Two Years of COVID-19: AAR

Twenty-four-plus months into “two weeks to flatten the curve” and it certainly look as if there’s light at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic tunnel. Professional and leisure travel is opening up. Business is getting back to a level of normalcy that we haven’t seen in two years.?It’s time for an After Action Report (AAR) on the small business “lessons learned” for Midwest Chemical Safety.

?I’m writing these lessons learned for my colleagues in both the safety and small business community for overall process improvement.?Some lessons may be valuable to your organization and should be investigated as to whether to adopt them further in your situation, while some may be less than useful.?The overall goal, however, is to prepare for the next business interruption regardless of the cause (which may be a local issue or a global one) and make that interruption less impactful on your life and business.?As with many things, take what is useful and toss the stuff that doesn’t apply!

?A Brief Timeline

?Every retrospective should begin with a timeline; if for no other purpose, than to judge if actions were taken at an appropriate time during the incident as well as look at actions that may present opportunities for improvement for the “next time.”?This is the first Lesson Learned: There will always be a “next time.”?Here are the big events:

?●???????January 2020:?Starting to hear about a new respiratory disease in China on the return trip from a winter vacation.?Still on target for client visits in January and February.

●???????February 2020:?More rumblings about the disease.?Company concern is low.?Some news and talk of meeting cancellations throughout the scientific community.

●???????March 2020:?On site with a client in Chicago, during the same time as PittCon.?Noticed a lot of anxiety among vendors staying at the PittCon hotel as well as hotel staff.?The week following PittCon, I was onsite with a large research client and they were very concerned at the news coming out of the East and West coasts.?Midweek, the organization decided to quickly move to “minimum safe operation” and began a shutdown of research at the facility.?It was at this moment that while the news was hyping “Two weeks to flatten the curve” I recognized that the pandemic would affect MCS business operations for at least twelve months, based on my experience that “consulting” as a business sector normally lags the general economy by 12-18 months.

●???????April 2020:?PPP1 (Payroll Protection Program #1, PPP1) is rolled out.?MCS takes advantage of it.

●???????April 2020-December 2020:?MCS turns to internal process and program improvement while still maintaining some billable hours.

o??May 2020:?MCS taps into its financial reserves to meet obligations.

o??June 2020:?MCS applies for and is awarded a US Small Business Administration (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL).?(Yes, it violated my second rule of business: “No debt ever.”)

●???????January 2021: PPP2 rolls out and MCS takes advantage of it.

●???????January 2021-December 2021:?Cash flow steadily improves but remains under pre-pandemic levels as small and mid-sized businesses begin to ramp up work and need safety/industrial hygiene consulting.?Large research organizations moving back to campus and restarting work; small/mid-sized manufacturers back to work with some restrictions.

?Phases of the Pandemic

?One way to look at the 2020-2022+ COVID Pandemic is to look back at it in phases:

Immediate Phase: 0-6 weeks

Intermediate Phase:?6 weeks to 12 months

Long-term and Recovery:?12 -24+ months

Immediate Phase Actions

As soon as the nation-wide lockdown started, MCS began executing the first actions of its business continuity plan:

?●???????Communication:?Communicated with all clients (current and previous 12 months) encouraging them to move to minimum safe operations as much as practicable and that MCS was “in the game” for the long-haul, ready to assist them with any safety need.

●???????Company Survival:?Ensured corporate financials were in order:?Reduced the “burn rate” of the company – scaled back expenses.?However, some expenses increased, primarily telecommunication-related expenses:?e.g. Zoom, Loom, and phone.?Because of our location (i.e. middle of nowhere Illinois, USA), we needed a reliable, high speed internet source.?We were able to work with local hotels for lower-cost room rentals and worked with clients to group calls on specified days.

●???????Employees and Families: Ensured personal health and well-being for all employees and family members.

?Intermediate Phase Actions:?2020-2021 and the years that weren’t

?2020 was the year of shutdown in most respects:?Business travel, professional meeting, professional development.?The “fun” had been sucked out of the room!

?A lot of time was first focused on updating company assets (“Organizational Process Assets” in project management parlance) and creating new material.?This included:

?●???????Updating all our professional workshop offerings with modern materials and make them compatible for on-line presentation.

●???????Updating all our in-house risk assessment templates.

●???????Created two, free online templates and short how-to-use videos to accompany them.?Those templates are free for use and can be found here: https://midwestchemsafety.com/risk-ih-tools/

?With a lot of time on our hands during the early months of the pandemic shutdown, MCS focused on acquiring Small Business Grants.?While utterly unsuccessful, it was quite a learning experience!

