Our tips for staying calm in a crisis & keeping your business going during the COVID-19 pandemic

During this unprecedented global health crisis, business owners all over the world are clearly focused on safeguarding the health of their families and team members. However, we are all undoubtedly feeling unsure about what the future holds for our businesses and how we will manage to look after team members and stay afloat in the midst of the necessary restrictions that we are all being placed under. As a small business ourselves, we’re also facing these challenges and having the same concerns, but we are now resolutely focused on staying ‘calm in a crisis’ and doing what we can right now to mitigate business risks.

When we started Firestarter in 2012 one of our main motivators was a sense that we could use the skills we had developed over many years “to do good” – to help businesses who might not ordinarily have access to “our type of impact” to make progress. As we’ve moved through the last 8 years, working with over 80 clients we’ve taken what were “our” skills and built them into a range of services, processes and methods that we’re now able to deliver through a team of Firestarters. Our values of Clarity, Action, Accountability, Independence and Fun remain unchanged from Day 1.

Two things that have always characterised our approach are:

1. the ability to crystallise thinking at a very fast pace (to remove ambiguity and get to a clear line of thought) and
2. the ability to make the switch from “talking about things” to “actually getting things done”.

So we feel that in the current uncertain climate we have an obligation, almost, to put these skills to the best use and would like to share our thinking on how we can be of practical help to businesses. The need for a change of approach, even if only temporarily whilst we attempt to fight the spread and consequences of COVID-19, is is already becoming apparent in our client base and we have developed a 5-step approach to the key things you can be doing right now to protect your business during this period, whilst positioning yourself to come back stronger when this is all over.

How we can Help Businesses to Survive COVID-19

In order to get your business in good shape to deal with the challenges that COVID-19 is throwing at you, we believe there are 5 key things you can be doing right now:

1. Getting a fit for purpose financial strategy
2. Building short-term “customer management plans”
3. Finding a “situation relevant” version of your offering
4. Creating a viable “future state” (“when all of this is over…”)
5. Focus on coming back stronger.

Please take a look at our five steps in more detail here and ask yourself if your business is currently well-placed or taking action to address each of these areas.

If you would like to discuss what steps you can take for your business, we are more than happy to share our skills and experience. If you know us, you’ll know we won’t mess about getting to speedy clarity of thought for you and whatever help we can offer, we will.

Whilst we’re in the midst of this crisis with developments changing daily, it can be difficult to plan effectively and know what actions are best to take, but as we have already found from the work we are doing with our existing clients, calmness, clarity of thought and focusing on clear, relevant short term actions will be key to everyone’s survival.

We’re sensitive to the social distancing restrictions and economic climate and want to help businesses as much as we can. If all of this feels a bit too much to get your head around, just ask us for some help. We’ll happily spend 30-45 minutes on a video call with you, just working through your issues and getting you to some clarity.

No charge, no expectation of anything more than a useful conversation (unless you need something more), we’re just happy to share our skills and experience to keep you moving.

You can contact me directly or email: help@firestartersolutions.co.uk.

Stay safe, everyone.