The top question that Paul and I are getting this week is: When will things return to normal?  We wanted to give you the answer using data, so please watch the short three minute video below to understand how long it will be until the world (slowly) starts to return to the new “normal.”

And, below the video you’ll find our Top 5 Tips for this Week!

  1. Refocus on Culture
  • Make sure your people are hearing and seeing you and your message – Ving is great for this (VingApp.com)
    • Full Disclosure, Paul and I are both investors in VingApp.com because it is so good!
    • Reach out to Tony@Vingapp.com
  • Double Down on Safety & Compliance
  • Make sure to stay close to your A-Players and up & comers
  • Do something fun with your company
    • Conduct a contest over Zoom/Videochat
    • Everyone needs to create their own mask and best mask wins something
    • Get kids involved
    • Hint: cutting an old Crown Royal bag in half to make a mask is always a crowd pleaser!

 

  1. Be Prepared. Slow Economic Activity could last longer than you think!
  • Re-forecast your cash position with the PPP or EIDL monies included
  • Continue to hoard cash
  • Develop your tax strategy with your CPA firm
  • Evaluate A/R collectability
  • If you’re a contractor, talk to architects to see what activity they have on their books and what they are hearing.
    • Remember there is a lag in the construction industry. You may be good now with backlog, but not so good nine months from now.

 

  1. Trace Route and Evaluate Your Backlog & Pipeline
  • It’s time to start doing some Root Cause Analysis to figure out the impacts of COVID-19 to your end customer and their customers
    • Talk to your customer – find out what they are seeing
      • An example for contractors: if you have a ground-up, distribution center in your Backlog for a manufacturer of theater seats and you believe nobody is going to movie theaters anytime soon – that portion of your Backlog is at risk of cancellation or collection risk.  Think through each customer in your Backlog and Pipeline to understand how strong your position really is.

 

  1. Plan Your Emergency Brake Plan
  • Revisit your proactive, four tiered, cost-cutting plan and be prepared to implement it.
  • If you need a copy of the Emergency Plan from the Rock the Recession Book or Workbook, just email us.

 

  1. Near Future – Prepare to Pounce
  • Replace C-Players with A-Players leveraging your culture.
    • Make a target list of who you want to hire when the world returns to normal. There should be at least 10-20 names on your list.
  • Look out for Acquisitions (maybe give-aways) as the ill-prepared go under or Baby Boomer owners decide they don’t want to invest the effort to get their companies back to normal.

Bonus Tip for Contractors:

  • The COVID Crisis will likely swing the pendulum back to General Contractors having the power for a while in contractor relationships.
    • Specialty Contractors can expect Margin Compression due to facing multiple bidders for jobs and also expect the practice of being re-bought out after award to return.
    • Many more subs will be willing to lower their margins (sometimes below cost) to keep their crews busy.

Stay Healthy, Stay Safe and Rock On!