How Your Business Can Thrive in the COVID-19 Landscape

It's no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the playing field for businesses. Some are doing exceptionally well because they are in niche-focused industries that heighten demand during periods of market volatility. However, many businesses have suffered a material reduction in demand and a corresponding decrease in their sales volume. This reduction in demand will affect their sales, profitability, and in some cases, their ability to survive. It is these businesses that I want to focus on in this article.

Three Phases of Strategy Development in Volatile Times:

Survive, Pivot and Adapt, Thrive

Survive:

We are on a three-step journey with our clients now. The first step in the mission was to help them survive the virus's initial demand shocks. We worked with our clients to draw down lines of credit, secure Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, forecast cash needs, and create scenario plans.

We continue to work with clients on additional funding sources such as the Economic Injury Disaster Loan and the Federal Reserve Main Street Lending Program. We are also working with clients to reduce their expenses in a commensurate manner with their sales volume.

We are using waste reduction techniques and driving lean thinking through our client organizations to reduce any excess fat in our client's operations. Most of our clients have passed through the survive phase. However, we are continuing to see survival issues concerning the restaurant and hospitality industries. These industries will need to use the downtime to reinvent themselves so that they can survive and adapt to new market conditions.

Pivot and Adapt:

The next step in our journey is the pivot and adapt phase. Most of our clients have ensured their immediate survival and now need to adjust to new market conditions. We are helping clients predict where their industry is going over the next six to nine months by:

• Designing strategic plans to maximize sales, reduce expenses, and reduce overall business risk.
• Re-examining sales processes to create more effective cross-selling and more qualified prospects.
• Analyzing our client's ability to create meaningful change in their organization and creating strategies to enhance their probabilities of change success.
• Using a blank canvas approach to determine where a client needs to be based on new market realities.
• Performing competitor analysis and helping clients define their sustainable competitive advantage based on the new market realities that we are facing.

Thrive:

The goal of the pivot and adapt phase is to put our clients in a position to eventually thrive again once market conditions are stabilized. Most of us are very good at identifying the issues and problems that we are currently facing. However, we are also good at identifying opportunities in difficult times. Some particularly valuable opportunities could arise due to the pandemic:

• Interest rates are extremely low right now and will remain low for at least the next two years. So, the cost of financing growth will be relatively cheap.
• The labor market has been dramatically disrupted over the past few months. This could create opportunities for your company to acquire talent that would not usually be available during more prosperous times.
• Competitors may not pivot and adapt quickly enough, which could cause them to lose more market share to your company. Your ability to pivot and adapt quickly will allow your company to potentially gain a short term and long-term advantage over competitors that froze in the face of the threats from the virus.

We want to help businesses navigate the survive, pivot and adapt, and thrive phases of strategy development in volatile times. Our firm has immense respect for business owners that put everything on the line to develop a small business. We want to make sure that we help guide as many business owners as possible through these difficult times. Our goal is to help put you in the best position to thrive when market conditions return somewhat normal. Let's use these difficult times to help you create and maintain a more prosperous business moving forward.

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions

Brian Kerrigan

Advisory Partner

bkerrigan@WAdvising.com