We have been experiencing some real disruption to the business environment for some time now, whether you are a business doing business overseas or a local business experiencing a reduction of business due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus in 2020.
Your banker is well aware of the current circumstances and how local and international business is being affected. Now would be a good time to proactively communicate with your banker and discuss how this pandemic is affecting your business and what is your plan moving forward to mitigate the disruption to your business and come out on the other side of this as healthy as possible.
Hopefully you have an already established healthy relationship with your banker so that contacting them won’t be unusual. In my research on bankers and what their best customers do well, proactive communication was very high on their list. (see: Make Your Banker Happy, available on Amazon) If you have not communicated with your banker in a while, now would be a good time to do so.
Many business owners tend to hunker down when business is struggling, afraid to deliver the bad news, but this is the exact opposite of what you need to be doing. It is good to remember that bankers take bad news well and take no news poorly. Take the time to have an honest conversation with your banker on what is going well and what is not going well and come with a plan of action on how you will mitigate the impact of what is not going well. Doing so will set you apart from other businesses that are hoping that this will just go away soon, and business will return to normal.
Remember, your banker wants you to be successful, and they have a depth of experience, in good times and bad, and can most likely offer some guidance and assistance to help you navigate the storm. Be proactive and communicate with your banker. Don’t wait for him or her to call you.
If you want to learn more on this topic, you can find the book: Crisis Management for Small and Medium Enterprises, a collection of advice from a group of six business advisors and consultants across three continents and four countries who specialize in working with small and medium enterprises, available on Amazon.
Or reach out to me Gary Fur, call me 503-312-3145 or email me at garyfurr@garyfurrconsulting.com
You can also visit my website at http://www.garyfurr@garyfurrconsulting.com
Listen to my podcast Turning Complexity into Simplicity®
503-312-3145
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