A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself (or ‘seeks refuge’): but the simple pass on, and are punished. Proverbs 22:3
Regardless of where Covid-19 originated, it is an actual virus and it is among us.
Mass hysteria has gripped our country emptying our grocery stores and gun shops and tanking our economy. I’m not making a political statement nor placing blame. I am simply acknowledging the current reality of our world and the tragic effect it is having on our businesses, large and small.
Let me invite you to step away from the madness for a few minutes for a dispassionate chat about our current situation.
At this point, there is precious little we can do with the country on lockdown. Our customers are not circulating in the marketplace, but are rather cocooned in their homes possibly shopping online. That doesn’t mean we can’t do ANYthing!
In his seminal book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey presented his Time Management Matrix exposing the relationship between Urgent tasks and Important tasks.
Quadrant I was the “Urgent & Important” containing all the fires that business owners face all day long: operational breakdowns, customer complaints, employee disagreements, accounts receivables, job bidding, and the list goes on ad infinitum! This is the quadrant in which we spend most of our waking business hours.
Quadrant II was the “Important but NOT Urgent” containing – honestly – all the most important issues of life: date night with the spouse, children’s ball game or dance recital, thinking & planning, reading important literature, praying or meditating, taking care of our health and on it goes.
The paradox of these two quadrants is that the ONLY way to get Quadrant I under control is to camp out in Quadrant II and DO the Important work of strategic business planning and management self-improvement! As you are able to become proactive and look down the road to see potential dangers, you are able to make those provisions to avoid the fires and reduce the size and tyranny of Quadrant I.
Although this may be the first time our current living generation has seen what is happening, it is not the first time for our country. Let me acknowledge that during the Great Depression, there were bakeries that went out of business – but there were bakeries that survived. There were clothing stores that went out of business, but there were clothing stores that made it.
The point is that no business segment vanished. Some businesses in every category made it in spite of so many of their competitors folding for good. So while we are all currently forced out of Quadrant I, now is a great time to take full advantage of the situation to get seriously deep into Quadrant II and not squander this unique opportunity to Be Greater Faster!
Read a management book. Call friends who own businesses to talk about common issues. Engage with a professional consultant – a generalist if you need overall help, or a specialist if you feel you need specific help like marketing. Reconnect with distant family. Get spiritually recentered.
Now maybe a good time to do a deep clean on your business. If you own a restaurant, pull all your equipment from the wall and clean behind that greasy frier and refrigerator. If you have inventory, get it straightened up, pull inactive SKUs and sell them off online if you can. Take a close look at your shop floor to see if there is a better way to improve the flow of production.
Now is NOT a time for deer-in-the-headlights paralysis!
If you need inspiration, reach out to someone you can trust!
Ralph C. Watson, Jr. 404.520.1030
Ralph.Watson@BeGreaterFaster.com
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