What can you DO in your business right now?

What can you DO right now?

Whether you're a business owner, a student, a parent... here are some practical things to get you back in motion, feeling (a bit) more confident & help you protect your team.

This will (eventually) end. We probably don't ever get back to the way things were. Hopefully the world is a better place after this. More kind. More local. More empathetic.

But don't get the jazz hands out yet, this is probably more brutal & lasts longer than we want to believe.

So what can you do right now....?

Focus on today. don't think (much) about where your business is going to be in 6 months. just stay focused on today & this week.

Think more about others (your clients, your team, your extended family) than yourself - you probably already are, but when you hit a bad patch (& we all will) reach out to someone & ask what you can do for THEM. You'll feel better for it.

Be grateful. yeah that's going to be tough with friends & family getting sick (& they probably will). but find something - no matter how small - to be grateful for every day. It'll lessen the hopelessness that we'll all feel at times in the coming weeks & months.

Be generous with your relationships. we're all going to struggle ... clients will quit, customers will disappear, businesses will have to layoff staff & shutter doors. It's going to get worse, probably much much worse, before it gets better. but forget the transactions & focus on the people.

Your old identity is gone - or at least changed significantly. who do you want to BE in this new world?

One of our amazing clients Sophie from Seed & Sprout wrote this in an email to customers last week, I loved it:

"I believe the world is changing.

No longer can we ignore the facts.

It's time to recognise the systems we have set up no longer serve us.

We need to evolve.

We need to change and grow.

We can no longer put the future in other's hands.

Hear the message that is calling us to rise up and create the world we want to be a part of.

A world driven by hope and love. A world where people and planet thrive.

Where communities support one another and are set up to do so.

Where real world skills are taught and values are ingrained into the fabric of our society that actually support us.

Can you hear it calling?

Can you feel the change?

I can."

wow :)

As for your business/agency - here are some of the things we're doing & thinking about - maybe it helps...

keep talking. get the team together every day for a zoom call. it's good to see familiar faces each morning & keeps things feeling a bit more normal. schedule regular meetings with each team too.

raid the office. If you're not already, then get everyone working from home - using office supplies if you need to. Our gorgeous new office is now empty & missing a few screens, all the plants, webcams & headsets. Oh well, we'll get back in there one day!

learn how to use zoom. The WebSavvy #epicteam are experts at this & we take it for granted, but a couple of tips for using video calls:

- look into the camera, not at the screen

- put your laptop on some books (we don't want to see up your nose)

- get a headset/mic. even your iphone headset is better than the built in mic on your laptop

- be aware of what's behind you. it doesn't need to look amazing, just put the washing away before jumping on that call ;)

create a 'work' space at home. It's important to keep boundaries between work & home even when WFH.

check your automated marketing campaigns. You may not want the usual emails going out without at least checking the copy.

Same goes for all ad copy if you're still running those.

And be very wary of using automated bidding right now - the Machine will get confused with this unusual behaviour & probably waste a chunk of your budget - monitor carefully & consider moving back to manual.

education - use the time to learn & upskill, not just netfllix. youtube learning hub is good as are places like CXL, Masterclass, DigitalMarketer, AgencySavvy & many others

rebuild - what systems or automations do you wish you had in your business? now's the time to pay back some 'operational debt' & get to those things on the to-do list that never seem to be urgent enough.

Our grandparents were called to war. They lied about their age & their health in order to FIGHT!

We don't have to run towards machine guns. We just need to stay on the sofa & watch TV (or learn, or play games with the kids)

We are at war.

But we can do this.

Above all...

stay flexible

stay healthy

stay inside for a bit & don't touch people (just for a bit longer)

and WASH YOUR HANDS!

see you soon.