Silent...but NOT on the sidelines

Friends, Colleagues and Colerain Chamber Members…lend me your ears…

I have been known to vocalize my opinions on a variety of subjects over the years. You may know that I am a Chicago area native and have my share of thoughts on deep dish pizza, ketchup on hot dogs, and the price of beer at Wrigley Field. With over 35 years of business leadership experience, you may have heard me drone on about sales related topics or anecdotal stories about client relationships, sales techniques, or the best data integration, Payroll, CRM, or ERP software solutions on the market. Those from Colerain can and will eventually get to know me more deeply than from my COVID-19 resource newsletters or my weekly ZOOM conference call…my hope is that day is just around the corner.

I have not, however, really taken up marketplace conditions from an economic standpoint in any of my blog posts over the years, at least not to this point in my long career. But then again, we have also not been through a global pandemic of this magnitude in our lifetime. I guess that means that the two have collided in the Spring of 2020, while at the same time I have chosen to both relocate to Cincinnati, Ohio and accept a position as CEO of the Colerain Chamber of Commerce…the PERFECT storm scenario, eh? Having lived my entire life in Illinois, the move two states to the east has been called into question by some friends and business associates; I’m not going to defend the move in this particular piece. My loyalties will always be with the Cubs and Bears but I may have to embrace the Bengals and Reds, because when in Rome…

Within my new role as CEO of the Colerain Chamber of Commerce, my first responsibility was to our board of directors and to the commitment that I had made to talk with all of our chamber members within my first 90 days. That period is winding up (I officially started on Feb. 10th but moved to Cincinnati on March 17th) and while I thought that networking events, leadership gatherings, and evening socials would abound, giving me plenty of opportunities to make connections, the COVID-19 shut that down virtually before I could say, READY, SET, GO!!! I have appreciated the warm welcome and support from those that I have met so far and, like the rest of the planet, I look forward to a far less restrictive world where baseball games get played, concerts with live bands resume, and I can meet local business owners in their place of business…and do it safely.

In the meantime, I continue to adhere to the work at home order from the basement office that I call home. I do venture out to see some businesses thriving across our community and certainly have talked with plenty of others on the phone or ZOOM. Ingenuity abounds from people who have retooled their business to help build ventilators, to others that have found a way to redirect technology for their entire business to be run from their employees’ homes.  This type of innovation intrigues me because entrepreneurs in this country have always led by example…our community is no different. We thrive because we must do so.

How many of you thought that you would be so involved in your children’s educations this Spring? Is there a new appreciation for those who decided to home-school their kids by choice, while also working at a job or running a business from their home? I have talked to so many parents that have HAD TO change their lives and find a compromise that worked for them, their children, and their employer. Compassion is rampant in our community and I frankly am encouraged by the help that others have provided whether that is a group of people passing out free meals at a local church or school, or whether that is an individual checking in on an elderly neighbor or person shut-in at a retirement facility or nursing home. Each night CNN host Chris Cuomo salutes the Ameri-CAN’s of our world who have said that they CAN and DO make a difference. I am blessed to see that at work in our community every day.

I believe that I said that I was going to speak about our economic climate, and I ask for forgiveness for the soapbox from which I am perched. I believe that we will be at a very dangerous place in the next few weeks because a perfect storm has emerged; like my move, many things are coming together all at one time. People have been furloughed (politically correct term for “let go”) because businesses have either been closed involuntarily by the government mandates due to the pandemic, voluntarily closed because their business could not sustain the decrease in demand for the products or services they offered, or service, or have been forced to reduce their workforce to fight to live another day.

Car dealerships have been particularly hard hit (as have airlines, hotels, cruise ships and others) because people just aren’t buying cars or traveling right now. Currently cars are sitting in the driveway or garage and inventories at the dealers sit idle. Obviously, the price of gas has come down because people aren’t driving those cars which in turn means that impulse buys at those gas stations are also down. Those that make their living pumping oil and/or transporting it are hit because of the reduced demand. Many restaurants thrive because of their after-church brunch and sit-down menu…both churches and sit-down restaurants have closed their doors waiting to reopen.

Someone told me recently that those workers who have been asked to work from home have fallen into two distinct categories: 1) those who were excellent workers at the office, have become even more efficient working from home, and continue to produce good work; and 2) those that were marginal workers or poor performers at their job previously, have shown their true colors and been even worse employees under the stay home from work orders. I am sure that a true bell curve exists and that many people do not fall into either extreme, however here is where the rubber meets the road from where I sit and why I am so concerned.

Those employees that have not given it their “best” during this period will be the first to be let go if the business owner has to make a choice about people returning to work. This in turn will create additional burden on those who do return and who will be asked to do more. We have seen this happen in times past. Eventually, the opportunity will come to hire additional staff with little or no experience or “pluck” others from companies that need their workforce to survive. The employees left on the sidelines (in my opinion) are at risk even more today than ever. We have seen families that are living paycheck to paycheck, in debt up to their eyeballs, and those families will further be at risk because even the loss of a paycheck or two could ultimately bury them in bankruptcy. The moral of this story can be summed up in a two sentence as far as I’m concerned. “Do your best each and every day because even if YOUR employer doesn’t notice, another one may hire you away. Those who don’t do their best even under the most challenging of times, could face being let go far sooner than they had thought previously.”

Finally, our economic system is built on profitability. The cost of doing business or selling your product/service must be less than the price people are willing to pay for it. We will likely be keeping our eye on key businesses and their ability to create a profitable business endeavor in the post COVID-19 pandemic era. Be mindful of those business practices and find ways to be nimble in your approach to your business. If you would like to talk, set up a meeting or chat via video conference call, I welcome the opportunity. Reach out anytime. Until then, be well and stay safe.