Re-Opening Your Business – Best Practices Series

This article is the first in a series of articles on Re-opening your business. They will be written by Jim Gitney, CEO of Group50 Consulting, manufacturing, distribution and supply chain experts, and Cindy Flynn, Partner at Hackler Flynn,  a labor law firm . In this series, we will talk about best practices and tips and techniques that we are learning from our clients who have opened their businesses.  A lot of great work is being done and you, as a business owner, should not be faced with re-opening your business in a vacuum.  Re-opening businesses is happening infits and starts with a lot of conflicting inputs on how, what and when to do it. San Bernardino and Riverside counties in California have different guidelines for employers to follow-when re-opening a business.  The governor of California has decreed that employees who get sick from COVID-19 after they return to work can file a Workman’s comp claim for the next several months and, according to insurance carriers, the onus will be on the employer to prove that the employee didn’t become sick at work. Companies need to prioritize safety for your employees. Similar issues exist in every part of the country and across the globe.

The next 90 days are going to be critical to your business – they will define the future of your business. After every recession, those business leaders who have been innovative and transformative have outperformed their competitors by 15-20%. Significant emotional and financial events create an accelerated change management environment where people are more than willing to do things differently.

Every business owner needs to have a 90 day tactical plan that covers how they are going to open and protect the safety of their employees, their families, and their customers. Tactics will vary from industry to industry and your plan will have several components:

1. Establishing a COVID-19 response plan that includes policies and procedures for screening, social distancing, sanitation, compliance with federal, state and local guidelines, and other items
2. Work hours and decisions about who must be present and who can work at home
3. If you received PPP dollars, getting some of your employees to work “On the business”
4. Identifying products and services are you going to focus on while ramping up – simplify your supply chain
5. Addressing the resiliency of your supply chain
6. Identification of new products and services that will enhance your business model
7. Taking market share from weaker competitor
8. Marketing in the New Normal

Once your tactical plan is completed, business owners need to make significant changes to their 2020 strategic plans given the “New Normal”. Decisions will need to be made on products and services that are based on forecasted market demand, customer needs, supplier capabilities and competitive actions.

Doing these two things will require significant planning and we highly recommend that you establish teams of employees to put together your tactical plans, design your safety protocols and enforce them. Involving your employees will pay huge dividends down the road, because they will be able to get a glimpse of the future and will be much more supportive of changes in the business.

To help with your planning, we have prepared three resources for you:

1. Managing Your Way Through 2020
2. Re-opening Your Business – Playbook
3. Creating a 90 day tactical plan

The entire set of articles will consist of bests practices we have gleaned from our clients and other professionals we work with.  These articles will cover every functional area in a business. The entire series can be seen here. To have all of the articles delivered to your inbox, you can subscribe to this blog series on the link below:

Best of luck in re-opening your business and don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” – ask for help. If you want to discuss our thinking on best practices, now and through 2020, feel free to call Group50 at (909) 949-9083, drop us a line at info@group50.com or request more information here.

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