Leading Your Company When the World is in Chaos

You’ve survived challenges before and you’ll come out on the other side of this too

By this time, you’ve heard of the significant changes taking place in your community and beyond amidst the global spread of Coronavirus. Whether Coronavirus is something you’re personally worried about or not, it’s impossible to be a business owner and not be concerned about how this will affect your business. 

If you’re a small to medium sized business, don’t wait to make contingency plans based on how you personally feel about Coronavirus. You can’t afford to wait. Make a plan, hopefully you never need it, but at least you’ll be prepared. 

Here are some things we’ve thought through about how you can prepare for upcoming challenges, while getting your business through these challenges in the most productive way possible.

Take care of your team – Being transparent with your team and making sure they feel confident in your plan for their well-being and the company’s success is very important in times like these. For example, let them know what precautions you’re taking, inform them of your plan if Coronavirus hits the immediate area and your plan for a remote work setting if possible. Being able to plan and get ahead of these conversations is a lot better than being reactive if it comes to that.

Prepare for devastating effects on your business & get creative – Until you know how this virus is going to affect your company. If you act like the effects will be severe and start planning for that possibility, you can come up with solutions now. What if people stop coming into your coffee shop or to restaurant due to the fear of being around others? You should already be thinking about how you can run your business off of coffee or food deliveries or a pick up only option. Think about ways you can use your services or products to help with any challenges that have arisen in people’s lives due to this virus. Plan for the worst, while thinking about ways you can help!

Stay transparent – Everything comes back to keeping your customers informed and feeling confident you’ll be able to provide them with the services they need in the midst of chaos. If you’re worried, it’s likely that your clients and customers are too. Keep your customer informed about what you’re doing to monitor the situation and how you’re planning for any challenges that might arise. Use your digital marketing tools like social media, your website, and email marketing to keep communication lines open and easy to access internally from anywhere. 

If you work in an office, prepare for remote work – Start planning for how a remote workflow could work for your business. Get on Slack if you aren’t already, utilize Google hangouts and have a project management tool like Favro or Asana to keep projects running on schedule just to name a few remote workplace must-haves. 

Challenges you haven’t navigated before may seem scary, but plan ahead and you will figure it out. Sending healthy vibes your way!