“Life is about choices. Some we regret, some we’re proud of. Some will haunt us forever.” – Graham Brown
As business owners we focus on profit margins to justify our decisions. Ultimately we’ve all opened businesses with the intent on making as much money as possible while simultaneously fulfilling our higher-level goals; be them more time with our family/kids or solving World Peace. We’ve recently changed our business models from heavy reliance on staff to finding scrappy ways of maintaining our own livelihoods amid major financial setbacks.
As communities around the country lift their restrictions into the ‘safer-at-home’ phase of COVID-19’s response we are now evaluating how to re-open both smartly and safely.
Over the past two months most of us have had to let go of the people who’s heart-and-soul transformed an idea into a business, and who’s creativity and passion elevated a brick-and-mortar space into places both employees and customers tend to call their “home away from home”. Without a choice we turned off the lights, locked the doors, and temporarily blew out the candles on our dreams.
How do we bring the magic back? This question challenges us both intellectually and mathematically. With so many unknowns about how this pandemic will have changed consumer behavior, and with so many new regulations to comply with, we have more questions than answers:
-What other changes are likely to come?
-Will they be short-term (3-months to one-year)? Will they be long-term (1-year to four years+)?
-Who are my most valuable employees and why?
-Which customers can I rely on to come back?
-How many customers can I serve at a time?
-What is my projected gross and net revenues this month? Over the next three months?
-Is my greater risk hiring back too many employees too soon, or not hiring back enough and risking missed opportunities?
-I’ve already lost two months of personal income, how many more months can I personally survive financially?
-Can I increase costs to consumer in order to rebound faster? If so, by how much?
-What can I do now that I thought I needed others to do in the past?
One thing is for sure: both employees and employers have had our Locus of Control reduced drastically. As we move into this next phase of rebounding from this pandemic I encourage all of you to consider my above questions, add yours to the mix, and share them.
My hope is this will help you all come up with a plan of action personally and collectively. Love and blessings to all. – David Kanefsky Insurance Agency.
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