What questions should business leaders to keep afloat during the coronavirus?

As we start analyzing and predicting how the coronavirus pandemic will affect markets and businesses in the long term, companies and CEOs are trying to keep it going and guarantee themselves a post on their industry’s competition.

At this moment, both public administration and the public sector are in constant brainstorming to be one step ahead in affronting this crisis with the minimum damage.

We took one step onto these discussions and analyzed what questions are managers doing to themselves and their teams to face their challenges ahead.

First things first. How much cash flow do we have? Indeed, this is definitely the number one question and issue that all managers are getting their hands on.

How much cash do their companies have in hand? How much money will be receiving shortly? How much time can they continue paying debts and employers? How about if there’s a leak in maybe 20 or 40 percent in revenue?

From all the answers to these questions, you can go to a second phase: How to mitigate losses and how to lower costs without causing damage to staff members.

This is a question that considers ways to create teams in companies and ambient of solidarity and hospitality around such as harsh environment caused by the crisis. One of the strategies most companies are doing is reducing salaries to 80 percent of their past salary. This helps to reduce cost and reduce the money leak, and also helps the employee to become a potential candidate for the wage subsidy the federal government is providing, which is an extra money everyone needs right now.

The next step is figuring out which operations are the minimum required to allow the company to be sustainable and robust enough to qualify for acquiring debt and continue responding to the clients’ demands and sustaining a relationship with them that keeps the cash flowing.

That last sentence is KEY. Focusing on creating communities and relationships with clients is more crucial than ever. Yes, that’s always important, but at this time, you can’t afford to lose a client. Losing a client means losing money, and losing money means losing staff and endangering your crew’s morale.

The businesses are betting on creating loyalty and empathy with their clients. Maybe they can’t provide financial support right now, but it’s the ideal opportunity to develop a strong relationship.

This is time to stop being afraid of vulnerabilities, share the struggle with your team and clients, and build strong sympathy. When the shockwave passes, your clients and employees will thank you for it. This hard time may create a bridge to work together and overcome it and establishing a bond that could last after the pandemic goes away.

So, the next logical step is adjusting marketing and business strategies.

Some questions made during this final phase revolve around how we relate to market changes and how the company has adapted its strategies to the situation. Maybe it’s time to rely on clouds, remote works, and freelancers. Perhaps a change in the products and offers are needed to be made even before the situation, and you were avoiding it.

Make the changes now. Don’t wait until the crisis goes away… It may be too late. The worse course of action right now is taking no course of action.

So, make the right questions, take a deep breath, and adapt. It’s a time for innovation and bold decisions.