CRISIS: Danger or Opportunity

 

Hey everybody, Mike here from M business and Tradie Directory Australia. I just wanted to do a live video to encourage people where we are at in this crisis that we’re actually in. 

 

I heard a great quote from John F. Kennedy and he said the “Chinese use two brush brushstrokes to write the word crisis. One brushstroke stands for danger and the other for opportunity in a crisis.”

 

 

IMAGE SOURCE: AZQUOTES

 

Be aware of the danger but recognize the opportunity. So you know, today what I was thinking is it’s a bit like most businesses that I know are at this moment in time when I’ve talked to everybody they are being reactive or they’re being proactive. And I think it’s, it’s all based around attitude. Where we’re seeing, especially with that quote, it’s quite acting on it. We’re in a crisis.  Are we going to focus on the danger or are we going to focus on the opportunity?

 

There’s a lot of people that are probably thinking of an opportunity? What opportunity? So let me talk to you a little bit about that. Olivia, a few days ago did a video on “Adjust. Don’t panic.” Just adjust and pretty much where I’m talking about the same circumstance, don’t panic, just adjust. So with a crisis, what opportunities can we see? Where are we going? 

 

And so, you know, if we are reactive right now, we are going to make decisions that are going to be detrimental for our long term success in business. So we really need to be smart. We really need to, as Olivia said the other day, inhale, exhale, repeat, and look around and see the opportunities that we have right now. 

 

 

 

So for me, I really believe the Corona Virus has brought out a lot of things. It’s definitely brought us to a point where we’ve got to get ready to know who our ideal client is and, be basically focused more about what we can do for our customers above our competitors.

 

 

Even more today, I’ve got some, Oh look, we’ve got mechanics, we’ve got painters, I’ve seen, I’ve got air conditioning guys, but I’ve seen different people do different things. I’ve got mechanics who have said, okay, we can deliver your car, we can pick your car up. They’re adding more service. They’re adding more value to the customer. And I think that’s a really, really good key as an opportunity. 

 

If you add value to a customer, you’re going to see a return. The second thing you know, I’ve got a painter who has customers who are thinking, I don’t want you to come into the house right now. I don’t want you to come in and have your guys come into my house while you’re painting in the house. So what’s he done? He’s hired a, that’s an opportunity that’s looking forward, that’s continually looking and adjusting as we go ahead.

 

What is your situation? Okay. There’s some, if you’re not an essential service, there are some that have completely been shut down. If you are a restaurant, you know, there’s been, I’ve heard of people doing a delivery of actual ingredients and then doing a live video with cooking on those ingredients and what they can do, you know,  it’s just constantly changing and adjusting with the time. This is a precedent for a hundred year thing. It hasn’t happened for a hundred years. What I’m excited about is the difference between people even in the GREAT DEPRESSION a hundred years ago? What was it that made people be very successful and what was it that made people, you know, just collapse and  just give up. 

 

I was reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, a while ago and I realized that Dale Carnegie made and sold all of those books, which is now an absolutely phenomenal book in the 1920s.

 

 

A lot of his stuff and a lot of the money that he made was in the GREAT DEPRESSION. So, you know, I think right now instead of looking at the danger, I’ve got some customers saying, “Oh, we should just see how things will go.” It’s a bit like a deer in the headlights. And I think we’ve all been a little bit like that. You’ve been like a deer in the headlights. Let’s just wait and see.  But, this is not a time to wait.  This is a time to think about opportunity. 

 

You know, I’ve got another customer that is absolutely booming right now because he’s a spring manufacturer and right now people are not going to China for spring. So he’s had to put on 10 new staff to be able to handle the flow of new enquiries and new circumstances.

 

So yes, in the next few months it’s going to be tough. But let’s look at the opportunity. Right now, your competitors are in the same place. Really this is a dog eat dog world. It always has been. But if you can stand out and you can give value to your customer, you can show even more value that you are the person that they need to choose. When we get through this, you’re going to come up on top. 

 

Sounds good. So look, I want to challenge you. I really want to challenge you and think about What for your industry and for what you’re doing How can you see opportunity? There’s no opportunity? How can you adjust your services to push through and just get through? I’m not talking about getting through tomorrow or getting through three months of time or getting through whatever, because we cannot. We cannot do anything about the future. Nothing at all. All we can do is what we’re doing right now, today. 

 

So today what we are doing is going to create our future. I remember that quote by Eleanor Roosevelt that said, “No one can make you feel inferior,  Only you can make yourself feel inferior right now.”

 

No one can make you feel unsuccessful. No one can make you give up on your business. No one can make you be the person that you’re going to be in six months, in 12 months, whenever this crisis is over. The only person that can make you feel inferior and can make you feel unsuccessful is right here. The finger, you’re pointing the finger at it, it’s that thing that points back. 

 

So yeah, being courageous to start looking around at opportunities. Start adjusting slightly. You know, if a boat adjusts slightly in degrees; then, you know, in 10 hours they land off in a completely different place.

 

 

It is the same with an airplane. If you just slightly adjust the degree with an airplane in 10 hours, you’re not going to be anywhere near the place you’re meant to be. 

 

 

So we can take that as a good thing, but we just need to adjust slightly and look at it. Inhale, exhale and breathe. But for the opportunity, I’d love to hear some comments about your opportunity.  What are you doing within this crisis? How are you feeling in this crisis? Post below and I’m going to keep on doing lives. This is Wednesday. I’m going to do another one on Friday, pushing forward. Great to talk to ya.