Business survival the hard way
Getting past fallout from COVID-19 big learning experience
Editor’s note:
Business owners and decision makers are searching for answers. Our Tool Kit 2021 series looks at strategies adopted, tactics tried and lessons learned a year into the pandemic.
HALIFAX — No one teaches Pandemic 101 in business school, so surviving the fallout from COVID-19 is a big learning experience for most business owners and leaders.
The entire economy has been affected. Some businesses thrived, others struggled and others still failed. The outcome depended largely on the product or service they provide
But there’s more to it than that.
After about nine months of doing business during the pandemic, Elayne Pink, coowner of Absolute Travel Specialists in Halifax, says her advice to other business owners and leaders during the pandemic is, “Keep your clients or customers close and be indispensable to them.”
Operating in the hard-hit travel sector, Pink said she suspects that her business will be busier and more needed than ever as the COVID crisis begins to ease, because people will need help dealing with all the new and different coronavirus rules established by various countries and airlines.
Pink predicts that fewer people will be acting as their own travel agents. “We offer 24/ 7 service and always have, so I do not expect to be any different in that regard,” she said.
THE BASICS
At the start of the pandemic, CPA Magazine (Canada), an official publication of the Chartered Professional Accountants, created a check list for businesses trying to cope with the pandemic. It’s still good advice and top of the list is watching cash flow.
• Business owners or managers should talk with their accountant about cash flow and reserves and how they can be used. Also, double check the insurance policy to see if it covers lost income. Not all business policies have pandemic insurance but some do.
• Brainstorm with employees who may offer some unique ideas about how the company can do things differently during the pandemic.
• Talk to suppliers and landlords about stretching payments and lenders to see about flexibility for loan repayment.
• Take advantage of government support. The business may also be eligible for a number of measures designed to support small- and medium-sized enterprises.
• Expand your business’s online presence.
Halifax CPA, Laura Roseveare, says the biggest takeaway from the pandemic is business owners and management should be better prepared for sudden changes to economic conditions.
One example: There was a scramble for some companies and their employees to find a way to work from home at the start of the pandemic. Roseveare said businesses should ensure employees have a laptop or computer to use at home.
Dan Pontefract is a Victoria, B.C.-based future-of-work expert, head of The Pontefract Group, and author of “Lead. Care. Win. How to become a Leader Who Matters.” He says there are a few lessons learned during the pandemic that will help businesses long term.
STATUS QUO THINKING
“There’s an old adage. ‘What got you here, won’t get you there.’ Well, obviously a virus that we can’t necessarily control yet without a vaccine, is not helping us get to whatever ‘there’ is,” said Pontefract.
“But if you’re stuck in your status quo ways of how we gain the customer, how we work with our employees, how we treat suppliers/partners/customers whatever, and we’re still doing this during the pandemic … we would be shooting ourselves in the foot.”
By learning to be more creative during the pandemic, where business leaders develop “the gumption and the courage” to try to do things differently, it could carry over into the post-pandemic economy, he said in a recent phone interview.
Collaboration—even with competitors—can help. Pontefract said the pandemic might just encourage more organizations to think about how they might work with one another, in order to continue a service, ensure goods are sold, and keep the doors open for business. Working together may be a legacy of the COVID-19 experience, he said.
“You end up finding opportunities where there might be cross-pollinated activities or opportunities with a client or customer, the partner/supplier whomever, you might not have unearthed before,” he said.
Previously Pontefract worked as an executive with enterprise software company, SAP, and was the “chief envisioner and chief learning officer” at TELUS.
COLLABORATION IS KEY
He said he’s seen business owners and leaders realize they can work with someone down the street on some sort of “cross-selling or cross-partnering” relationship. Making that discovery might not have been thought of before the pandemic.
“Well, if you’re a restaurant let’s say, and you’re doing take away, you could partner with the local taxi service,” said Pontefract. That might be a cheaper option than the dedicated food delivery services.
Barber shops could offer a haircut and a coupon to get 10 per cent off a service offered down the street or vice versa, he said. “That kind of thinking, that kind of collaboration could go a long way.”
One question to ask yourself is: What are you doing to discover new business, new customers, new ways of delivering value now and after the pandemic.
“Because the train will leave the station and things will change quite quickly if your competitors are ultimately more creative, and thinking of cool and neat and fun and innovative ways to garner that customer relationship if you’re not doing it,” said Pontefract
Business leaders and organizations that are simply reacting to the pandemic will pay the price, he said.
“If you’re not constantly reinventing and finding ways in which to remain curious and to test out ideas — if you think the status-quo is going to fulfill you and your organization long term—the pandemic is creating a rude awakening,” he said.
It’s easy to blame the pandemic and dealing with government-mandated shutdowns is difficult, but leadership tenacity counts, Pontefract said.
“I would argue that those that are suffering the most right now are companies with a status-quo DNA or the unmitigated desire to not push risk,” he said.
CURIOUSITY CAN SAVE THE COMPANY
“There’s really lessons to learn on how people are treating their level of ingenuity and creativity and curiosity in this pandemic.”
As soon economy fell off a cliff in March last year, Pontefract said he saw some small businesses go immediately to BDC (Business Development Bank) and asked “Do you have any cash for me, (a) so I can keep things going or (b) just in case.“
Pontefract said the companies there were proactive in the beginning, rather than waiting for government to come up with a plan, are further ahead. Companies that are suffering now, at the start of 2021, are more likely to be those that were “deer in the headlights” last spring.
“I’m not knocking them, because nobody really knew,” he said. But leadership now should be doubling down on effort and innovation, on “constantly, proactively being curious and open...(on) tinkering and trying new things.”
“And if that means you’re having to work 12-14 hours a day to dig yourself out of this, so be it. What’s the choice?”
Some business folks are suddenly waking up to the prospect that we may not have COVID-19 vaccines for all until next Christmas, he said. “Ok, well maybe (they) really should do something about this" rather than waiting for more help from government.
Pontefract said he asks people to look in the mirror and asks them to ask themselves: “How do I want to be known when I leave the room? As philosophical as that sounds, it’s asking the question: ‘What are people going to say about me as a leader of self and a leader of others in the moment.’”