Why Does It Take a Crisis to Spur Action?
We’re finally addressing some issues we should have addressed a long time ago
By Ami Kassar
I am always struck by a Covid memory of two restaurants that stood side by side in the same strip mall. The one restaurant shut down and never returned. The other quickly pivoted, and before long, masked customers lined up around the block to pick up takeout meals.
What was the difference between these two restaurants? I have never interviewed the owners, but it’s most likely their grit, determination, and courage. How we respond and pivot in a crisis is a sign of who we are and how we lead. And almost every business will face a crisis or two in its journey.
Mine arrived several years ago when 90 percent of my business was coming from one lead source. Due to circumstances that are a better story for a beer one night than for a post, I suddenly had a dispute with the corporate entity that was providing the leads, and it terminated our relationship.
The night this crisis started, one part of me wanted to vomit, and another part knew that something good and better was going to come out of the change. Within days, I was realigning my business, diversifying, and pivoting in ways I should have done years before.
I needed to solidify as many personal relationships as I could within my old network and quickly make connections and find new sources of leads. It was like I was back to building a start-up, and in some ways, it felt invigorating. Fortunately, in our business, where we work from a pipeline, there was not an immediate cash flow crisis, and we were able to keep the machine moving and cash flowing while we made the change.
My crisis left my company stronger and more stable, with far more diversified lead sources and channels. The night that everything went down sucked, and I didn’t sleep, but if it had never happened, we would not be where we are today.
Although driven by different forces, we face a new push for diversification today. As I wrote in my column two weeks ago, we see red flags in the economy that are making it more challenging to place loans, and we have made some adjustments in budget and personnel to weather the storm.
But more than playing defense is needed. If we just played defense, we would risk meeting the fate of the restaurants that shut down during Covid, and that is not an acceptable outcome to me. We have to play offense, and we are quickly developing new service offerings to help entrepreneurs struggling to keep up with their loan payments – so they, too, can weather the storm. I will share more about these offerings in the coming weeks and months.
If your business is facing a crisis, the worst thing you can do is ignore it and hope it will pass. Instead, pivot, adjust, and quickly reignite your deep entrepreneurial spirit.
Maybe there is a lesson that I need to consider. Why does it take a crisis to spur us into action? Do we get too comfortable in our skin? How can we organize ourselves to operate with the same vigor a crisis produces in the regular course of business? Food for thought.
Ami Kassar is CEO of MultiFunding.
