Business Recovery Strategies After Hurricane Helene

0:02Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. We go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it. Hey there, welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs, brought to you by Action Coach Growth Partners. I'm your host, Bill Gilliland, and in this podcast, you'll find three things.

0:46You're going to hear real stories from real entrepreneurs that will help you along your entrepreneurial journey. You're also going to get business tips to help you scale up faster, and you're going to get actual coaching to help you get better real world results to be the best entrepreneur you can be. Hey, and if you like the podcast, remember to subscribe. And now, enjoy the show. Hey there, I hope you're having a good week. We held a live what to do now or what's next for your business workshop yesterday, which was Friday. And it turns out that we had a VIP in town. a lot of the roads were blocked.

1:28A lot of people couldn't get to it. Anyway, I realized we needed to get something online, get something in video for those of you who couldn't make it anyway. So this is what to do now. What's next for your business? It's your response to any crisis disaster. Obviously, right now, we're talking about our response here to Hurricane Helene, but this applies to, it could be an economic disaster, any kind of disaster or crisis. These are some general rules that tend to work. Now, I'm going to talk specifically about the hurricane, but just know that you can apply these to wherever, whatever is on.

2:06So I hope you find this useful. The people who came and got together, there was a massive advantage to being in a room, to sharing, to downloading some of the feelings, some of the things going on around it. But let's talk about what to do now in your business as a result so that you can continue to start what you've already started, to grow your business, to make it into what you always hoped it would be. So I wrote a book a few years ago, and so my tagline has become BEPIC. And BEPIC is an acronym. And I think it's super important to understand the full acronym in light of a disaster. So the first one, the first part is B, and B stands for bring the energy.

2:55In anything in life or in business, it's really about energy management. How can you manage the energy? And when there's a crisis, there's extra adrenaline, and so the energy management becomes even more critical. So I want you to pay attention to the energy that you're putting into whatever it is you're doing. And we'll talk a lot about energy today. The E stands for education. Yes, we're going to do a little bit of education. We'll pull some things out. We'll give you a framework so that you can begin to take that knowledge and apply it to continuing to build your business during this, in our response to Hurricane Helene.

3:39P, planning. Obviously, let's plan what you want to get done, at least our goals for the next few months. And so that's part of what we're going to do. I is inspiration. Obviously, you have to find inspiration to keep your energy level up. I'm going to say be the inspiration. Brad, one of my, Brad Sugar's one of my mentors, when I interviewed him said, don't try to find inspiration, be an inspiration. And I think that's what we need to do. We need to be an inspiration to others as business people in this community. And C is, you need to commit. You need to commit to the course of action. You need to commit to achieving your plan.

4:17So let's go out and be epic over the next few months. A couple of concepts that I think are super critical. Blame, excuse, deny. If you choose to live, I mean, some people are still in denial. If you choose to live in denial, then you're going to be, you know, you've got to come out of denial. You've got to, you know, it's easy to jump to excuses. Well, I couldn't get it done except, you know, for the hurricane. So that we call that below the point. That's below the point behavior. And above the point, we have ownership, accountability, responsibility. So it's super critical. See, responsibility, you know, Jack Canfield says there's an event plus your response equals your outcome.

5:00So response is able to respond is responsibility. That's what we're doing now. We're responding. We want to turn that around, take ownership and move forward. So we want to move out of denial. We want to quit making excuses. We want to stop blaming. We want to get responsible. We want to respond positively. We want to take account for our own actions and we want to take ownership of the situation. If we do that, we're not going to be a victim. We're going to be a victor. Below the point, we get reasons. Above the point, we are victor. We are victorious. So we're going to have results. So it's super critical that we keep it above the point, the point we call it, the point of power, that during this recovery.

5:40I say the only failure is the failure to participate. You give 100%, you get 100%. So I'm going to ask you to play full out while you're watching this thing, but I'm also going to ask you to play full out in your business, to give 100 % so you'll get 100 % back. And it's even more critical now that we participate at a very high level. So let's talk about the steps you need to take now. Number one, probably the biggest thing is communicate. And who should you communicate with? Well, you should communicate with your team. You should communicate with your customers. You should communicate with your networks.

