Guiding a Company Through a Crisis

What follows are a series of suggestions I’d like to provide to any business owners and upper management that are facing the tall task of guiding a company through a crisis.

Remain Calm!

This is only a test! At the onset of a crisis, it is human nature to react emotionally. Panic, despair, fear, denial, anger, anxiety can all set in. Work through the emotion. Scream! Yell! Kick something!-…but not within earshot of employees or customers.

Be the sponge! Absorb all of the drama and don’t let it trickle down into the work culture or environment. As soon as you can remain calm and begin focusing on your plan of action, sharing the message to your key people is critical.

Exude confidence! Your key people at the top will need to do the same. Make sure all key people are conveying your same message. Exuding confidence and being consistent will assure your employees.

Financial Impact

ANY crisis results in a financial impact of some kind on the business and affects the company’s financial health. Ensure you have pieces in place to mitigate any loss. Contingency planning is crucial.

Things to Analyze

Action Plan

Mitigate Risk

Situational Analysis: Problem/Solution Thinking

Loss of a Client
Was it us?

Prevent from occurring again

Build up business around biggest customers
Economic Climate
Focus on your strengths
Human capital to retain top talent Your edge
Embezzlement
Get an Attorney

Re-evaluate controls

CPA for guidance
Technology
CLOUD computing

Key data and technology redundancies
Death of Owner/Leader
Key leader in insurance

Cross-training
Natural Disaster
Contingencies regarding workplace and recovery critical

Secondary office space

Growth Strategies to Rise Back to Your Feet: The 5 R's

  1. Relationship: Build relationships with the people inside and outside of your company.
  2. Revenue: Build a Relationship with people first and foremost THEN focus on making a sale and bringing in Revenue.
  3. Review: After you have developed a Relationship with a customer, and asked them to spend money with you (Revenue), it’s important to ask them how their experience was on the back-end and if they would be willing to share that experience with others through an online review. 
  4. Refer: A Referral is when a satisfied customer Recommends you or your company to help their Friends, Family, or Neighbor by providing them with your service. Lean on advocates of your business for these!
  5. Repeat: Start over. We want customers to repeat the process defined above.

Note: Just because these are placed toward the bottom of this article, there is no reason that a company should delay getting the 5 R’s working for you.

You got this! Believe in yourself, your people and your company!!