Focus on what you can do during the COVID-19 Crisis

Added by Love Business East Midlands | 20 March 2020

UPDATED: 3 April 2020

It's easy to have your energy drained by the constant news feeds and worrying about what might happen. No good comes from spending energy on the things you can't do or have no control over.

First of all, take a deep breath

Don’t panic! It’s easy to feel overwhelmed in the heat of the moment, but that will distract you from dealing with the incident logically and efficiently.

The world is resetting amidst the impact of the COVID-19 Crisis

As businesses rapidly adjust to the learning curve of remote working, economic instability and a great deal of unknowns. Here’s a quick action list of what you need to do now, and how you can turn this crisis into an opportunity to develop your business for the recovery phase.

PRIORITY #1: Develop your COVID -19 continuity plan – We’ve created a checklist of things you need to do and we'll continually be adding and updating this page with relevant links

You never let a serious crisis go to waste … it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.
Rahm Emanuel, Obama's first chief of staff

We are living through the most serious crisis since WW2

• Is there any silver lining for business?
• Is there an opportunity that we can turn to our long term advantage?
• What have you longed to do in your business, but customers and lack of time got in the way?

You can't control COVID-19 and it's impact on your business, but here’s what can you do…

Your business continuity planning is critical to your ‘getting through’ this crisis. But it’s inevitable you’ll have downtime, so use it wisely and get your business and your people in shape for the recovery phase. 

The most successful businesses have everything process mapped, this way they have clarity on what they do, accountability for who does what, by when and how.  They can effectively measure every aspect of their performance against competitors, their previous performance and drive the business forward.

Here are some fantastic examples of how the crisis has driven innovation at breakneck speed

Amazing things happen when you focus on what you can do - just look at what has been done!

• The NHS asked for 250k volunteers and gets over 750k in days

• The UK's biggest hospital, with 4000 beds, is created in 2 weeks
• Breathing Aid reimagined in less than 100 hours by F1 team and University College London
• James Dyson designed and manufacturing ventilators in under 10 days

Time to re-assess, re-tool, and get ready to reboot!

Now is the time for businesses to map their processes and optimise how things work. Develop and document training plans, maintenance routines and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). Then use any quiet time experienced to upskill your people, products and services to create a tangible positive difference to your proposition.

Steve Megson, founder of Love Business and Managing Director of Quiet Storm Solutions

Optimise and improve

• Reorganising your workspace
• Pro-active equipment maintenance
• Sorting the files on your PC
• Process map your operations and look to make them more efficient
• Competitor research and benchmarking
• Get your website content reviewed and updated

Self development and training

Take advantage of downtime by improving your skills, your people’s skills and knowledge.

• e-learning
• Implement remote working
• Virtual meetings
• Learning about Social Media
• Take a listen to the Love Business Podcasts

Innovation

Who knows what opportunities this crisis might throw up if we are determined, open-minded and resourceful.

Come back stronger

Productively using the inevitable downtime in a constructive way will position you for the ‘otherside’ of this crisis. Be bold, don’t be cowed. Don’t shut up shop; use this time to talk to each other and our partners in the supply chain to work out how we can together come through this stronger.

Good luck and stay safe!

COVID-19 Business Support Hub

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