For a summary of survey results, to here.
Q. Was your business or company affected by the coronavirus shutdown?
Nearly 80% said YES!
Q. In what ways has the coronavirus crisis shifted your business priorities?
- We have and continue to explore new opportunities
- We’re in wait and see survival mode
- We’ve become much more short-term focused
- As a parish, I had to furlough most of our staff. Collections are down by 60%. Our priority isn’t pastoral ministry since there isn’t much of that now, it’s just surviving until we can open again.
- Focus on prevention and treatment of the infection
- Eliminated travel and personal visits with family business clients, Independent Contract Associates lost a source of revenue
- I work for a social services agency, so we are basically activated for disaster.
- We shifted to intensify our marketing to make our spiritual resources widely understood and adopted.”
- I’m in an essential business that was overwhelmed in the first few weeks, but hit slowdown after closing of restaurants impacted our business. We’re focusing on cash flow, sales, keeping employees working, and keeping paychecks as whole as possible.
- No travel. Have had focus on more interactive communications. Many customers postponed projects and capex
- I am a caregiver to my adult disabled daughter.
- Have to be more aggressive in lead generation in new market segments. Leads from typical lead sources have almost disappeared.
- Triage current affairs and use WFH (work from home) experience to make our business better
- New methods of outreach (digital/virtual)
- We had to go fully remote to service our clients. We offer financial incentives to encourage movement. We have investing in marketing and posted consistently to LinkedIn and others as well as arranged public webinars for several employment help groups across the country.
Q. In what ways did your ad/marketing budget allocation change during the shutdown crisis?
- None , N/A, No change
- Not the time to advertise.
- I record a weekly Mass and remind people to give as they can. We’re not doing much more since people may not have much money either
- Much more focused on niche market. Reduced budget significantly
- We lost revenue from scheduled events, so we had to shift quickly to make up those funds, but also to ramp up operational budget to handle the increase in demand for services.
- We are now looking at granting opportunities to promote marketing–and more on-line video/blog presentations to make our materials accessible.
- Added three new sales people to staff of three to bring opportunities to our company after the economy opens back up
- No trade shows or postponed shows. Working on other ideas options to try to help generate sales
- First of three trade shows already went virtual. We are transitioning to more emails. Also more aggressively evaluating new product development opportunities.
- We maintained our budget but increased local posting of articles across our 12 locations in 5 states.
Q. What has been a source of inspiration for you during the crisis?
- The Church
- Management blogs and newsletters. Reading the Bible and praying.
- (1) Past military training – developing resilience and ability to react to change and adversity. (2) Morning prayer (lauds) – I follow online with the Dominican community at St. Paul’s parish in Bloomington, IN (www.hoosiercatholic.org).
- Other priests’ Masses and online content
- Bishop Robert Barron
- Finding focus on being part of the solution
- 1. Surrendered it all to God. 2. Embraced the struggle. 3. It never fails that there will be the birth of something greater. 4. Established peer groups with of Enterprising Family Leaders.
- The Hope. The dedication of frontline and essential workers. Science. We are working hard and learning so much so fast.
- Trust In God to work miracles
- My children and grand children. Had grand daughter born right as this started. Holding a little one inspires nothing but hope. Also, A simple drive downtown or past strip malls. They are really suffering and we are way beyond blessed being busy and going to work everyday. Kept me focused on real priorities and made me Thank God even more than ever.
- Positive/ conservative talk radio. Daily emails from trusted sources
- My faith in the fact that the Lord provides. We have basically been in isolation since my daughter became ill in 2009. Our lifestyle changed dramatically. Social life dropped. Now people who are forced to be isolated may have a taste for those who are caregivers to family members. Although I would not want to wish this lifestyle on anyone.
- Articles in CBJ
- 1] “Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.” 2] This reflects one key of my MIT education. There is no such thing as no, can’t or failure. We just haven’t figured out the answer yet. 3] If it was easy, anyone could do it. 4] Whether you think you can, or you think you cannot, you are probably right.
- Family, new neighborhood connections, business contacts. Faith in Christ
- Human response to others needs
- The fact that the employment landscape is changing from a city-centric model to more suburban as employees negotiate permanent remote status. This is encouraging because many employees travel 20-30 hours per week commuting to companies that don’t really need them to do so. This will not only reduce costs, climate issues, and increases family time that has been stripped from our society.
Q. Anything else you’d like to share or questions for us?
- Hang in there!
- I enjoy the Catholic Business Journal.
- Working for a large refrigerated trucking company supplying food to many segments of the food supply chain. The sacrifice from everyday hard working drivers trying to provide for their families is to be admired and appreciated. Pray everyday for their physical and spiritual protection. Christ’s Peace be with you
- Main stream media has created more fear and made this worse than it had to be.
- Without my trust in the Lord, deepening my relationship, and watching EWTN and Dr. Charles Stanley I couldn’t survive.
- Ongoing influence of of Legatus
- Y’know, stuff happens. No one ever promised you a rose garden. Get up, dust yourself off and try again.
- love Your content, but need it presented differently. Not sure how, just feels stale
- what are the next steps with your organization if you have interest?
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