My takeaways on running a business and getting married in a pandemic

At the start of this year, business was flying high for Platinum People Group and we were preparing to grow our team. 

When news of a really contagious virus started to circulate, I thought, ‘this sounds like it might cause a little bump in the road’. Boy was that an understatement!

That escalated quickly...

It hit me the week of my wedding, in March. As the Government shut down our country’s borders, my fiancé and I sadly had to cancel the amazing honeymoon we’d been looking forward to for over a year. Goodbye, Maldives! (And Japan, and Singapore). 

Things were escalating so quickly, and it definitely entered my mind that the economy was going to be hit pretty hard by this.

I got married to Madison, the love of my life, on literally the last day you were legally allowed to have a wedding in Australia prior to lockdown. Restrictions were announced as she was walking down the aisle. Covid-19 was in the back of everyone’s mind as we partied the night away (the last big event we’d attend for months!).

We’d organised a last minute back-up honeymoon to Hayman Island and left midday Sunday, only to return early Tuesday morning (less than 48 hrs later) as Queensland shut down its borders.

The whole situation was really disappointing on a personal level, and it was about to have some serious impacts on my business too.

How Covid affected PPG

While still on my 48-hour honeymoon, I scheduled an emergency meeting with my team. I should have been overseas relaxing on a beach, letting my awesome team handle things for me at home, but instead there we were in full crisis mode on a Zoom call.

Thanks to our government’s quick response to the situation, no doubt many lives have been saved. But holy moly this has been a rough time for so many businesses. 

We lost $90K of projected revenue over March and April as businesses responded to the pandemic by putting the brakes on and pausing all recruitment. Just like that, all my team’s hard work vanished. Those candidates we had at second and third round interviews, or just about to receive an offer… it was all put on hold or cancelled. Understandable, of course, given the uncertainty our clients were facing themselves.

Sadly, we also lost a team member who’d only been with us for eight weeks. It was such a tough call to have to do that, but carrying a newbie who was still finding his feet during a pandemic and recession wouldn’t have been the smartest business decision. We had to lean up.

JobKeeper has been a godsend, allowing us to keep the rest of our team on. Plus, we’ve always been aware that GFCs happen every 10-20 years so it’s wise as a business to have a war chest, enough money to cover at least 9 months of operational costs (including my personal income/salary for this time). It’s my responsibility as an employer to be prepared for these things, with people’s salaries and livelihoods in my hands.

Turns out working from home is HARD WORK

One of the toughest adjustments for me personally has been working from home. It used to be an occasional luxury, but I’ve never had to do it like this. 

My wife and I share a home office, so it’s been a juggle of who will work from the kitchen bench when we both need to be on Zoom calls, and talking over the top of each other while on the phone.

Not being able to get out of the house is tough. I’ve missed seeing other faces and speaking to my team in person. We’ve adapted by having daily morning FaceTimes in which we set our goals for the day and celebrate our accomplishments. Plus, we started having Friday afternoon knock-off drinks via Zoom with rotating dress-up themes (which everyone really got into!).

We’ve adjusted to a new way of working

It’s been so important to acknowledge that it’s hard for everyone – for our clients and candidates, and for our team too. For example, my team member Meg lives alone and saw barely anyone during lockdown (except for her trusty cat Philip, of course). I shouted her an Uber Eats breakfast once a week to help keep her motivated and feeling special. Little things like that have really helped with being so isolated. It’s nice to have something to look forward to so you don’t feel alone in this.

Thankfully, we actually haven’t had to adapt our processes too much to suit a remote work environment. In fact, around 40% of last year’s placements were done remotely for clients in Sydney. We just adopted the processes we used for interstate clients for our Melbourne clients and candidates.

Like many mortgage brokers, we really knuckled down in March when this started and decided we’d use this opportunity to reach out to all our candidates and clients. We called all our contacts with no real agenda, just to see how they were going and ask if we could help them in any way. That’s probably the main reason we’re in such a good position now.

We bounced back

While we lost so much revenue in March and April, May has actually been our second best month to date and June is shaping up to be a great month too. We’re starting to see restrictions easing, businesses reopening and people returning to their offices – so things are on the up.

It’s looking good for lots of our clients too. One hired three new people last month! And another client achieved $30 Million in lodgements last month alone – a record in his business, where he’s only one broker with a small support team.

Platinum People Group has had lots of new enquiries come through recently, which is a good sign that business is going back to usual… although it’s a new kind of ‘usual’.

What Covid-19 has taught me

1. How to work from home and motivate myself

When I previously worked from home, I found it hard to be fully focused and do a full day’s work. I’ve had to figure out how to do that, and now I have a great routine.

Although… I’ve learned the hard way that making coffee at home is NOT for me! (You may have seen the below in a video I posted a few weeks ago. Devastating.)

2. How to connect with the team in other ways

It’s been hard not being able to see my team in person. But we developed a really good groove with morning check-ins, regular calls and our Friday afternoon casual catch ups for a bit of fun. We have new processes in place to ensure we feel connected even when we’re not together. The office banter lives on!

3. How to deal with a loss 

March 2020 was the first month since I started the business that we ran at a loss. Lots of people I’ve mentioned this to have made comments like, ‘Hey! Now you’re a real business owner!’. Experiencing this has been good, and it’s taught me to tighten up my cashflow when I need to, looking at it with microscopic detail. I’ve been reviewing costs and cashflow weekly instead of monthly and it’s really helped.

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I write all this just to acknowledge that on both a personal and a professional level, Covid has been tough for us all. But hasn’t it been so interesting as well? I feel like a new man having been through it, and I’m excited to see how I can creatively build my business (and my new life with my wife!) into something amazing off the back of this. 

I also think this is going to open huge opportunities for me and my team to help more people grow their mortgage brokerages and secure jobs they love, because Covid has us all thinking, “hang on, am I really doing what I love and doing well at it?”

If you're not sure where your future is headed right now, please give me a call on 03 9913 9642 – I'd love to hear how this pandemic is impacted you and how we could help. Or post a comment below!