The Road Ahead

It would be no understatement to say that we are currently facing some of the most challenging times outside a wartime situation. Every business owner is concerned right now about the future of their company and I wanted to take a few moments to put down my own thoughts in writing for those that maybe, like me, be thinking about what they can do to find a road ahead through this. 

The main thing to focus on at the moment is looking after your family and keeping yourself safe and well but you should also start to use this time to plan of your way forward.

The first point I would make is that these are my own thoughts and what is most important is that you do what ‘you’ feel is right for you. Secondly, I would say that it’s a good idea to be careful what news you digest because there is an awful lot of negative reporting with very little emphasis on the positive outcomes as we move through this crisis. As a ‘creative’ and a business owner you will find it increasingly difficult to function creatively or make solid well thought out decisions if you are feeling constantly very anxious. A calm mind is what is needed right now to help you plan for the future effectively. 

Thirdly, no one man can change the world, unless of course you eat an undercooked bat! The point here being that nobody expected or anticipated this would happen and in truth nobody today can hand on heart say truthfully as to what will happen in the coming months or years. 

14 years ago, I sat down and wrote the business plan to start my business, AmbientLife, and over the coming weeks I will be writing a totally new business plan based around moving forward with my company once lock down restrictions start to be relaxed and the crisis bottoms out to some extent from a ‘virus’ point of view. Make no mistake at all that whilst we will inevitably get to a point where we bottom out the infection rates life will not immediately go back to what it was before this all happened. Social patterns will change most likely, people’s priorities will be different and industry / businesses will need to start the long process of rebuilding and strengthening once again. Today we are in the fight against the virus and all the misery that it has brought our communities however tomorrow we must look at the recovery of our society, growth and financial standing. 

Every country in the entire world has been touched with the effects of this and governments globally have had to put in place packages to support both businesses and the employed, all this will come at a cost and it would be naive to think that once travel restrictions are lifted that everything will simply return to normal. 

GDP will be massively impacted, government borrowing and spending, export and import restrictions will change and the laws that govern over us will change, some of these have already started. One such example of this is a person’s ability to make a ‘charge back’ on their credit card for goods or services that they have paid for and not received. This has always been a public right and law, however currently the COVID crisis has changed that and currently the government is not allowing any UK banks to process any charge backs. Some may say that this is unfair, however from a business point of view it has most likely been done to try and protect businesses that were left unable to ‘supply’ because of the imposed lockdown. This particular law is being re discussed on an almost weekly basis currently. 

As photographers it is easy to sit on social media and moan about not being able to get out and do shoots that we had booked in, moan about losing money and so on. What is important to remember very clearly here is that we are all in the same boat, and the boat will be getting smaller each week… 

Your clients are just as concerned as you are about their revenue, profits, and costs so it would be a very good start to remember that and try to make decisions about how you will act in the future with this in mind so that you can function as a business again bit also you can do so in a way that supports your clients and customers, without them you will have no business, and you should remember this throughout your decision process. 

Now would be a good time to think about the business sectors that you normally work within and consider carefully if they are still valid should the economy take a length of time to recover. Some business sectors will bounce back quickly and there will be a real push to ramp up on productivity and restore growth where as others will be possibly slow to recover and there will be a lot of collateral loss in these sectors, thus also having a knock-on effect into other business types. Nobody can say for sure but you should know enough about the market that you operate in normally to be able to strategise what may occur moving forward should recovery be a lengthy process, both UK wide and globally. 

It is not impossible for me personally to imagine that the financial recovery from this could take years and you should maybe plan for that. Interest rates are currently at the lowest level that they have ever been however this is unlikely to remain so and you should factor a possible substantial rise into your figures possibly from as soon as Q1 2021. 

Our current levels of taxation are unlikely to remain in 2021 and whilst again nobody can be sure, you should again factor this in. A common theme throughout this is that nobody really knows, and all I can say for sure is that well thought out planning will always win over just simply crossing your fingers and hoping for it to all go away. 

Sticking your head in the sand is not an option here really as we have been thrown a curve ball here that resembles a meteorite so act now and give yourself a better chance. 

Look at all parts of your business from the way that you operate daily to your costs, client communication methods, delivery and of course the actual product that you supply. Are all these still valid moving forward and what could you do better if things enviably change for your end clients. What can you do that will help them more? 

What they need tomorrow is possibly different to what they needed yesterday. 

Your traditional revenue streams and how they looked may well change just as the way that you collect that revenue may need to change to help support your customers and clients. 

As a small business I have always had a few simple rules in regard to the ethics of how I operate with my clients. Always deliver on time exactly what you promised and where possible offer added value each and every time. Always ensure that your client sees you as an asset and not a cost, and be aware that you are may well be a small cog, but you are part of their machine, so be a team player and do what is needed to keep that machine running smoothly. Businesses and companies are all acting very differently at the moment, some have stepped up and some have not, many people will remember this as we move forward. 

Make sure that you show yourself in the best way possible and be part of the solution to feed the growth of all our futures as we come out of the other side of this. 

We are all in this together and everybody has a responsibility to do the right thing.