Sometimes you just need to get back on the bike

Last time I wrote one of these articles we were in a pre-Covid world. Hydrogen was on the verge of some serious growth and the management team were frantically making time to develop internal process documents and get the business set up operationally for that growth.

How things have changed….

Almost 8 weeks after moving the office to a WFH office and we’ve found ourselves in the new normal. The hopes that this would be a swift interlude have all but faded and reality has set in. We’re in this for the long haul.

During those initial weeks when everything had flipped on its head, like most business owners I was scenario planning like never before. Unlike a normal year, 1 yearly forecast had become 5 with countless what-ifs flung in for good measure. If you know me, you know I like a plan and not having one was driving me crazy. I watched from the outside as business owners dealt with the crisis in their own way. Some went on the attack setting up support groups, some delivered brand new strategies overnight, some just went silent. Within the space of a week, LinkedIn had become a strange place.

I’ve just spent my lunch with my 4 year old son in the park. We’ve used lockdown to teach him how to go his bike without stabilisers. I’ve watched over the past 2 weeks as he’s gone from a wobbly wreck, to today where he’s mastered the art of getting the thing going himself and he can confidently blast around the paths of the local park. He’s fallen over countless times, he’s gone through points of ‘I can’t do this’ and he’s had points of elation where something just clicked. I think this is the perfect metaphor for what myself and countless business owners have had to do over the past 8 weeks. We’ve had to learn all over again. But the key thing is, you get back up, you get on the bike and you keep going.

About 4 weeks ago, that moment hit for us. We needed to get back on the bike. We had dealt with the initial crash and had a choice, stand licking our wounds and lamenting the fall or dust ourselves off and say ‘How can we learn from that, how can we improve and get better?’

So, that’s what we’ve done, put in place plans to get better and if you are a business owner like me struggling with the next step, I would urge you to follow suit. The move from contingency planning to forward planning is certainly good for the soul.

We always look for the positives in every situation. We have assessed what this crazy time has given us and it’s given us an opportunity like no other. All of those operational plans that constantly got parked now became a possibility. All of those ‘we’ll do that in the future’ projects got added to an immediate pipeline. We know we need to come flying out of the starting blocks when this is all over, so let’s get ourselves into the best shape to do that.

We’re currently planning 2 new product releases, 2 new service propositions and getting all of that internal documentation that never gets the light of day sorted.

I said in my last post as I closed the office doors behind me that we would survive. We’ll do that. But what I always wanted was Hydrogen to thrive, no matter the situation and that’s what we’re planning on happening.

I’m no business coach, but I don’t know many coaches who have a pandemic response in their repertoire. So, if you have read this and find yourself as a business owner struggling to get into your stride or figure out your next step, drop me a line, I’ll happily chat through my experience.