Unpredictable Circumstances Will Make You Stronger

The last few weeks were pretty challenging for us. I never paint a bright picture when things are not bright. I bring good news and I bring bad news and I am not shy to talk about this.

We got hit pretty badly with the pandemic as our portfolio consists of 95% of projects from US, UK, and Europe. We lost billability for almost 35% of our projects where clients cut down on resources, some completely stopped services, some gave 30 days advanced termination notices, others requested 50% off on our existing contracts and some did not pay at all for the services provided. Unfortunately, our portfolio had multiple clients in Travel, Airline, Oil & Gas, and Entertainment industries which got tremendously impacted.

So what do you do when you have a 180-degree turn in 3 weeks? It's like you are winning the street fight and you missed that "dirty" left hook from the back by someone else and you get knocked down. When you go from everything is really great down to what do we need to do in order not to let people go from 35% lost business? Start panicking? Will it help? I doubt it.....

What do you do? You get up and continue the fight, you do not throw the white towel out there. You concentrate more, you try a different strategy or tactic, but you should never give up.

What do I mean by giving up? No, you probably misunderstood me. Not closing the business down. This will never happen under no circumstances.

What I mean by giving up is “letting your people go when the tough time comes”. We will not let anyone go no matter what, even at this tough and challenging situation because we can not put our guys in jeopardy. Not at this situation and not at this moment of time. The guys who put more than 100% of effort all the time, who are loyal, dedicated, honest, flexible, and were there for us when we need them, working for free without salaries when there was a time when we started this business and there was no money to pay salaries. This is the time to pay back and care for your guys because they need to continue to bring bread and butter to their families.

That is why it is crucial for companies to plan annual budgets to accommodate such unpredictable circumstances and not pocket money but hold them up as a back up.

We will manage and go through this together and things will be bright again and we will start posting many new jobs as we always did in the past for all of you to apply. We will get back to the game very soon again, you have my promise.

Good luck guys and stay safe and healthy!