This is a very challenging time for contractors with a lot of confusion about managing the current situation and preparing for the comeback. The article “How to Survive a Recession and Thrive Afterward” by Walter Frick*, deputy editor of the Harvard Business Review, talks about the companies who survived and thrived after the Great Recession.
The experts who researched factors that enabled a comeback after surviving a recession mentioned these 3 main points:
- Maintain Cash Flow: Surviving a downturn requires deft financial management to ensure that you don’t run out of cash
- Conserve Resources: Rely less on layoffs to cut costs and lean more on operational improvements
- Invest in Technology: Downturns actually encourage the adoption of new technologies
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Among the companies that stagnated in the aftermath of the Great Recession, “few made contingency plans or thought through alternative scenarios,” according to the Bain report. “When the downturn hit, they switched to survival mode, making deep cuts and reacting defensively.” Many of the companies that merely limp through a recession are slower to recover and never really catch up. A cost-cutting focus had the lowest probability of pulling ahead of the competition when times get better. Companies that survived the recession best were playing the offensive: investing in product and market-share leadership.
Smart business owners, many of them LEAP customers, running interior and exterior home remodeling businesses are using this time to setup their businesses to keep running and prepare for the comeback. The more you can preserve, the less you have to rebuild. Some questions that are top of mind for business owners are:
- How do I maintain what little business I have? How do I try to keep some core staff?
- How do I get small? Where do I invest my time while small?
- How do I keep my costs down and when should I begin scaling back up?
About the Speaker:
Patrick Fingles is the CEO of the Leap and has been a leader in the home improvement industry for nearly two decades. He has led the development and execution of a $30M, nationally recognized award-winning home improvement company as well as a fast-growing multi-million dollar software company catering to the home services space. Responsible for the overall strategic and cultural vision of the organization, he embodies the concept of Leap being built for the industry by the industry.