Donna Miller — May 15, 2020 Today, I want to talk to you for a few minutes about business growth in and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s been several weeks, we’ve all been disrupted, we’ve all had our world turned upside down, and no one knows what the future holds. But, there are a few things I know for sure: C3Workplace has been around for 25 years. We’ve been through some economic ups and downs, although this one certainly looks and feels different. However, what I believe to be true is that everything is different, yet everything is the same, so let me talk to you a little bit about what I mean by that.
The foundational activities and tools that you use to start and grow your business, and the tools that we’ve used to help thousands of companies start and grow have not changed. You still have to make sure, and maybe you need to revisit your mission, values, vision, your core messaging, those are things that now is a great time to revisit those. So here is my multi-step “how-to” guide so you can achieve business growth during this pandemic.
Knowing Your Numbers
First of all, you’ve probably already done this, but we all had to take a good, hard look at our numbers. We have to take a look at what’s necessary, what’s not necessary. We’ve all combed line by line through our P&L to make sure we’ve eliminated any unnecessary expenses. I also want to say financially, you need a clash flow tool. If you don’t have a cash flow tool, reach out to us, we have one we can give you. So look at your finances. Reach out to your customers, check in, are they okay? How are they doing, is there a way that you can help?
Operational Assessment
And then I want you to take a look at operationally, and even if it’s just you or you have a team, the truth is you still have to operate on the same pillars we all operate our businesses on. Finance, operations, marketing, sales, team. Your pillars might look different than my pillars but they still exist. So take a look at those pillars. Are those pillars still relevant today? Are they connected in the most streamlined way possible?
Streamlining Your Processes
Do you have any turkey butts? And let me take a side note and tell you what a turkey butt is, little story. Mother, daughter, every year on Thanksgiving the mom takes the turkey out of the refrigerator, cuts the butt off, puts it in the pan, puts the turkey in the refrigerator, cooks the turkey. Decades the daughter sees her mother do this. Finally, the daughter starts to be hosting Thanksgiving. The daughter takes the turkey out of the refrigerator, cuts the butt off, puts it in the pan and puts it in the oven. And the mother says, “Why did you cut the butt off the turkey?” And the daughter said, “Because you always cut the butt off the turkey.” And the mother said, “That’s because it didn’t fit in the pan.”
Do you have turkey butts? It’s a phrase we use at C3 all the time. Do you have turkey butts that are no longer serving you? Take a look at your operations, assess them from a higher level and see if how you’re doing things still makes sense. Is there technology you can use to integrate and streamline solutions? Are there things that you should get off your desk and delegate or outsource?
There’s never been a more important time to work smarter. DIY and cheap, I don’t think it makes sense anymore. I think that there has never been a more important time to get it done right the first time.
So, bottom line, assess your numbers, connect with your clients, assess your operations, make sure they’re as streamlined as possible, revisit your messaging, these are all things that all of us need to do now so that we can come through this pandemic stronger than ever.
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