Handling Unexpected Events in Small Business: Strategies and Lessons

Are you a small business owner looking to handle the unexpected like a pro?

Tune in to our latest podcast episode, where I share invaluable tips and advice on developing a contingency plan, communicating effectively with customers and employees, and turning unexpected events into growth opportunities for your business. Don't miss out on this must-listen episode!

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Collab with Kiva.

See you next time!

If you found this episode interesting, listen to the episode with Julee Yokoyama about the importance of contingency and succession planning for small business owners: https://www.the516collaborative.com/podcast/56

Are you ready to take massive action in your business and harness the power of data in your decision-making? Let’s chat 👇🏽

Podcast Transcript:

Kiva Slade 0:01

Welcome to Collab with Kiva, where we let our inner nerd geek out on all the non sexy parts of your business. I'm talking data and operations, neither as flashy or glamorous, but both are foundational to your business growth. I'm your host, Kiva Slade, your strategy and analytics guide here to break down what feels complicated, so it is understandable and executional. Let's dive in. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Collab with Kiva. Today, we are going to dive in how to handle the unexpected in your small business. And if you're a longtime listener, you know that recently, we did talk about contingency plans as it relates to if something were to happen to you. So if something happens to you, what happens to your business. Today's gonna be a little bit of a twist, we're just going to talk about some of the unexpected things that can happen in your small business and the impact that they can have. So I want to welcome you to this episode. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about this episode. And if you have some tips to share on how to handle the unexpected, please definitely reach out and share those. So, today we're going to talk about four steps. Number one, expect the unexpected. Number two, develop a contingency plan. Number three, communicate with customers and employees. And number four, learn from the experience.

Kiva Slade 1:45

So let's dive in with number one. Expect the unexpected, you know, there's a saying like if there's something that can go wrong, it absolutely will. What's that Murphy's Law I believe, it's important to mentally prepare yourself for the unexpected things that can happen in your business. For example, a client that you have, who might be your kind of bread and butter client, they may have some issues, they may have some financial troubles of their own, maybe things aren't going so well in their business. And as a service based provider, they might give you notice that they're out, they cannot continue to afford your services. You may have a flaky client, who doesn't even give you notice, and just doesn't pay you. And let's be honest, even though we all have contracts, most of us aren't going to small claims court for some of the amounts in which people owe us. But you still find yourself without that revenue. You might lose a team member or two, all within a short period of time and unexpectedly. However, you have to expect these unexpected things to happen. For example, a team that I'm on, we were in talks with one of the team members to expand her role increase her hours, she was like yes, everything was moving forward. We literally received an email, like at two in the morning, in which she said today is my last day and here is the status of where I am on certain projects. That was it. She was gone. Like no two weeks notice. Nothing. She was out deuces she was gone. Did we expect that? No! Why? We had conversations. There was indications she was moving forward with this expanded role. However, looking back, expect the unexpected. These kinds of things, especially in a small business, where it might be you and a team member, you and a few team members, that one person leaving disappearing, heading out the door, proverbial virtual door, can cause havoc in your business. Okay, and that is something you don't want. It's a mental stressor.

Kiva Slade 4:24

In many cases, if it's the loss of a client, it's also a financial stressor. These are things that do not help us serve, show up as our best selves and do the things that we want to do. So let's go in and change our own mindsets around expecting the unexpected. So and that leads into step two, develop a contingency plan. You need to have a plan in place. If you fail to plan you plan to fail. So moving forward, contingency plans around what happens if a team member A or team member B, team member C, anyone on the team leaves, what plan do we need to have in place. If client A or client B has to completely leave and gives us a 30 day notice, what are we going to do. How do we not only close out the projects that they have in the work that we still need to do for them? How do we replace that revenue? How does that loss of revenue impact the team? How does that loss of revenue impact any other services that we are offering? How dependent on those funds were we? In this a lot of times factors into why I'm always saying know your numbers? Know your numbers. If client a who provides 50% of your revenue decides tomorrow? I'm going to give you 30 days, and then I'm leaving. What do you do? How is that 50% going to impact your business? What are your financial reserves? Do you have financial reserves? Do you have plans in place as it relates to how to cover paying for your team how to cover your tools that you're still using, if that were to take place? But also knowing your numbers would help you understand what's in your pipeline. I see a lot of times that service providers we get comfortable can because we're busy serving our clients that we actually are not spending adequate time on sales. We're not spending adequate time on marketing. When client A decides to leave, you can't just go turn on your marketing sales faucet at that point and say, Okay universe, send me a client, you need to have been nurturing, need to have been marketing, need to have been putting yourself out there. And that needs to be a part of your contingency plan that needs to be a part of your overall business plan.

