I’m not going to sugar coat it.
Everyone else is sugar coating like ‘don’t worry’ …just breathe…you can get through this covid-19 pandemic. But we know by now that this will undoubtedly change history, ourselves, our kids, our economy, and even way of life. And of course our small businesses. I’m going to be the tough love. I’m gonna say that you, we should have been smarter with our money. I get it, time gets away from you and things are good or you just roll with the punches of business life. But planning for these types of events are essential for business survival. It's not just about the money it's the infrastructure of your/our business that we didn't consider in planning for 'this kind of day' event. Plan for your employees and plan for your clients. Who are your essential players? Having a protocol is looking more essential for small business survival. Of course, there is no school on ‘business survival’, well maybe there is out there but most of us entrepreneurs just wing it! But sometimes I think that it would have been nice if more people out there voiced proper ways in starting a business and how to maintain and how to grow. It’s more like….start a business with a loan or credit card! Uhg…we all grew up in this culture of it being ok to have debt, it’s ok to have loans it’s the normal way of life. But it’s not, its not sustainable, it’s miserable, and it’s not normal. Most people hate change. This disruption to our business’s is a type of change. Many think of it as a negative change and rightly so because you may be losing your business and that has to be gut wrenching. But you did it once, you can do it again. I challenge you. Cry it out, get up, and start being creative. Adapt to this change, because I believe you can do it again. Many of us have that extra forced time now to sit down and plan. Plan a better business strategy, plan a better financial stability for your business, actually have a marketing plan, plan and do more planning. We have the time to educate ourselves better. There is always more for us to learn for our business. You can't know everything, so what is it that might be vital for your business that you need to learn new or more of? Stay active on your social media channels, do not go to sleep! Even if you can’t sell anything tell people about you and how you are getting through your day, ask how your clients/customers/community are doing? Start with your WHY, why did you start your business and how has your why changed today? Change is about being adaptive, you can’t be a true entrepreneur and hate change. You can be scared of change, but then again why become an entrepreneur? This is all perception, you …we.. all need to take this opportunity to hunker down and adapt from our old ways and change into something better…something greater that we can live through this again. Lets help one another. So I grew up here in the Upper Valley – true Vermonter right here! I’ve been to other places and there is something unique about our community. I new it was a great place to raise a family and at the time when I was young and going into a computer science degree, coming back to this area was a challenge career wise. I’ve seen this area grow in so many ways from not just technology, but in arts, products, food, and farm. I love this town, this area, my state. I want to help any type of business I can to help you/us maintain the little you may have right now. Can you connect with another local business – can you join forces? Whether it's business to business or personally, we need to work together more to strengthen our community - Because it is Strong!
Please reach out to us - we truly want to help you and your business thrive during this time.