What to do When Calamity Hits

Life has hardships, you can’t avoid them. Very recently we lost a close family member. It is still difficult to talk about it. I started to think about how it affects you when you suffer loss. It really can be difficult to process. Difficult to move on. Many mornings it is hard to even get out of bed. I thought I would share a few thoughts that came to me in the shower the other day.

There are different types of things that can happen that might put you as an owner or manager into a “funk”. We won’t be able go to into everything that could happen, but I’m hoping that you can relate to something that might prepare you so that if something were to happen, that you could pull yourself up and continue on and possibly end up in a better position someday.

Sometimes personal loss can be very devastating. We recently lost our son in an accident. The grieving process can really make decision making difficult, if not completely hindering decision process altogether. There can be many other personal losses that can keep your mind elsewhere and not on the task of your work.

There can be Business loss, a loss of a key team member. Could be a loss of a big customer or product line. Could be a fire or a natural disaster. Could be a product recall or legal issues. Or even a serous team member injury. Legal or workplace fines. Could be someone you trusted skimmed a lot of money leaving you and the company totally devastated. A divorce or friend or family relationship falling apart might. Whatever the case may be, you will not be back to normal overnight. You need a game plane to get you though and you need help.

Go into survival mode. Sometime when you have issues with your computer, when you need to reboot and start in safe mode. Only the essential operations are working to keep the resources available as needed, that what mode you need to go into. It is important to stay away from big decisions during this grieving and recouping process. Keep decisions on day to day operations, now is not the time to be deciding to expand or buy expensive equipment. Remember you’re in survival mode.

You need to enlist help if there is not someone readily available that has your company’s best interest at heart. If your company is small you might need to be looking outside to a consultant or someone in your personal or corporate network. It’s very important to find someone who is looking out for your interest. Maybe a business coach is necessary, at least for a short term. Enlist someone who can help evaluate and interview consultants or coaches. Someone that it outside of the affected grieving sphere that can be objective to find the right person to help in this time of need. It could be a vendor or supplier or even possibly a customer if there’s the right relationship there, that can help in the interview process. Please do not forget to seek professional help for yourself as well. Could be a lawyer or counselor.

You need to constantly be evaluating the risks of your business and yourself. It may be difficult but you need to keep the finger on the pulse of your business and be constantly evaluating the risks and you are moving through this phase of recovery.

Work the plan. I would think a good coach or consultant could help you put together a 90 day plan that might be moving you and your company through the tough times and on track to getting to a more normal business. Some grieving processes could take longer that this, but a 90 day plan would be a good start.

You need systems in place! Real life can hit us hard sometimes. SOPs (standard operating procedures) on how you do everything in your business is not only necessary but help you look at how efficient your processes are. The best we can do to prepare for calamity is to learn and hedge what you can now before anything bad happens. I sincerely hope no one must go through some devastating grieving process like what we are going though right not. I’m hoping that this post can help someone now or in the future. My next post will help look at evaluating your company and breaking down different risks so you can make plans to minimize your risks.