6:15You should communicate with suppliers and stakeholders. You should communicate with your community. You can't over-communicate. You must communicate with everybody. And you must communicate in styles. And we have a saying in Action Coach that communication is the response you get. So if you're not getting the response you want, then guess what? You're not communicating. You may be missing their style. They may prefer to get communication by text or by email or by calling them up or by just in person. However they get to get it, they may have a different learning style than you. They may want to learn by visual.

6:53Sometimes you have to communicate visually, auditorily. You have to communicate by allowing them to do something. Whatever it is, you've got to communicate and communicate and communicate and communicate. You need to do that Now, in any crisis, communication is key. And that was even more clear in this one when we didn't have internet for a long week. In fact, we just got internet about three days ago. So it's even more clear that you've got to find ways to communicate. You know, the radio went back to being a great communication because it actually worked for everyone. Okay. So however you need to communicate, you need to communicate with your team and your customers particularly.

7:32Now that the technology is coming on, you've got to be able to do that as well. Number two, you need to stay positive. You need to be positive through this. You need to be a leader. Panicking doesn't help. Worrying doesn't help. That's just wishing for something you don't want to happen. We've got to step back, calm down, stay positive. Look for the small wins. Look for the fact that maybe you got a bottle of water. Look for the fact that maybe you were able to help one person do something. Maybe you were just a listener. One of the things I feel like is one of my deals is I just listen. In fact, I'll listen to anybody.

8:08If you need to chat about anything, you just give us a call. You know, think about how you can work around to sell something, okay, to continue to grow your business. Sometimes it's better to not, you know, not give the full news, but you got to be positive, okay? And here's a big one. You got to be a leader. You need to step up and be the leader that you are. And, you know, it's interesting in a crisis, that's where leaders are made a lot of times. You find out who the actual leaders are, the ones that run towards things. OK, second big note, you've got to take care of yourself. You can't and, you know, we're four weeks in here.

8:45And if you're not, if you haven't gone somewhere else for a few days and got away from it, it's interesting. You can be, you know, there are people it's not that they don't care 50 or 100 miles away. They've got lives to live to. too. And we're in a, you know, you're in a war, we're essentially a war zone. And we've got, you've got to get out. You've got to get out. You've got to take care of yourself. You got to get sleep. You got to drink. You can't just go, go, go. I know you feel like you do, but you're not going to be of any use to somebody if you burn out. You can't do it. You've got to care for yourself, care for others.

9:19I know y 'all love this, but you got to change. This disasters is kind of, in a way, it's kind of cool because what it said is it makes you change. Like if there was something you think maybe you had to move quickly to do something. So you got to be ahead of it. You got to be proactive with change. You got to lead the change. You've got to see what's going on. There's a, you know, what's got, what's got to change in your business now. Okay. We've got a formula. It's called D times V plus F equals R. There will be no change without this dissatisfaction and vision. You can't have change with just dissatisfaction.

9:55You can be super dissatisfied with something, but if you have no vision, you won't change. If you have a big vision, but you're not dissatisfied enough, you won't have change. You won't have enough energy to overcome whatever's holding you back. The truth is the disaster has lowered the resistance for a lot of us. Let's just change now. Let's get on it. We've got to do something now. So it's a good time to be changing because the resistance is lower. Just remember to apply the formula. D times V, dissatisfaction time vision plus first steps. If you'd like some more information or more help on that, just reach out to me.

10:26We'll be glad to have a chat with you. Take a hard look at your products, your services, your pricing, your delivery, your staffing. What needs to change? It's a good time to change it now because there's a lot of flux and you might as well be part of it. I mean, in general, your team doesn't like change, but they've been thrust into change. And potentially you need to, I've got a client now who's, I've got two clients who are actually going into other businesses as a result of the, they're keeping the core business. Don't misunderstand me, but they see an opportunity. They're changing their whole business model in that particular area of their business so they can continue to move forward.

