When we started Litebulb, we saw how small and medium businesses were struggling in the wake of Covid-19. I personally had members of my network say verbatim "there was nothing we could do" and "we could have never seen this coming". While I wish I could tell you that is true, that this was always going to be something that would catch the entire world by surprise, and that there was nothing we could do to prepare...that just isn't true.
There are entire arms of government dedicated to providing guidance regarding pandemics. A quick Google search finds literally dozens of documents, released by the WHO, CDC, Canadian Government and other organizations, dedicated to helping businesses (both large and small) navigate through the eventuality of a global pandemic. Many initial drafts of these documents are 15+ years old, with numerous updates and revisions to represent best practices. Feel free to check out a couple of these documents:
Now, it's one thing to know that these documents are out there, it's a completely separate thing to read them, internalize them and develop a comprehensive pandemic response plan for your organization. With small businesses, more often than not, you don't have the luxury to spend the dozens (hundreds?) of hours necessary to put together a pandemic plan and go through the rigorous testing and communication plans to ensure that if (when?) something happens, your organization will be ready to act accordingly.
Obviously, Covid-19 is just a topical example of a significant disruption to daily business. Beyond that, there are items such as succession planning, future-proofing, supply chain diversification, marketing plans, social media, etc. etc. that having an in-house specialist/expert may not be feasible. This is where 'the help' can play a huge role! Large enterprises may have huge marketing and operations teams that are able to build highly specific and focused plans, but the reality is, for small and medium businesses, they don't get to take advantage of most of these great planning tools.
Finding the right advisor/consultant who is able to take the heavy lifting out of the equation. At Litebulb, we pride ourselves on being able to lean on our experience from both an large enterprise and small business perspective to provide cost-effective advisory services that are based on tried and true enterprise-grade strategies. Just because you may be a small business with limited available bandwidth doesn't mean you should ignore some of these business critical processes. We can help guide you to a solution that is comprehensive enough to cover any number of potential 'blind spots' in your strategic process but also right-sized to make sure you aren't breaking the bank.
Our hope is that all of our partners/clients truly believe they are operating in the best and most efficient possible manner. That is, they shouldn't feel like they are compromising on their business. We will help you to make sure that when (not if) a major disruption occurs in your industry, you are ready to tackle it head on, and come out the other side a stronger more efficient company.
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