C12 Business Owners Call

The following are key points from the conference call today with business owners and leaders facilitated by C12 of Southwest Florida.

Immediate internal actions

1. Determine your status as essential and capacity to service customers remote. Desantis is referencing the Homeland Security provisions embedded at the bottom of this post.

2. Establish a communication rhythm with your team. You are going to need it in the days to come and it will be simpler to implement if you are already using it.

   • Daily check-in’s/updates with the entire company using video

   • Daily leadership team status and response meetings in addition to weekly operations meetings

   • A communications plan similar to that used during the aftermath of tropical storms and hurricanes to maintain contact with furloughed workers

3. Get a handle on cash. How much do you have and how long will it last under three scenarios

   • Slow recovery beginning in 30 days

   • …in 60 days

   • …in 90-120 days

   • if you need a simple tool there is one here

4. Put together 3 lists of furloughed employees coinciding with the cases above

External actions

1. Cull A/R for essential businesses, municipalities, larger orgs and be diligent about keeping your A/R process tight with these key sources of cash

2. Call your banker and get stimulus loans started. Here’s another tool

3. Call landlords and bankers to defer payments on mortgages and rent for as long as possible

4. Check on the integrity of your payroll provider. If you need a good one call me.

5. Call insurance providers about business interruption provisions, the possibility of expanded coverage mandated by future legislation and altering coverage on general liability and workman’s comp since those are tied to revenues and payroll. Also consider auto coverage modifications if your fleet will be parked for an extended period

Plan for months, hope for weeks. Businesses will be divided into four categories:

1. Essential, well run businesses that will stay open and do extraordinarily well.

2. Essential, poorly run businesses that will stay open but give up market share and skilled labor to the well-run counterparts.

3. Non-essential, unprepared businesses that will not make it because they had no margin, failed to act, or waited for the bailout to save them.

4. Non-essential, prepared businesses that made tough decisions, used the time to re-wire internal processes, solidify their leadership team, and innovate and plan for the recovery. These businesses will gain extraordinary market share and recover like nothing we have ever seen over the next 2-3 years.

Let’s make sure we are in groups 1 and 4. Keep your head on straight. Keep your faith in God and the work of Jesus Christ. And call us if you need help.