Edited transcript:
This is a video about business ownership in challenging times. Right now there are uncertainties out there that run through my mind on almost a daily basis.
Take Care of Your Employees
It is important to consider the well-being of employees in this small business. Are they supported well? How are they doing? Is their health good? Are they challenged with the societal issues that are in front of them? Additionally, many are working from home, so work challenges have changed for them. Their environment has changed. Their normal world is suddenly different and that is a big one.
Take Care of Your Customers
Current customers are also being challenged in ways they have never seen before. They're closed. Many of them are actually physically closed. They aren't allowed to go into the office at all and they expect and need deliveries from us. How are we going to deal with that?
Take Care Of Your Cashflow
Every business has to search for new customers and how can that be done by a small business in the present situation? Cashflow is king. It always is. How is it being managed?
Track Your Project Schedules and Budgets
We always track those and do our best to meet the needs of our customers. At this time those aspects might be changing. How can we manage them appropriately for our customers?
Pay Attention to Supply Chain Challenges
The other one which is rather unusual at this time is the supply chain challenges that we have. We design products for many different people and they use components from many different industries, many of which are partially closed at the moment. Once supply chain is interrupted, how will that affect the results of our pursuits?
Focus on Key Leadership Challenges
What actions are appropriate for a small business to take? I keep a list of running challenges that I review daily. What are the top few that I need to work on today so that I can support the business in a way that's appropriate for the future? I look at employee needs. They are now remote. Do they have the computer resources and the other support that they need? How do I speak with them on a regular basis? Are they challenged? Are they having more workload issues than normal? How are those being addressed? What can I do to support them?
Many employees have shifting roles. Before they ran a program and now they're doing individual contributor work, or vice versa. Since they need to stay home, they are not near our model shop and can’t see prototype stages directly. How can they see the results of their design? Significant challenges.
We actually have people who are appropriately in the office at the moment and help with prototyping, but communication is more difficult because they can’t stand face to face.
Help Customers With Their New Challenges
Our customers are challenged in new ways as well, and they often don't know when they will be open again or what they will be working on. Think about it. General Motors is now making respirators. Who would have thought? The rules have changed and a significant number of their employees are working on respirators. Understanding the new roles of our customers is as important to our business as our own new roles. That’s what I call thinking out of the box.
Workload balancing is a big deal for us. Today's effort is often driven by the management of project activity in a different way. You might have had face-to-face connectivity with a customer before, and now you don't. You may need to rely on someone in our shop to make your prototype and judge its performance, and help you make updates if necessary. It’s different now.
Effective Delegation Requires Actively Soliciting Feedback
Delegating, which has always been an important part of our businesses, is more important than ever. I try to make it goals driven. The goals of the project are always in our minds but now, with mostly remote access, the goals need to continue to be important and emphasized and communicated more often.
I encourage constructive feedback on the fly as the project evolves. Many of our employees regularly ask for constructive feedback on their designs, and we use various tools for that. We use SOLIDWORKS regularly along with eDrawings, as well as images and markups transmitted regularly through the internet. o. The remote thing is a double down. Do everything twice as often as you used to from a communication point of view. On our website there is more information on that topic.
Ensure Everyone is On the Same Page About Goals
I share the goals that we have as a company for our customers and then the employees make decisions in alignment with those goals, interpreting them in a way that's most appropriate and expedient. This is extremely efficient and involves the customer in an interactive way. This is the best way to run the business in challenging times.
Every day we design and prototype solutions for our customers. The priorities on these, up to 15 active programs every day, changed dynamically. Communicating about those priorities is critical, and we do this as many as two times a day. One area that I often overlook that catches up with me is staying healthy. If you don't sleep well, you often don't think well. I try to get a full night's sleep every night but unfortunately, this doesn't always work out. Hopefully one night’s gap is the next nights extra sleep. If not, then it can be hard to focus on business as it runs today.
Reach Out, Compare Notes, and Ask For Help
The last thing I want to talk about is benchmarking. I call it benchmarking, but it really consists of comparing notes with companies that are like yours. Maybe they're partners, maybe they're similar in other ways, and you can share what you learn with them. . You can often help each other, especially since there are many programs and processes that you may or may not be aware of that could support the improved operation of your business in these challenging times.
So in the comments below, please share your thoughts on how to manage small business in these challenging times. I would love to see them and hope to learn from them as maybe you've learned a few things for me today. Thank you.
