A local business coach estimates about thirty per cent of businesses in town will close their doors during this public health crisis and may not open them again.
“Can you think about Main Street with one third less business on it because they couldn’t get through COVID?” said Owner of Peaks and Valleys Strategic Business Development Trevor Bruintjes. “All those people who were employed in those business and their personal finances….. a lot of people live pay cheque-to-pay cheque and lots of companies run payroll-to-payroll. There will be financial deaths.”
However, he said there are opportunities that can be found right now.
“Within this is opportunity to spend time working on your business as opposed to working in it everyday,” he said. “Working on strategic planning, working on the systems within your business, working on your HR practices, now is a great time to do that. Before COVID you were too busy. To set yourself up for the best recovery after COVID is important but a lot of people aren’t thinking that way yet.”
Bruintjes added there will be as large of a financial repercussion as health repercussion.
Bruintjes is a member of The Professional Business Coaches of Association of Canada and the non-profit organization is offering a ‘No Charge Covid-19 Strategy Session’ for business owners.
The idea is to help business owners get a grip on the current situation, deal with pandemic planning, address business continuity needs and identify and purse new opportunities that will emerge.
He said that business owners need to think about five things.
“Your employees; yourself; your cash flow; what is plan A, B, C, D, E, F, G, K, because we don’t know what COVID is going to do. And then to get them to start thinking about opportunities of COVID and what is life after COVID.”
Bruintjes added there are numerous business coaches ready and willing to help and people should reach out for a sounding board.
“An owner doesn’t have a lot of people to talk to about what they should do or what they are thinking about. They generally aren’t talking to their employees about stuff because they want to be a strong leader but they could be crumbling inside,” he said.”
Peaks and Valleys Strategic Business Development can be found at pvsbd.ca and The Professional Business Coaches of Association of Canada can be found at pbcacanada.com
