Many of us are going through the grieving process right now and it has put us into a fearful place. Fear about the pandemic and fear about the economy and that is understandable. Each and every one of us is at a different stage on that journey but I have now started hearing from business owners looking to pivot their businesses and a few that have the opportunity to quickly scale.
Let’s assume your businesses are viable for the long term and right now focus on the changes and how you will respond to them and start working on lessons learn ’t and the strategy to move forward.
In many cases it may be too soon to make the physical investment, for some maybe not, but it is a time to start working on a strategy. It is important to conserve cash now but if you wait to develop a strategy until the economy starts to turn, you may find yourself behind the 8 ball. How are you going to respond because there is no standing still, there is withering on the vine or growing? In this article I want to share some initial thoughts which will evolve as time goes on.
1. Should you focus on existing clients/customers or look for new customers? The answer is “and” not ”or”. It makes sense to start with existing clients/customers as you are a known entity and hopefully have built up goodwill and trust. What else could you sell them? A large arborist with a fleet of trucks for spraying trees is rolling out disinfectant applications for outdoor hardscape applications which are COVID compliant. Wineries traditionally sold their product through the 3-tier system of producers to wholesalers to retailers to consumers but over the last few years had begun to do more direct to consumer marketing. Those who invested early are now finding that investment paying dividends as other wineries try to play catch up. Let us not beat about the bush however, not every business will find it easy to pivot. If you are a traditional bricks and mortar business transitioning to on-line is at best a major investment and at worst a losing battle. As an example, the big retailers like Target and Macy’s (if they survive) are going to have much fewer sites and will do more business on-line. However, before COVID we had begun to see stores delivering and orders online and picked up in store or curbside. What if going forward there are more consolidated pick up points for delivery’s and returns, that do not need to be in the priciest rental areas. I will continue to monitor this area as I expect many changes to develop in the coming months.
2. Hard sell or soft sell? Right now, it is my personal belief that people are turned off by the hard sell. The want to talk to people who have empathy, who want to genuinely help/provide a service. Personally, I have done no cold calling and have focused solely on my existing clients. Through my channel partners I have let it be known that I will take on one or two “love clients” who may be smaller businesses and/or cash strapped businesses. It is my way of giving back. In the UK there is a fitness guru by the name of Joe Wicks who started offering free 30 minutes keep fit classes to kids when the schools closed down on March 23 As of last week he has had over 22 million viewers and major artists and brands reaching out to partner with him. He also is now the Guinness record holder for 955,000 tuning to his YouTube channel for a single event. He now has a global brand which in time will reap major rewards, but it does not appear he had that in mind when he started this initiative, he merely wanted to help in a time of need and for now is donating any proceeds from this venture to the NHS. In full disclosure he had written some bestselling cookery books and he had an on-line presence This is an extreme example of pulling people in and not trying to sell (push) your products.
3. There is no doubt that our infrastructure and particularly our technology infrastructure was tested to and in many cases beyond capacity. From supply chain management to remote workers to sales platforms they were often found lacking. If we accept that more people will be working remotely and on-line sales will continue to grow, but at a much faster pace then what do you need to invest in now?
– It is going to be wide ranging, but some examples are workflow systems in construction for back office, digital collaboration, and on-site execution.
– What about small businesses? There will need to be standardization, otherwise collaboration will be less productive.
o It is a lot easier to track on-line sales so look for a rise in easy to use CRM’s like Pipedrive and Pipeline.
o We are quite likely to see more of a hybrid working environment with more remote workers. On client has already called me to discuss downsize their existing space, reconfiguring the space for work sharing and looking at beefing up the infrastructure for people to work remotely. Doing the heavy thinking remotely and meeting in the office to collaborate.
o Platforms like Asana, Slack, Teams and Hangouts to allow teams to collaborate real time.
o There will some serious legal challenges to this notion but what about all depositions and notarizations going online. I am sure there is a technology solution out there and in fact some depositions are already occurring this way and notarizations outside of California. Also, how difficult would it be for say a DocuSign to incorporate notarization into their offerings?
o So how about your business? What infrastructure do you need to invest in? I challenge any business owner to call me and if I can’t demonstrate something in this area, I will give then coffee card of their choice.
In summary focus on developing a vision and strategy, how to leverage your existing customer base while being empathetic to their needs and take a hard look at your existing infrastructure and what needs beefing up. Have the strategy ready now and invest when the time is right.
At Shirlaws, we scale businesses by drawing on the experience of owning and running businesses and the Shirlaws IP to develop a vision and appropriate strategies and a coaching modality to transfer skills into the business. Right now, our focus is on helping business owners to pivot to survive now and then thrive as markets return. www.shirlawsgroup.com. Nigel Hartley is a Business Advisor with Shirlaws and can be reached on 707 573 7154 or email at nigel.hartley@shirlawsgroup.com.