Advice for smart business owners during lockdown from business coach Jason Moody

Having had time to reflect about Corona virus and the impact it is having, Jason Moody has developed some thoughts on what smart business owners/leaders will be doing during lockdown.

It applies especially to businesses that have seen a downturn in activity.

Q:  WHAT SHOULD FORWARD THINKING BUSINESS OWNERS WHO HAVE SEEN A DOWNTURN IN ACTIVITY BE DOING RIGHT NOW?

A:  TAKE THIS POTENTIALLY ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY TO USE SOMETHING YOU MIGHT NOT SEE AGAIN – TIME!!!!

NOW IS THE TIME TO PLAN AND THINK AHEAD.

There are four points below for consideration:

1) Sense check the long term plan (normally a 3-5 year plan):

• Cast your eye over it, does it still feel right, is it inspiring, does it represent you succeeding and being happy?
  • Perhaps now isn’t the time to go making big changes, that said, it is a good time to reflect on the direction you would like your life and business to go, then stress test any changes/conclusions after things return back to normal.
• Is now an ideal opportunity to think in more detail about the more visionary future stuff, the things that a few weeks ago were on the radar to be tackled from Year 2 onwards? Is the opportunity to plan and make progress here and be ahead of your competitors?
• Post virus will not be the same as before – there are already signs on how things might change e.g. Opportunities for staff to work from home, a need for more flexible reactive suppliers, keeping a bit more cash in the bank for the unforeseen etc…
• Get some visionary thinking done, you’ve got time so don’t waste it!!
• If you don’t have a longer term plan, now’s a great time to start thinking about one. It could make the difference between success and failure.

2) Reflect on the last year – both for you individually and also the business in general:

• What have you done really well?
• What have you done that hasn’t been so good?
• Be very clear about the most important 3 for each. Be really honest with yourself!!

This is your chance (after normality returns) to implement the mother of all resolutions – to 5hit all over any New Year’s resolution you’ve ever made before.

3) How to succeed in business and be an awesome leader:

• See below – MOOMAN’S 1 PAGE BUSINESS BIBLE
• Which bits within this can you do better?

4) Short term Covid-19 action taken – have you made clever decisions?

• Is there still work to do that will benefit the business in the long term? If so you must continue to work on this. See point 1!!!
• Are you considering making decisions to maximise the amount of ‘salary support money’ made available from the government? If this is the main driver in the decision making process then I fear it might not be right.
• Think about the most pro-active, fearsome competitor you know – what will they be doing? I imagine proactive things that will position them well for when the world returns back to normal.

Mooman’s business bible

• MASTERPLAN!!!! Be clear and act on the following:
  • Vision/Dream: What are you striving to achieve? And Why?
  • Product: What is it & why buy from you and not somebody else?
  • Plan: Actions required to achieve dream. In priority order.
  • Values: Behaviours – the Dos and Don’ts of any team member.
  • Accountability: Make people accountable to deliver – who’s doing what by when?
  • Measurement: What represents success? Measure performance against.

The greatest businesses, armies, sporting teams and scammers were master planners.

Ask yourself the question – Do you really want to be great?

Consider these golden snippets of advice:

Great leaders inspire – be a great leader!!

• • Start with the why! People buy into the ‘why’, not the ‘what’ or the ‘how’.
  • Your vision and beliefs – essential to make this clear.
  • Consult with your team, create a common belief.
  • Don’t blame – this is the spineless trait of a weak leader. Great leaders are defined by how they behave in times of need.
  • Create an environment that brings the best out of people:
    • Identify individual’s super powers.
    • Support and challenge them to use this power more often.
    • Start with the senior team, then filter the fuck down!!
  • Common sense, context, and simplicity are rather beautiful things.

Maintaining/creating culture:

• • Behaviours & procedures need to be aligned with values. When gaps appear you get problems!!
    • Identify behaviours – the dos and don’ts of any member of your team:
      • Be very clear what these are, don’t trust to memory.
      • This holds everybody (including leaders) to account.

Recruit the right people:

• • If you do a great job of this, you will struggle to fail!!
  • Not just employees, suppliers too.
  • Don’t recruit based on skillset alone!! If values/behaviours are really important then probe for these – they are every bit as important as skillset!!

Remember this too – “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do” Steve Jobs

Customer loyalty:

• • Customers are becoming increasingly less loyal.
  • Customers are the only people who truly know how good your service is.
  • Strive to achieve customer loyalty – essential to plan the best way to get this feedback, and then act on it.
  • Recovery is a very powerful part of customer loyalty:
    • How you react in a crisis – turning a negative into a positive, going that extra mile. Tragic to magic.

Jason Moody is an advocate of Team Leek and a business coach offering advice and support to business owners who have ambitions to grow or improve. Bringing common sense and context to challenges with a smile. For more advice about how to cope with Coronavirus and coming out the other side with a successful business call 07948 474739 or email [email protected].