Recently I saw a post from another business owner that basically boiled down to the fact that the business owners in your life are tired. They’re scared and confused and trying to keep their staff safe and their businesses running and the communities safe.
I’m here to tell you, it goes beyond that. There is a tremendous pressure at this time when your clients want info, your staff wants info and you don’t have any. You don’t know any more than anyone else but everyone is used to you having all the answers. They don’t understand why you can’t tell them what’s going to happen because it’s never happened before. Of course they know logically but it throws you all off balance. You don’t understand either. It’s a huge adjustment to not be able to get the info you need to have the answers people want because the info just simply isn’t there.
You want to keep everyone safe. You don’t want to be responsible for spreading a pandemic but you also don’t want to be responsible for your staff not being able to eat. Small businesses often don’t have a deep well to draw from when something goes wrong. They pay their payrolls by getting paid for work done. So if there’s no work there’s not some magical pool of extra money to pay people with, certainly not for months. Even the most responsible business owners usually reinvest profits to grow the business so they don’t have much just hanging around.
Right now everything is changing so fast. Every time I think I get a handle on things another curve ball comes flying at my face. I’m used to thinking on my feet and making changes to suit the market but this is another level. Perhaps the hardest thing is that in so many ways, there is nothing I can do. Short of just, starting a new business, I can’t pivot this. My company serves people who are not at home. Everyone is home right now. Even more complicating, they don’t want people in their house if they are home. Welp. Where does that leave us?
Most of the time, I feel OK. I know that even though this feels like the new normal and things are going to be this way forever, they won’t be. And that more than likely, when people go back to work consistently, we will too. But where will the company be then? Will I still have the stellar staff I’ve cultivated? Or will I have to start from square one? It’s all just, a lot.