Why Having a Contingency Plan is Crucial for Your Spirit Box:
During economic times of uncertainty have a plan
This has been a very uneasy few weeks with the growth of COVID19. Our country is slowly filling with more anxiety around the spread of this virus; anxiety for our health and for our economy. As business owners, for the health of our business, we must have a plan of action for how we keep our business afloat during a time like this. Specifically, for a Spirit Box business, many schools are extending breaks as well as moving to remote teaching for the rest of the semester. What can your team do during this time of uncertainty? A great start is to create a contingency plan.
The Great Game of Business® defines contingency planning in business as “the proactive process of planning for both the short-term and long-term security of a company. Contingency planning is sometimes known as the “Plan B,” and is most often used in risk management, business continuity, and strategy.” They define contingency as, “definition of contingency is a product or service that has already been researched, developed, and cost-justified, and can be activated on very short notice.”
How can our team plan remotely?
We know most of our Spirit Box Teams are not meeting at school for the remainder of the year. That doesn’t mean you have to stop working on your Spirit Box. Fortunately, there are many great (and free!) collaboration tools you can use from the comfort of your home:
Conference call feature on your phone
Creating a sustainable business
When creating a plan for a sustainable business one must think about financial planning, strategic planning, contingency planning, and succession planning. Financial planning is creating long-term profit planning and a greater return on assets. Strategic planning is planning for your business’s future around your vision. Contingency planning previously stated is the proactive process of planning for both the short-term and long-term security of a company. Succession planning is creating a process to replace key leaders on your team when they leave.
Benefits of a Good Business Contingency Plan
Makes the overall planning process easier
Provides better control over profit
Helps you more accurately plan purchases
Gives your company an edge over the competition
Allows for an accurate assessment of personnel needs
Improves internal confidence in the company
Has the potential to save people’s jobs and the entire organization
Strengthens company culture
Protects the supply chain
Improves long-term business insights
Now is the time to create a contingency plan for your Spirit Box
As schools are closing, it will be important for your team to formulate a plan to combat this loss of revenue and traffic to your box. As a team, it will be important to develop your plan to stock your box, what to put in it, and how you can adapt during this unexpected shift in our country.
How will you keep the Spirit Box sanitary?
How can you adjust to what your customers need? Consider stocking more sanitary items like hand sanitizer, tissues, wipes, etc.
Can you backfill missed revenue through other methods? (staying open for the summer, providing new services like advertising, etc.)
How can you prepare next year’s team to hit the ground running?
Can you stockpile some cash to weather the shutdown? (e.g., fire sale inventory, postpone expansion investment, etc.)
Monitor Finances with Vendors. If your cash flow is low, ask vendors to extend payment deadlines due to uncontrollable circumstances.
These are a few things to think about when creating plans for your Spirit Box during this time. Need more tips? Read more here on 10 Steps for Lessening Coronavirus Risks.
References in this Article
https://www.greatgame.com/the-fundamentals/contingency-planning