The New Normal… Worry Doesn’t Help!

I can’t tell you how many times over the past few days I have read or heard that from someone.  The market has crashed, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called out Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s maneuvers in the oil market, and COVID-19 is spreading.

Here in the US, we are social distancing, spending less, and trying to find toilet paper by the shipping container load.  (And did you see the Insta post of the guy buying a bizllion boxes of condoms??? And milk?  And eggs?  And bottles of thousand island dressing?  What is up with thaaaaat?)

Normal is an illusion in the best of times.  At times like these, well, our humanity is showing.

So, what is a business owner to do?  Here are a few suggestions.  I’ve also added a couple of resources for those of you who are looking for answers.

1. Breathe.  A few deep breaths to bring your executive functioning back online.  This always helps.
2. Reach out to your best customers.  Why?  What for?
   1. If you own a restaurant: offer to make their favorite meal and add a gift – lower fee on delivery, a dessert, a new menu item that you want their help in tasting, etc.
   2. If you own a bar: Offer to deliver their favorite cocktail set ups – your simple syrup, etc.  Then, have your bartender put a video story on Instagram to reach your customers.  You can offer pick up or delivery depending on where you are located let the customer supply the booze.
   3. To build relationship.  Let them know you and care about you.  Then, know and care about them.
      1. Maybe use your employees to survey your customers.  Find out what they like about your company/business and what they don’t like.
      2. Ask what they wish they could get from your business and why that would help them.
      3. Ask what problems they have that they haven’t been able to solve.  Then, solve those problems.
3. Look at all of the money on the table.  Accounts payable and receivable – see if you can get paid faster and give yourself more time to pay your bills.   Is there a new opportunity in this situation for you and your employees?
4. Is there training, cleaning, systematizing, content creation that you and your team can use this time to work on?

Worry doesn’t help anything.  I wanted to remind you of that.  Worry is a habit.  Use this new normal to discover what is and isn’t working in your business.  Decide what you can do to mitigate the damage of the new normal.  Design a profitable response.  Deliver the service or product to generate revenue. 

Worry doesn’t help, working does.

RESOURCES:

• Dan Sullivan’s Scary Times Success Manual https://resources.strategiccoach.com/guides/scary-times-success-manual
• McKinsey’s Responding to coronavirus: The minimum viable nerve center https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/responding-to-coronavirus-the-minimum-viable-nerve-center
• Frank Williamson, Oaklyn Consulting, Making High Impact Decisions in Uncertain Times https://oaklynconsulting.com/news/high-impact-decisions-in-uncertain-times