Kiva Slade 5:09

But there also are other elements, emergency contacts. Do you have those for your team members? What happens if a team member goes AWOL? You're not able to reach them? Do you have another contact person just for your own peace of mind? Everything is okay with them? Who are the emergency contacts in your business. And you you have laid out what your passwords are how to access your LastPass or one password or whatever you're using, so someone can come in. And again, as we discussed in the previous episode, really make things continue to work for you in your business. Who else is on your bank accounts for your business? Who has access to that? Who understands what your business is? Do you have these kinds of things written out? Detailed out whether in your project management plan and a document, a spreadsheet, whatever you'd like to have it. Notes in your your iPhone app, but a way for others to be able to step in and support, if something were to actually happen to you, not just through the loss of a client or the loss of team members. But really understanding what that looks like. If for example, you have a service that you're you're providing to your team. What if that service provider up and just disappears? Startup sometimes start down. They go away. What do you do? Do you have a list of backup suppliers, backup people who can step in and help in those instances. So it's really important that you develop a contingency plan, things that need to be included in it. Things that can help others keep things moving, not only if something happens to you, but also for you to keep things moving if something happens with your team, and your largest revenue client. And that leads to step three, which is communicating with customers, clients as well as your employees, your team members, whether they are contractors or employees, communicate, communicate, communicate, like this is a time for over communication, letting them know of unexpected events. Maybe there are going to be some deadlines in your service delivery timelines.

Kiva Slade 9:59

Let's be realistic. COVID taught us something. Stuff can go wacky real quick. And when it does, how do we keep everything moving forward and moving forward with excellence. And it comes from communication, obviously, after you've had a plan. So you want to actually have great communication, it helps them minimize the impact of this unexpected event or events on your business. If a team member leaves and just vanishes, communicate that with your other team members, make sure that they know. See who has capacity maybe to step up to the plate, fill in some of those gaps and holes, even if it's just temporarily. This is something that you need to consider. Another part of that contingency plan and this communication is, and that whole thing about knowing your numbers, knowing what is capacity for your team. Should you have already hired someone because your team might have been at capacity, because we should typically hire before we actually need the person. So we have those people, are ready to fill in those gaps, if something were to happen, but understanding what is capacity for your team. Maybe someone left because they were mentally exhausted and burned out because you had them being a unicorn and rock star and all these other things that just was not humanly possible. So understanding that in communicating with your team, not only when an event happens. Prayerfully you've been communicating with them all along. So there can be some conversation around burnout capacity, whether or not they're at their limit, what are some changes that they would like to see, so you can hold on to that team. And possibly not experience that. But again, we are going to always refer back to step one, which is expect the unexpected, but also communicating with your clients. You don't necessarily have to tell them, Hey, Sally left Susan loved and we're just in shambles back here. They don't have to know that. They just might need to know, hey, we're adjusting some of our delivery timelines right now, we are going to get this to you by certain such date and this to you by such and such date. We understand this inconvenience. We thank you for your patience during this process. And you can always get Chat GPT to dial that up some more for you. But you want to definitely communicate, share what's going on.

