🏆 Startup World Cup Oklahoma Regionals - Friday September 6th - See Details
March 27, 2020
.jpeg)
This week, 36°N CEO, Devon Laney, was joined by a virtual panel of local experts to help answer questions about entrepreneurship, accounting, legal, HR and communications pertaining to the COVID-19 crisis. Featured panelists included Noah Roberts, Woder; Nate Brim, Professional EOS Implementer; Nicole Morgan, Resolute PR; Deke Canada, Hall Estill; and Mike Basch, Atento Capital.
HERE ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS:
How do I cut costs?
Watching costs is essential at this time. There are two main areas to take into consideration: actual expenses and cash flow.
Actual Expenses:
Cash Flow:
Managing Your Business’s Cash Flow
9 Ways Manufacturers Can Manage and Increase Cash Flow
Small Business Survival: Revenue Projections and Cutting Costs
How do I communicate with my customers and my team?
COMMUNICATING WITH CUSTOMERS
Focusing on operations is pretty intuitive under these circumstances. What might not be so intuitive is focusing on customers, and that’s really the biggest issue right now because when the crisis is over you’ll want your customers to still be engaged with your company. So make communication with your customers a priority.
Be aware of how you’re communicating. Email and social media is a passive form of communication and is being so widely used that customers are no longer engaging with it. Communication in this form has become “white noise”. Make your communication relevant.
Managing Fear and Uncertainty in a Crisis like COVID-19
COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR TEAM
Some personnel cuts may be necessary. This is going to be difficult no matter how you do it. However, if you are transparent now people won’t feel blind-sighted if you have to let them go. Be aware of labor laws and don’t discriminate. Think about the necessary roles. Be clear on your vision. Act on what you CAN control. Be calm, rational, and be a voice of reason. Set the tone for your organization. A new normal will emerge and you will get stronger once that happens.
Remember, some businesses won’t make it and your’s may be one of them. If that happens it’s not the end of the world, new opportunities will come. In the meantime, make every dollar count.
How to Manage Remote Employees
How to Have Difficult Conversations with Remote Employees
How do you maintain the sales pipeline without being pushy?
It’s important to be aware of circumstances right now, pushing sales could be viewed as insensitive to the climate of what’s happening. Think about caring more about your customers than your sales. One great way to do this is to do Check-In-Calls. The primary aim of this call is to make and maintain a relational connection with your constituents. Acknowledge what’s happening and the uncertainty we all feel, ask how they are doing, listen, be sincere. Honesty is important. It’s important to be vulnerable. Share the difficult things which need to be shared regarding where your organization is at, remember that this is different than sharing everything that’s going on in your organization. The aim is clear communication and relational connection. This is an investment in the your customers.
Use your social media to brand yourself right now. Everyone’s using it. What does your social media say about who you are, what you value, and your personality? Edit and add, enhance the draw to you and your company.
How do you approach raising capital with uncertain cash flow?