“THINGS FALLING APART IS A KIND OF TESTING AND ALSO A KIND OF HEALING. WE THINK THAT THE POINT IS TO PASS THE TEST OR TO OVERCOME THE PROBLEM, BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT THINGS DON’T REALLY GET SOLVED. THEY COME TOGETHER AND THEY FALL APART. THEN THEY COME TOGETHER AGAIN AND FALL APART AGAIN.”
-- PEMA CHODRON, AUTHOR OF WHEN THINGS FALL APART: HEART ADVICE FOR DIFFICULT TIMES
The earth rotates on its own axis, this rotation is the 24 hours we know as a day. At the same time, the earth is making still yet another rotation around the sun. It is a journey that we know takes 365 days to complete. This movement of the earth around the sun is the rotation that creates the four seasons. Experience teaches us to make room for all seasons of life, like it or not. Everything is always in motion and changing. Nothing is permanent. When we face a crisis in our personal or professional lives, we suffer most when we’re unable to make room for change. We always get stuck in the transitions; in the space between what is known and what is unknown. It’s especially hard when change comes and we are not ready for it. The not-being-ready part is what causes the most fear and grief. What can we take away from a life crisis or any other business crisis? Is there some new perspective or personal insight we can uncover? What thing that brought us to knees could be the one thing that makes us more aware and more resilient? Is it possible to be prepared for the unexpected?
NOT FOREVER
This crisis is rough. Never in our wildest dreams could we imagine that all salons across the globe would be forced to close their doors indefinitely. It’s been a lot of stress and a lot to digest. Take heart, what we are living through is only temporary. It will not go one forever. Like the different time zones across the globe, national economies are coming out of their Covid-19 shut downs. Businesses are opening and adjusting as best they can to keep themselves and their communities healthy and safe. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. When the stay at home orders lift in your area, how will your business be transformed?
IT’S OK TO BE SCARED
We know what it's like to be scared. We know what it’s like to be on the verge of losing everything both home and business. We know debt and being on the verge of bankruptcy just trying to survive. That dark place is where we come from and that memory informs our decisions to this day. In any doomsday experience, fear is always there. It’s completely normal. Once the shock wears off; we acknowledge the fear and allow it to move through us. We cannot make good decisions when we are afraid. Then we get to work on paring down the panic to calm our nervous system. We find a way to take the next earning action.
Truth be told, that while the pandemic has really put a strain on everyone in our industry; something else less sinister could have easily been to blame like a traffic accident, broken arm or wrist from a fall, or a different kind of unexpected health issue. In the time before the coronavirus, did you consider putting contingency plans in place for these kinds of more common life events? This may be a once in a hundred year pandemic; but don’t forget that in life there is always another minor crisis waiting in the wings. What moves can you make as a business owner to soften the unforeseeable economic blow? For us, we recognized that in business, there is a regular rhythm of highs, low, and middle grounds that are completely out of our control. Maybe it’s a bad business decision on our part, a NY Times article that causes a backlash about the health and safety of salons or a natural disaster like extreme weather, wildfires, earthquakes, or hurricanes. If it’s not one thing, it’s another, right? While all these things might be out of our control, we learned that there are a few things we can do to keep us from a financial free fall. One of those things is preparation.
PREPARATION
We heed the advice of former US president, John F. Kennedy ,”The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining”. We’re saying this now (without any kind of judgement) so you can start thinking about it and put things in motion. Preparation is a series of slow and conscious adjustments that puts a safety net in place. The plan is to start with something small and eventually save more for a sense of security. What does that look like for you? We recommend you open a separate “oh sh*t” savings account. Automatically transfer a fixed amount into it each month as your financial security blanket. Run all your expenses and have a number in mind of what you need; whether that’s 3, 6, or 12 months. Whatever amount makes you feel comfortable. Then when you hit an unexpected slump, you’ve got a little buffer. When business starts up again, can you commit to one extra service a day to put into the account? Can you bring lunch from home more often? Can you break up with the daily fancy coffee shop break? Can you open the savings account today with a bare minimum amount as an act of faith that everything will be ok again? Can you start an envelope maybe with five bucks? Just start. No amount is too small. It all adds up. We have back ups in place to make sure that we can survive; we want the same for you, too. Preparation takes different forms. There is the financial readiness and there is mental readiness. When things are relatively stable; that is when preparation will be the easiest. When things are good, try to keep your spending in check. Celebrate your accomplishments but keep it in the back of your mind a plan for survival in less flush times. Don’t overextend yourself. Build up reserves. Pay down debt. We can share this now because it’s what we learned from not being prepared before. We are building upon lessons and failures from before. Our eyes are open to seeing what we couldn't see before. We are choosing to reframe the hardship into something positive. We have learned from the good and the bad times. In each instance, we learn and we learn and we learn and then we get better for the next time. We survive and then we can thrive one day at a time.
**This is an adaptation from our YN Biz Talk playlist on YouTube, “Biz Talk: How To Prepare For A Business Crisis.”
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12 May 2020