Kiva Slade 12:44

I always love that episode, I think it was something Julia Child said she had to prepare this whole fish and the pan she had would not hold the whole fish. So she had to chop off the head and chop off the tail. But when it came to serving it, she put the head and tail right back there together on that fish. So you don't need to know that your clients don't need to know all the kitchen mishaps that took place in the back end of the business. But communicating with them of some of those deadlines that might change delivery timelines, that might be adjusted, goes a long way. And lastly, learn from the experience. Let's be honest, life gives us lessons for a reason. Not necessarily to always make lemonade, because sometimes we just need to sit with our limits. And it's important to learn from these unexpected events, client A leaves and they are 50% of your revenue. What can you learn from that? What are some takeaways? Do you need to be more diversified with the type of clients that you take on and how much of your revenue they actually are responsible for? That can be one of your takeaways. A team member leaves unexpectedly does not have capacity or provide an exit interview. So you don't know why or you don't know what you could have done differently. Ask your current team. Are there anything that you know? Is there anything that we need to know? Is there anything that we can do differently? Is there anything that would, you know, that is causing you stress right now or are causing you uncomfortability that's causing some unease, so that you can be proactive in addressing those things. Also, think about, again, your contingency plan and learning from this experience. What do you need to have in place? It's similar to our own lives, okay. They tell us to have a will, have a health care directive, and you know, have a power of attorney. These are similar things that you need for your business, your contingency plan. Many cases it's like your health directive. If this happens, then when he did do this, if this happens, then this needs to happen. Power of Attorney. Who else is on those accounts, who else can access things related to your business, even if it's just to close everything down? Who has that access? Have you properly briefed them on what they need to do? Okay, and no matter what, when life gives you lemons, when life gives you these lessons, taking that time to evaluate yourself, the situation to find those takeaways to find those lessons that you can use to improve for the future. Priceless.

Kiva Slade 12:44

So again, remember, things are going to happen, we are in the midst of a recession, or as they're calling it, a rolling recession. So it's going to impact certain parts or certain industries at certain times and this, that, and the other, there's a lot of uncertainty. There's a lot that takes place. And as a service based entrepreneur, business owner, your business is about serving others and normally providing a service to them in some way, shape, fashion or form. That might be something that they desperately need, and are never ever going to want to not have you. It may be something that's a nice to have. And their financial constraints make it that they don't have the money to have it. So they have to let it go. So again, step one, expect the unexpected. Always be prepared. And I joke about this sometimes with online colleagues, because we're both Gen Xers and y'all can say what you want, you can leave us off of graphs, but Gen X is a very different generation. We are definitely different. We are so not the baby boomers, we are so not Gen Y. Okay, but in that we approach things, I feel, with a healthy dose, we're excited, but we so quickly will temper that with a healthy dose of skepticism and a healthy dose of realism. So for some of you, you may need to find or seek out a Gen Xer to get that for yourself, so that you can expect the unexpected. We go in like, "bring on the unexpected" because we just don't seem to take things as they are. That's my perspective on that, Step two, develop a contingency plan, you want to have a plan in place. I don't care if you are a business of one or you are a business of 5000. Have a plan in place. Number three, communicate, communicate, communicate with your clients with your team. Talk, talk, talk. Do not try to just sit there and like I'm just gonna manage all of this myself and everything's gonna be fine. It's not going to be fine. It's not. Deal with it, accept where you are, communicate what you can, and keep it moving. And number four, learn from the experience. Lessons are out there. They're there for us to learn when we don't. It's just like the other thing if you don't know history, it will repeat itself. So if you didn't learn the first time, you may experience this a second time, because you didn't get the lesson you gotta repeat. Learn from the experience, get the lesson, take the takeaways and make things better as you move forward. Again, if you have some insights as to how you have dealt with and handled unexpected things that have happened in your business, tell me. We want to know all the tips, all the things that we can all do to better ourselves, so that we can handle the unexpected. Thanks for listening and tune in next time. Bye. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Collab with Kiva. I'm wildly cheering you on as you go forth and execute data and operational efficiencies in your business. If you need additional support, connect with me via my website, the516collaborative.com. Your reviews on Apple are appreciated. See you next week.

Meet Kiva Slade - the Founder and CEO of The 516 Collaborative. With a unique background in high-power politics on Capitol Hill and sixteen years as a homeschooling mama, Kiva found her calling in the online business world as a trusted guide for entrepreneurs looking to build the business of their dreams.

Kiva's work began behind the scenes, orchestrating the back end of businesses and managing teams. But her inner data diva couldn't help but notice that small businesses needed help harnessing the power of data for growth. So she and her team set out to uncover and tidy up the data required to enable clients to grow their businesses confidently and easily.