11:01So maybe you need to change what you've got going on with your whole business. You know, recreate something, break something, you know, whatever it takes. This is, change is inevitable. The only constant is change. We need to continue to change it, but we need to be proactive. We need to lead. Remember, I said be a leader and partnership, particularly with places that are non-impacted. But you can partnership with people that are here, partnerships and strategic partners and alliances. And that's a great time to start getting these things because everybody is wanting to help and everybody needs help.

11:35So let's partner. Let's make it. Let's go big with this partnership thing. We're all better together than we are apart. And that proves it every time. I say be smart. Cut back and invest. Maybe you don't need to cut back. Just know that cash is king. You need to have a cash cow. You need to have a cash of cash. You need to have cash. You need to retain cash right now. If there's anything that's wasteful or you don't need right now, you can stop it. Look for massive efficiencies. Get help with it. I was talking to some bankers yesterday. There's probably some massive efficiencies you can do in your financial side of your business.

12:12massive in your operations side. Look for those efficiencies. Where can you be more efficient? Go to your suppliers and renegotiate now. Get deals. They still want to keep selling. If you're not buying anything, they're hurt too. So we need to renegotiate now to get better deals. Go ahead and get some deals with your suppliers. If you have a need for equipment, it's a good time to buy it. Same thing, renegotiate and negotiate hard for the equipment you need now. Okay? Keep marketing, keep selling, always. Never stop marketing. Just because we're in a reactive mode, we want to flip that and become proactive.

12:52Keep marketing and selling. That's the only way to get through this thing. Step five, extend credit. Okay? Get it now while they're still lending. Do the FEMA, the SBA, whatever need. The EIDL loans right now are still good. They're 4%. If you're in an impacted county like we are, then you can get an EIDL loan. It's not a hard process. It's good money, 4%. If you don't need it, you can just pay it back. But it's good to have, remember I said, get cash. This is a way to get cash. You can use credit lines. You can use credit cards. You might want to use personal stuff. Refinance some stuff. We're doing a lot of refinancing with some of my clients now.

13:32getting deals, you know, or, you know, negotiating with your, you know, maybe you need to negotiate with your homeowner, you know, with your mortgage. You can put that off or your business mortgage. You can refinance or get some kind of delay, like you can delay payments for three months until we get out of this thing. Take advantage of the low interest loans. Find them now. Step six, get or extend admin help. This is true all the time. Figure out the technology, figure out your hiring process, figure out customer service, banking, mail. These are all things that they can do for you. Communication.

14:09This may take a while. It may be weeks or months on this. You have strengths. You have gifts. You have an area of genius. If you can get admin help to help you with doing all this stuff you're no good at, and you can be more value to your company and to your community, then it'd be a great time to get it now. Get admin help. Always market and sell. Have to keep marketing. You have to still look for those ideal customers. Even the businesses that are starting a division to do something else, we've got to keep focused on marketing and get our ideal customers. Increase your marketing. Don't decrease it.

14:48Keep working hard. Negotiate rates with your marketing partners. Create new offers. Create new deals. Create new rates. Measure your five ways. If you don't know what the five ways are, then you want to hit us up. But basically leads times conversion rate gives you your number of clients or customers or patients. Your customers times your average ticket times your repeat business will give you your sales. And your sales times your margins will give you your profit. So we got to be all over the five ways and improving those five ways. Get cash up front when you're selling. Get a deposit. Get, you know, make sure you can get the money.

15:27Remember, cash is king. Step eight, remember your current clients. Remember they're your best customers. Remember to take care of them. Remember to communicate. Make deals just for your best customers. Buy bulk cash, get the cash up front. Keep your customers, whatever it takes, do whatever you take to keep your customers. Keep communicating. Remember, you cannot over communicate. You must communicate. I've got the 20-80 rule. I call it the 20-80 rule, which is 20 % of your customers bring 80 % of your business. man, you got to take care of those top 20%. Step nine, be smart. Stop the insanity.

