No Time To Panic

After the longest break from flying in 10 years, I headed down to Wellington today to catch a flight to the South island. The headlines in the paper yesterday were about a slip on the highway to Wellington which had took 10 minutes to clear and created a 5 hour traffic delay so I left early and arrived in plenty of time. The airport was the emptiest I have ever seen it - and that is including midnight drop off and pick ups of family.

 In talking with many businesses, the month of June has been better than expected and there seems to be a quiet optimism and positivity in the marketplace.  The frustrating counterbalance to this is the relentless bad news being poured out by the media.  The current big push is how much unemployment will go up as soon as the wage subsidy stops and the more this is spoken, the more of a self fulfilling prophecy it seems to become.

 It reminds me of one of my favorite scenes in Toy Story 1 where Buzz Lightyear says to Woody "This is no time to panic!" to  which a rather bewildered Woody replies "This is the perfect time to panic!" Now, of course, is definitely not the time to panic. It is the time to pay close attention to the factors that drive your business and to ensure that you know what your important metrics are.

 At this time, it is especially important to remember why you started your business: why you have ridden through so many storms before and share this with your team. Look at what you do best, speak to your customers and find out what they value the most and continued to excel in these areas.

 Through every recession, businesses have continue to operate and there has continued to be a demand for products and services, even if some will be at to a lower level. If you focus on what you can do, it will allow you to secure what market availability is out there. It is this ability to stay calm and focused that allows businesses to see opportunities where other people may just see a sea of panic.

 Aim to take time out daily, weekly and monthly to reassess where you're at; what you need to do and what opportunities are potentially presenting themselves. Encourage key team members to do the same thing. The power of combined collaboration and having team members who know why it is important for you to survive (both for yourselves and for your customers) encourages people to look and think very differently - something that is impossible to do when you are in a state of panic.

Now is not the time to panic. Now is the time to think - look - think again, and act.

Here’s to your success!