4 Tips to Navigating Tragedy as a Business Owner
Our office staff have been together for decads now. We’ve been there for each other while raising kids and now while we’re facing some harsher realities of aging. In the past few years, together we’ve seen the loss of parents, cancer battles, heart attacks, and untimely death of close friends. We are shaken yet we persist in developing our business and moving forward. If you haven’t encountered many tragedies while being a business owner, we hope that continues, but we wanted to share things that have helped us keep moving forward in difficult times.
1. Adequate Staffing
Having great team members has been the life-blood of our business. If it weren’t for experienced and knowledgeable team members, we wouldn’t have lasted these 40 years. Having enough people is also paramount. Many businesses would rather work their staff more and have a higher profit margin than proactively hire. It might work for a time, but of the people that will stay, they’ll be burnt out and resentful and not willing to pick up extra pieces if you’re having a tragedy. If they are already overwhelmed an additional crisis is just the excuse they need to leave. We’ve seen businesses go bankrupt during those already difficult times because they didn’t have enough people to fall back on and trust to run their operations.
2. Positive culture
Whether an employee needs to plan the funeral for a loved one or pick up a sick child at school, being understanding can go far in your company culture. The benefits of being flexible far outweigh the standard clock-in/out for required working hours. If you give staffers the benefit of the doubt about why they need to take some time off, they will feel valued and trusted, which will create a loyalty and dedication that creates higher quality work and prevents turnover. Believe that people are inherently good and they will believe that your business genuinely cares about them. You might get taken advantage of in the process but a few hours of work not being done compared to a respectful and experienced company culture is a tradeoff I’m willing to take.
3. Effective protocol
Think about your staff. Is there one person that is the lynchpin to everything functioning? Is there only one person that knows all the logins or gets all the emails or pays all the bills? Do they have a backup? Is their role duplicatable by others if they are away? Great staff is important, but having one vital person can be detrimental if they take a leave of absence or an emergency situation prevents them from working. Train at least one other person in their back up role making sure they can duplicate the role. Make sure logins are able to be accessed by others if in a pinch. I don’t know how many times we’ve referenced an old-school rolodex to find login and contact information. Sometimes having a physical version is the best fall-back (though make sure it’s locked up).
4. Insurance
Did you know that there are insurance coverages you can purchase that can help sustain your business and personal income in the event you get hurt or your business can’t operate due to a covered event? Long-term disability insurance along with life insurance is a must for any business owner. If you get injured or die the funds from this insurance will contribute to covering your financial responsibilities. Business Interruption insurance can cover your expenses from your normal business operations when an event happens that causes you to close temporarily. This coverage is especially important when living in an area prone to hurricanes. Some vehicle and equipment policies have options to reimburse you for temporary replacements. If your building, car, or equipment is suddenly inoperable, will you be able to continue business and paying bills?
Having these systems in place before-hand has made all the difference in not just running our business during difficult times but has allowed us to focus on what matters most: our family. We are relieved instead of stressed knowing that our staff can be entrusted to maintain the course. So while things are going good, prepare for the unfortunate times and you can have more good times ahead.