Winning in Turbulent Times — By Aaron Day

Following on from one of our latest articles, “How to Survive and Thrive During an Economic Downturn,” we thought we should share some of our own, and our Clients actual experiences to reinforce the fact that there are genuine opportunities for those business owners with the courage to push on when their instincts might rather retreat.

In the very early stages of the Covid-19 scenario, some of our clients in hospitality and tourism, through no fault of their own, found themselves with no business at all, and no matter what tactics or strategies they employed (short of launching completely different businesses in alternate industries) there was nothing they could do but wait.

However, for the rest of our Clients, we worked with them to develop assertive tactical plans to identify and take advantage of hidden opportunities. In these past few months, 70% of our Clients have had record-breaking revenue months, beating their previous best performing months by large margins. Their industries include Manufacturing, Construction, Air Conditioning, Home Security & Window Furnishings.

Each one of them has implemented unique and effective marketing and operational processes that have made their core business even stronger than they were before the pandemic. Each one of them has experienced profitable growth.

Not only have they all experienced growth in revenue and market share, but they’ve also taken advantage of the unique opportunity to hire quality talent into their teams.

Prior to Covid-19, most of these Clients were experiencing labour shortages in their industries, making it quite difficult to both retain good quality team members and also to recruit them.

With this in mind, we’ve taken advantage of this time to recruit quality team members into each of these businesses, and the result has been an even stronger improvement to their operational capabilities, team culture, morale, and general productivity.

The result is that our Clients have actually capitalised on the pandemic scenario to create businesses that are much stronger than they were before. So, even if we face more challenging times ahead, they are in a position to win. Imagine what’s in store for them once the economy begins to stabilise and re-grow.

While this level of success isn’t going to be viable for all businesses at this time, there is almost always hidden opportunity in these situations, and the results we’ve achieved with these Clients have proven that a strategic, proactive approach will always outperform a ‘wait and see’ approach.

Finally, what opportunities might you be missing out on for your business? Ask yourself: What are the areas where you can be proactive, and use this time to make your business stronger?