?MCS took full advantage of both rounds of the Payroll Protection Program (PPP, April 2020 and January 2021) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.?Applying for and receiving EIDL funds was a tough decision and I spoke about it in an earlier LinkedIn article: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/improvise-adapt-overcome-how-one-small-business-some-harry/

?By November 2020, MCS was experiencing a new state of “normal” in terms of workflow:?Industries were back to work, even if on a limited production basis and professional development workshops were now presented virtually. Companies were preparing for the post-COVID time by performing engineering and experimental design reviews via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.?Due to a lot of limitations on MCS’s home office arrangement, MCS started a business relationship with a co-working company in town that provided reliable high-speed internet and 24-hour access so that we could accommodate clients' needs more fully.

We also decided to bring MCS’s website (www.midwestchemsafety.com) into the 21st century. We hired it out to a semi-local company with whom I was familiar and came highly recommended.??(BigStartBusiness; Meredith Gernigin https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/meredithgernigin-52818b149/).?

We are now in a post-pandemic recovery phase. Many of MCS’s clients are also performing retrospectives to rethink how they’ve done business in the past and adopt any lessons they may have learned into future business practices.

?Lessons Learned

?Pre-Pandemic and Immediate Phases

?●???????Overall, MCS was well-prepared for the sudden business interruption.?I spoke about it in a previous LinkedIn article here:?https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/prepared-how-one-independent-consultant-getting-harry/?Preparation is the key – there will always be some kind of downturn in your business and knowing that you have “dry powder” on hand (i.e. cash reserves) will greatly reduce anxiety.?MCS’s rule – two years of operating expenses in the bank.

●???????Work through a rough plan for moving from full-to-minimum operations safely and efficiently.?I would advise you to first plan what this may look like at your organization, then run through a few table-top scenarios.?Be sure to include all levels of employees tabletop exercises.?The C-Suite may not understand how things actually get done on the production floor!

●???????Review, perhaps annually, your company’s burn rate or cash flow.?Where can you easily (and not so easily) cut back if income is lost?

●???????Conduct a personal financial review also.

●???????Communicate with your clients immediately when you know that there’s an interruption in your company.?In this case, they were going through the same thing and many responded with a note expressing a general “thanks for being there with us.”

?Intermediate and Recovery Phases

?●???????Keep your mental and physical health high on the to-do-list.?This, by far, is the most important lesson learned during the pandemic.?Connect with colleagues, even if done virtually.

●???????Use down time wisely:?Update company organizational process assets. Find ways to use this time to create and brainstorm new projects.

●???????Make sure you have a “Plan B” for all critical corporate infrastructure.?For MCS, the biggest was redundant internet service for the home office and establishing a co-working location nearby.

●???????Utilize your financial reserves. That’s what they’re for.

●???????Take advantage of resources as they become available.?MCS took advantage of both rounds of the PPP from the US Small Business Administration.?That the government was there to help small businesses this time, I would not depend on this for the next downturn.

●???????Be prepared to re-think things. MCS needed to re-think it’s “no debt ever” position. In the end, it came down to ensuring the company had enough “dry powder” for a prolonged downturn combined with the very favorable interest rate offered by the SBA.

●???????Adapt to your client’s needs and changing environment:?For us, that meant learning and subscribing to four online presentation platforms and migrating our in-house professional development workshops to an on-line format.

●???????Grace is necessary, being a doormat is not:?We found that we had to cut ties with a couple of long-standing business clients until they could get back to work.??If you find yourself needing to have “that conversation” with a client, remind them that it’s business, not personal.

●???????Communicate, communicate, communicate!?Let your clients know that you’re there for them, even if they do not have work for you now.?

?Steps Forward

?Take a few hours in the next few weeks to do your own Lesson’s Learned for your business and well as your household.?Ask yourself:

?·????????What went right? Don’t forget to list your “wins” during the pandemic.

·????????What went abysmally wrong??These are the things that you want to avoid at all costs for the next interruption.?(MCS didn’t have anything that went so painfully wrong that, if done again, would result in a catastrophic result.?This is directly attributable to pre-planning for the interruption.)

·????????Where are the opportunities for improvement?

?

Midwest Chemical Safety, LLC can assist you and your organization with occupational and environmental safety services, industrial hygiene and risk assessment.?Contact Harry at 217-971-6047 or [email protected] to set up an appointment.?Please feel free to comment below on how you and your company is overcoming the COVID times!