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I’m sure no matter where you are in the world, things are rapidly changing in your environment. That is certainly true here in Kansas, in the middle of the United States. We went from limiting meetings of 250 people down to 50… Was even suggesting down to 10 people. Places where we’ve gone for community like Starbucks are now drive-through only and things are quickly changing.
On top of that, the Fed lowered the interest rate last night to near zero in an attempt to keep the markets from totally collapsing. And so as a business person, there are some adjustments you may need to be making very rapidly, and that’s what I want to talk through for just a few minutes this evening.
I’m going to be posting more videos also here in the coming days, just giving you some thoughts, a way to maybe brainstorm a little bit, and if you need help thinking through your current business, the challenges of this environment and how perhaps you can survive and get through or thrive in spite of what’s going on, then feel free to reach out to me and let’s schedule a time to talk as well.
But here’s the first thing I want to get into, is how can you adjust your business to more of an online model if need be. So, for example, if you are doing some kind of personal face to face type business, personal trainer, physical therapy, those types of things, nutritional work, how can you take that from offline to online?
And maybe what you need to start doing is creating some video curriculum, some video course curriculum. Perhaps you need to look at ways you can use tools like Zoom or GoToMeeting to do virtual meetings with your customers and your client base. These are some things you could do if you’re stocking products in a store, perhaps using the same thing where you’re doing some virtual showcases and then shipping your items direct to the consumer, so that even in this downtime you are still able to make sales, you’re still able to build up your customer base. These are the things you need to be looking at.
If you’re an insurance agent, are there ways you could be doing client reviews through webinars systems? Are there ways you could be writing new policies through virtual communication tools? Just again, like GoToMeeting or one of the other virtual meeting suites. So all of these are ways where you’re going to have to think outside the box a little bit, but there may be ways to go ahead and strategically go through those businesses.
I was thinking about some of my clients who own service businesses, where they do in home services. So maybe what you do is you have your potential customer walk through their home with their camera and show you by video the work that needs to be accomplished. Go ahead and negotiate the price, go ahead and negotiate the service over the phone or again by a virtual mechanism, and then deploy that service offering at a time where you can safely deploy your personnel into that particular service offering.
Second thing I want to get into, is getting to a stronger financial position with your business as well. So with the Fed dropping interest rates to nearly zero, obviously mortgage rates are going to drop, car loan rates are going to drop. You’re probably going to see some of your equipment loan rates drop. This will be a phenomenal time to look at refinancing your capital expenditures.
One of the things we’re going to be looking at doing with our real estate portfolio is evaluating, are there some good savings to be had by refinancing either the entire portfolio or parts of the portfolio, so that we increase our margins? It’s also a great time by doing that to reduce your debt at a much quicker rate than you would have at the higher interest rate.
Some other things you need to consider. What assets right now do you have deployed that are earning income for you? You may need to change asset classes to either defend against what’s happening in the markets or take advantage of what’s happening in the markets.
Right now, I’m really watching because of the volatility in the markets, places where I can jump in at a dip and take advantage of the rebound, and I know that’s going to happen several times over in the next few weeks and months. Now again, I’m not a financial advisor so you need to look at your situation and see what’s suitable for you. These are just some of the movements that we’re making as well.
And the other piece of that is look for ways to diversify your income. What you’re now finding is you are horribly susceptible because your one primary source of income is being interrupted. You need to look for other ways to create additional revenue streams. One of the things that’s helping us ride through this storm with everyone else is we have diversified where our income is derived from. We have many different sources of revenue so that if we lose one or one takes a hit, we’re not totally in trouble, we’ve got other places to generate revenue from.
Again, if I can help you think through those things, how do I create another source of revenue? How do I do it without a lot of capital expenditure? I’d be happy to introduce you to some of the things that we’re doing, things that can be done online or via the telephone, so that you’re able to run a thriving business even in a quarantined type environment like we’re dealing with now. And then as I’ve alluded to before, you need to be looking at your longterm plans.
Are there adjustments that you need to make in light of what may really be happening with the new economy? As I said before, I think some things we’re going to see is you’re going to see a great increase in direct to consumer sales that stores are going to begin to look at instead of paying for all the overhead and all of that expense, simply going direct to the consumer. So you want to be in front of that wave.
Obviously, health and wellness is going to be another wave you want to be in front of with what’s happening. This virtual communication’s environment, how do I leverage tools? How do I get involved in new tools that are going to come to market so I can take advantage of those things? So all of these are things that you need to be considering.
Again, if you need somebody to brainstorm with, reach out to me. Let’s brainstorm. Let’s talk. Let me help you get to a better foundational place with your business or let me help you think through some ideas, so that you’re not dead in the water if this goes on for a number of months. And you know some of the things that you’re hearing out there, we could be looking at three, six, nine months worth of disruption. And even once we get past the disruption, it’s going to take a while for us to get to that new normal, if you will.
So anyway, just a few thoughts for you this evening. I’m going to be posting quite a bit more in the days to come. I just want to give you thoughts, ideas. If I latch on to some additional information I think will be helpful to you I’ll pass that on. But anyway, we’re going to get through this together. And part of the way we get through this together is we lock arms with other people, and we do this not on our own, but we do this together in harmony with one another. So anyway, take those thoughts to heart. I’ll talk to you again soon.
