Here in Chicago, we’ve just completed our third week under a “Shelter in Place” order.
Three weeks of working from home, kids underfoot, hunting for toilet paper, and a thousand more adjustments. We’ve gotten our team settled, reached out to clients and prospects, applied for our PPP Loan, reworked our budget for 2020, and made our collections calls.
I don’t know about you, but it’s starting to feel—If not “normal” then—typical?
So if the present is feeling more settled, the future is…uncertain doesn’t seem like the right word, right?
Yes, there’s uncertainty! But there are things we know.
There are at least nine million more unemployed people today than there were two weeks ago, and likely significantly more than that. Consumer products companies are in full scramble mode, cutting costs, and trying to decide what the post-shutdown world will look like. Restaurants, travel, hospitality, meetings, and events will all see massive declines this year. (What would make you feel safe getting on an airplane again?)
- What does that mean for your B2B services company?
- How do you start to make a plan for how to move forward next week?
- How do you decide what your goals are for Q2 or the rest of the year?
- Where are leads going to come from with no travel, no conferences, and a problematic outreach environment?
Indecision is not the road to success.
If you are sitting and waiting for everything to get clear, there are going to be a whole load of folks passing you by.
Let’s do a thought experiment.
What if you knew for sure that you have everything you need right now, today, to make a plan for the rest of 2020? What plan would you make?
Sure, that plan might change in 2 weeks, or you might get new information next month, but how is that different from any other year?
It’s time to look forward
It’s time to start making some decisions. What is your company going to look like by the end of this year? Are you hunkering down, serving your current clients with whatever their priorities are going to be? Are you pivoting toward some new services? Maybe your market is on fire and you’re going to be hiring and expanding. You need to make a plan — perhaps a worst-case, and an expected case, just to be sure — and start to get moving.
You have everything you need.