16:02You can't do it all. A lot of people are trying to do everything. They're trying to do it all. They're running around. They're doing this. They're doing that. They're burning out. Burnout doesn't help anyone. It doesn't help you and it doesn't help the people you're trying to help. The self-care thing is important. You need to get away. My advice right now for anybody who's not done it is to go away for three or four days. Go somewhere else. Find a place. The world is normal. 50 miles from here. Go and go stop the insanity. Get refreshed. Get rejuvenated. Come back where you can be useful. Get help.

16:34Get outside perspective on what you want to delegate. Whatever it is, get help. Don't look at this by yourself because the tired you get, the more burned out you get, the worse decisions you're going to make. Use technology when you can. Now that the technology is coming back online, use it. I think it's a great time to hire people. And people say, well, I'm trying to retain my other. I'm not saying be stupid. If you don't need people and you can't afford it, don't hire anybody. But if there's somebody you've been thinking about hiring, there's a lot of people that are reevaluating their lives right now and saying, maybe I need to do something more useful.

17:05Maybe I need to do something better. Maybe I want to make a change in my life. Go out and hire somebody. If you're going to do it anyway, it's a great time to be hiring. Run your hiring process and get them. Look for partnerships. We talked about partnerships. Find deals. Find people you can collaborate that you can do more business with. Figure out people that have the same customers as you, but don't do the same things as you. For example, with us, business coaching, we have a financial planner or an accountant or somebody like that who has the same customers we do, would be a great strategic partner that we could work with together to help grow clients.

17:42Force yourself to take time for strategic thinking. If it's not on your calendar, you need to put it on there to be the owner, to be the leader, to you've got to have time in your calendar where you're looking for, where you're working on strategy or working and also time where you're working on yourself. So force that time. That way, and we said this before, but you got to get, you got to delegate so you can increase your capacity to increase business because whatever it is you're a genius at, you need more of that. You need to do more and more and more of that. For me, it's things like this, workshops, talking to people, listening.

18:22That's what I'm doing more and more of. Whatever it is for you, you need to do more and more of it. So we get out, we help as many people as you can. Our mission is to change lives. And right now we're looking at, you know, what does that mean in light of the hurricane? And I believe it means asking the question, how can we help you to change? How can we change your life based on where you are now and where you want to be. So that's what we're about. That's what we're doing. And look, ask for help. I'm going to wrap it up. That was a quick summary. I know it was quick. You guys want the quick version, but ask for help.

18:58We will meet, Jason and I, Beth, we will meet with anybody about anything, anytime. It doesn't even have to be business. If you need to talk to somebody, reach out to us. All our information is with this video. You can find us easily online. You can find us easily, our phone numbers. You can call me directly. Just get help. Get some help. Talk to some people. And let's work our way through this together because we're all in this together. We just are. So get into action. Keep moving. And if you'd like to chat about your specific situation or your business or your life or whatever, just make sure you reach out to us.

19:43We're here. We're here to help. We're good at it. And we want to be of service to this community. So I look forward to talking to you soon. And until next time, all the best. Hey, thanks for listening to the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast. Here's three things that you can do. Number one, remember to subscribe to the podcast. It takes very little effort on your part. It's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs. Plus, you guys know how it works. The more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach.

20:19It's free for you at giftfrombill.com. That's giftfrombill.com. Hey, and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business, send me an email directly. Just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com. That's my personal email that I read. No one else reads it first. It's not screened. It's my real email. Just send it to me. I can't wait to talk to you. Hey, and until then, all the best.

20:58hey thanks for listening to the epic entrepreneurs podcast here's three things that you can do number one remember to subscribe to the podcast it takes very little effort on your part it's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs plus you you guys know how it works the more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach. It's free for you at giftfrombill.com. That's giftfrombill.com. Hey, and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business, send me an email directly.

21:46Just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com. That's my personal email that I read. No one else reads it first. It's not screened. It's my real email. Just send it to me. I can't wait to talk to you. Hey, and until then, all the best.