It is fair to say virtually every business in the United States has been affected negatively one way or the other by the Coronavirus shut down. Some companies were designated as essential businesses and could continue to operate, albeit with new rules on social distancing at work and possible disruptions from their supply chain. Other businesses had to bear the brunt of shutting down altogether. One thing that was in common for all businesses however, if you go back to January 1 of this year, none of us saw this coming. We all had to go into reactive mode to find a way through the crisis.
Now here we are in the middle of May and we have a general, but maybe fuzzy, idea how the rest of the year is going to play out as businesses reopen and many of us get back to work. Being a little fuzzy is not a good excuse for staying in reactive mode, it’s time to get proactive.
If you own a business, you should be taking out time now to prepare a plan for the next 90 days for your business when it’s back up and running based upon a certain set of assumptions. Assumptions on what could possibly go wrong for the rest of the year but along with positive assumptions on what can go right and can be taken advantage of to succeed and thrive between now and December 31. From an old George Harrison song; “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” Take time out now to set reasonable goals and objectives for your business, think ahead to safeguard yourself and be ready for possible negative risks and take advantage of new opportunities.
