We are currently experiencing the roughest crisis that we have experienced in our lifetime. People are dying all over the world, and the economy is taking a tumble that makes 2007 recession look like a walk in the park. There are two schools towards decision making in time of crisis: “By the book” or “quick and dirty”.

By The Book

We all have seen by the book people when we were growing up, they were the valedictorians, the ones that trusted two things: Their school manual and what the teachers said. When the economy is great those people are thriving. They are following all the procedures and best practices. Now what is happening in time of crisis?

Quick and Dirty

Just the name of it has a negative feeling to it. Quick – Not thought about. Dirty – Not Clean. Words in there are not too complicated. Now, let’s see what this entails. This is where the positive starts. This is opportunity based decision making, something arises, you find a solution. You see a surge in demand and adapt your offer. First of all, during great economy those people are looked at as opportunists. Let’s see how they perform during time of crisis.

Decision Making in Time of Crisis

Every day you hear that this is the end of the world as you know it (thanks R.E.M for the oldest ones of us), that everything will need to change from now on. What it means is we are going to be hit hard, quite hard actually. Some of us braced before impact, and others never saw it coming. Here comes the decision making process. Not everything is in the ditch, there are still ways to recover and withstand the long patch of rough weather about to hit us. And this is when Quick and Dirty comes in.

You are faced with decisions you took in the past, some being wiser than others, and that’s ok. It’s the past, and no-one of us has a time machine to go back in the past. And if it was the case, let’s put it this way, I’m sure most of you would slap someone if you saw them eating a pangolin or a bat…

The key behind it all, is seeing opportunities and utilize them to their full potential. I’m not talking about being an opportunist, but looking at the opportunities in front of you. Every crisis brings out new needs and creates business models.

Look at the recent recession, it got a “few” companies to launch between 2007 and 2010. Uber, Airbnb, Square, WhatsApp, Groupon… Yeah, they opened up a new segment, and were able to create unbelievable amounts of wealth.

Let’s look at Amazon as well. It started in the mid 90’s as a book store, and in the mid 2000s pivoted its strategy to hardware and a giant marketplace. Now they are reporting a $84.5B revenue for Q4 of 2019. And when you look at their stock value, it soared during the years 2007-2010.

It’s not over for America

We are in a time where a lot of Americans are seeing the future as grim. The World’s factory went through a health crisis, shutting down the whole world with a pandemic. That made us realize how the American spirit is key. Let’s look at the digital marketing industry. There were and are two ways of seeing things.

Digital Marketing has been generating great results for companies over the past ten years, and some agencies are dealing with an interesting “outsourcing” business model. They are getting their production and execution towards developing countries. What that does is maximizing their profits, and injecting American capital to individuals in developing countries for a fraction of what thy would be for in house employees. Ok, they are paying those remote employees more than what they would make working for their local economy.

In industries that don’t have to rely on outsourcing to stay alive, what about if we kept our capital in the United States and save our bacon during these tough times. All the work we provide is done right here in San Diego, California. Nothing outsourced!

Decision Making in time of Crisis: Now is the time to pivot

We are going to look at small businesses, and what everyone is trying to achieve, scaling. Scaling generates more revenue, but also creates more risk. The good old “risk and reward” theory. Sometimes a conservative risk and reward strategy and promoting organic growth could save you in times of crisis. It’s true, you won’t generate as much wealth, but you won’t fall from too high of a cliff. Being able to weather off the storm is a priority.

So you are realizing that your business, if you keep it the way it is has either failed, or is going to fail. Pivoting from its current business model to a slightly different one can make the difference.

We are here for you to help you sustain your business, get you to develop that new strategy, apply it together and get back to GROWTH.

That’s where the quick and dirty comes in play, getting you setup with the right tools right away. For example, you rely on B&M sales (Brick and Mortar) in your stores, but your stores closed… you put employees in furlough or had to lay them off. You own a restaurant, but cannot accept dine in clients. You are a real estate agent but cannot do House tours, caravans or open houses with your clients.

For the first two example above, you might have a solution in place. Clients can always call in their order… but that limits your time and productivity which could be spent otherwise.

For realtors, you can always send your potential clients to your broker’s website, your team leader’s website, Zillow and wave at your leads goodbye. Or not.

Having the right tools

The other solution is having a website with the RIGHT tools, that will convert more clients in a short amount of time, quick and dirty, you’ll be able to survive. That will be up in a short amount of time, and do its job, and it will get polished over the span of a couple week, a month… Then it will be perfectly by the book. But in the meantime you were able to sustain additional business by being productive. We are in a short term vision at this time, soon enough we will be looking at long term, but not yet.

Act now, act fast. Your decision making in time of crisis will not only shape your future, but your present.