4 Ways to Manage Change

Author: Larry Chester

Change is always with us.  Businesses that are not prepared for change will disappear, because buying patterns, the economy, your customer, and your marketplace are all changing around you.

But this year, changes have come so fast and furious that before you’ve implemented needed adjustments you get hit with the next volley of changes.  How do you adjust or even prioritize what you need to react to?  Here is how I recommend dealing with the issues:

1. Cash Availability – Your business needs money to operate.  It’s not profitability, but cash availability that drives your business.  Determine how much cash you will need.  Put together a cash flow forecast to determine your monthly cash needs.  Then determine how you’re going to get it.  PPP loans, EIDL Loans, Credit Card Advances, Bank Line of Credit, Loans from Family and Friends are all resources you can tap into.
2. Customers’ Needs – You need sales.  Talk to your biggest customers.  Understand how you can serve them.  Understand their current needs, the timing and items/services that they need.  Be sure that they know that you’re here to make their lives easier.
3. Personnel – Determine what roles you need to serve your clients.  Understand which of those roles can be combined.  Cross training is even more important now, because you need to understand the minimum number of people that you need to service your customer base.  Eliminate the “C” players and keep the “A” players.
4. Facilities – As people have started to work from home, businesses have modified leases or found smaller facilities.  Don’t underestimate the desire of your landlord to work with you to keep you in their building.

Focusing on the elements that allow your company to adapt to the changes around you may not make your job any easier, but it should provide you with a direction for your path forward.

Make Changes Today That Affect Profitability Tomorrow ®