them what you are doing, what precautions you are taking e.g. how you are cleaning more, how you will continue to deliver their products and services
  • Your Networks, Suppliers, Community
    • Use social media to communicate with your networks and with people you do business with
  • You can not over-communicate in a crisis
  • Who do I need to communicate with and what do I need to communicate?

Slide 2 – Be Positive

  • Understand in every massive shift or change, there is also opportunity
  • You need to be looking for the opportunities right now
  • Ask yourself, where are the opportunities for me to do better
  • What can I do to add value to my business at this time, e.g. accelerate the shift to online sales
  • Actions:
    • Focus on the wins
    • You need to look at how you can win through this situation
    • You need to lead your team through this
    • You need to be the most positive person in your business
    • Focus on what CAN be done, not what can’t be done
    • People will gravitate to the people who are positive – so BE the positive person for your staff, your customers, your suppliers

Slide 3 – Know the Cycles

  • In the UK we are heading into the Autumn
  • Winter is going to be shorter than the credit crisis in 2008 and we will get back to spring within 3-6 months (in my opinion) – but this depends on the length and severity of the disease
  • In the next two weeks we need to watch how China goes. Now while the information coming out of China maybe not always be 100% accurate, what we are seeing currently is that China is coming to the end of the bell curve. At the peak China were recording 4000 new cases every day, now it’s down to 200. If we can believe the figures then China has gone through the worst and is coming out the other end

Slide 4 – Change

  • You can’t wait for this to overwhelm your business, you need to change, you need to pivot, you need to to action NOW
  • Remember the formula for change
    • (Dissatisfaction + Vision) + First Steps > Resistance
    • NB if you wait till your dissatisfaction is HIGH from the impact of this crisis it will be too late
    • We saw this in 2008 where businesses waited and waited until it was too late
    • Make the shift to a leaner, faster, better business – if this blows over in 90 days, then in 90 days you will still have a leaner, faster, better business
  • Start thinking about what you need to change, e.g. how are you going to shift your products, what price changes will be required, how am I going to deliver my services

Slide 5 – Cut Back

  • Stop spending on things that will not help you grow, NB keep spending on sales and marketing and anything that will grow your business
  • Ask yourself, where can you reduce your expenditure, where can you re-negotiate your costs, your terms etc.
  • Having extra cash is going to be important
  • Think about the 10 industries that are booming from the coronavirus and how can you assist them, how can you target them, how can you help them grow, e.g. how can you help Amazon etc.
  • Turn your focus to where you CAN make money
  • Postpone expenditure where you can, e.g. IT upgrades, but keep marketing and selling

Slide 6 – Extend Credit

  • The banks are still lending, extend your lines of credit NOW!
  • Having extra credit is not going to be a problem in six months when you don’t need it, but if you need it to help your business through this period, you want to have those extra lines of credit in place
  • Don’t wait to act before banks change their policies and stop lending

Slide 7 – Staff Cuts and Changes

  • Redundancies may need to happen
  • If you need to make redundancies (ideally) do it in one go
  • Non redundancy options
    • Encourage staff to take holidays
    • Reduce hours
    • Pay cuts
    • Suspend bonuses

Slide 8 – Working from Home

  • There is a very good chance that you and your team (or a percentage) are going to want to work from home for a period
  • How to prepare for this
    • Look at your technology needs, what are you going to need to communicate, to transfer information etc.
    • How will you do meetings, reporting, accounting, e.g. webinars, Zoom, Skype?
    • How are you going to do customer service and delivery?
    • Do you need extra computers, WIFI, additional bandwidth?
    • Make a plan NOW, get a process in place and communicate it

Slide 9 – Online or Deliveries

  • Businesses are already implementing “no visitor” policies
  • You need to start thinking about how are you going to deliver
    • How can you deliver virtually, via phone or online
    • What staff changes are required to enable you to be able to deliver
    • If people aren’t coming to you, how are you going to get business done?
  • This may or may not happen but you need to start thinking about this – be proactive. If you wait you will get caught off guard. For example
    • If you are an accountant clients will probably not want to come to you, so think about how you conduct virtual appointments over Zoom
    • If you are restaurant what packaging do you need to start offering home delivery
    • If you are a construction company have you have you got sufficient protective gear (masks, hand wash) to enable you to safely work on site etc.

Slide 10 – Market and Sell

  • In times of economic crisis marketing should be the last thing you stop doing
  • But your marketing is going to have to change, e.g. if you are a cleaning company do you need to start offering daily rather than weekly cleans – “do you have customers coming into your high street store, we can offer you an upgraded cleaning package…”
  • There will be opportunities to re-negotiate the rates on your marketing but you will also have to create new offers and revise your pricing
  • Focus more on cash upfront rather than extending your payment terms

Slide 11 – Repeat Business

  • The most important thing you can do is keep you existing customer base
  • You need to be communicating with your customers, offering them exclusive deals
  • Keep working through your customer database (if you don’t have one create one NOW!)
  • You need to asking customers to buy more
  • Make sure your customers know how important they are to you, that they feel valued

Slide 12 – Common Sense and Compassion

  • Over delivery on customer service,
  • Do more than you are expected to do
  • CLEAN and don’t touch (elbow bump)
  • Be nice, be considerate and help others