I was on a call with a number of CEOs/small business owners last week, 20 to be exact. Overall, most of the businesses are trying to re-adapt to the “new normal,” but what I found interesting is that most of them are doing fairly well, better than they would have imagined, with their staff working remotely.
Some are finding it challenging to manage their staff remotely, but they’ve figured out a new cadence, and although different, it seems to be working.
Quite a few actually commented that their staff seems to actually be more productive and collaborative.
These CEOs are questioning why they need office space or, if they’re going to “reopen” their office, they might not need nearly as much space, and that seems to be a recurring theme.
Many companies have decided that they’re going to do away with office space entirely, or, cut their current office requirements down significantly.
The Beginning Of the Global Company?
The thought has also occurred to many of these CEOs that if they’re going to adapt to a work-from-home concept, and potentially reduce their physical real estate footprint, that they can now broaden their talent pool to include staff well outside their current geographic boundaries.
For many jobs, it’s quite easy to hire the same talent from India, the Philippines, or anywhere else at a fraction of the cost. You’re one good job posting on Fiverr away from that hire.
It’s essential to maintain some semblance of corporate culture, but, that’s the case whether your staff is in India, or in the same city. You need to adopt a new culture or adapt to your old one. Either way, this virus has forced these changes, and your company needs to change along with it.
I’ve had a lot of success in hiring and building a remote team to work on a countless number of projects. That includes, developers, writers, technicians, marketing people, system analysts, and so on.
Hiring foreign workers, and building a remote out-of-country team has its challenges, but, from a cost-containment perspective, it can certainly help reduce payroll costs, and then, help position your business for growth once things start to improve.
Do You Open, Close, Re-Open? What’s the Plan?
As a business owner, when faced with the prospect of opening, not opening, maybe opening, maybe closing, maybe no one knows, with government guidance as clear as mud, you, as a business owner, need to face the reality that what you’ve got is very possibly the new reality for a long time.
So long in fact, that if you’re holding out hope that things are going to go back to normal, and your business’s success and survival depend on going back to the old normal, then maybe it’s best that you mitigate the damage now, close shop, and open an entirely new business.
Alternatively, you should assume that what we have today will be with us long enough that you need to adapt your business model to work with the “new normal.”
If that means you need to pivot your business in order to stay in business, then pivot.
If your business can’t survive with the way things are today, and your business model is such that you can’t pivot, and you’re still reading the daily COVID numbers like today’s sports score, then maybe it’s time to stop throwing good time and money after bad.
Some Businesses Are Getting Ready For Rapid Growth
This recession will end. Eventually.
And when it does, there are many business owners who are investing in their business in anticipation of the other end of this recession and are getting ready to position their business for growth.
You can expand your business by making an acquisition, starting a new product line, building a new and/or more aggressive marketing campaign, hiring additional rockstars that would have been near impossible to hire just a few months ago, and so on.
It’s not all bad. Recessions bring uncertainty, and uncertainty brings opportunity. The challenge is to position your business for growth now so that when this recession ends, you’re well ahead of the market and ready for growth into 2021 and beyond.
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