We’ve all heard more about COVID-19 than any of us ever wanted to hear, so I’m not going to comment on how to avoid the virus or how often you should bath yourself and everything you own in Purell.
Instead, I’m simply going to ask, how will this crisis affect your business and what are you doing about it? I’m sincerely interested in what steps people are taking to ensure their company’s survival.
What sparked this question for me was an email I received from AngelList in which they discuss the advice Sequoia Capital, the renowned Silicon Valley venture capital firm, gave its investors and the founders of the companies in which they have investments this week.
Their advice?
- Cut expenses & preserve cash. How much cash do you have? What’s your runway?
- The money is going to dry up. Don’t count on raising money.
- Prepare to survive tough sales. Deals that seemed certain may vanish. At REATA, we’ve lost 4 this week alone. Maybe they’re just on hold for a while, but the cash doesn’t spend either way.
- Cut advertising and marketing expenses. This one surprised me, but they suggest that lifetime customer values may have changed and you may need to adjust spending on marketing and customer appreciation.
- Be prudent with capital spending. This makes sense to me at any time, but the threshold for what makes sense now is probably much lower.
I’m also interested to see which industries will flourish during this time and which businesses within industries will break out due to creative marketing.
I welcome your thoughts and feedback. Thanks.
Bob Gibbons is a Real Estate Advisor & Tenant Advocate with REATA Commercial Realty, Inc. which is a tenant advisory firm based in Plano, Texas. Bob serves companies in Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen, Richardson, Addison, Dallas and the surrounding areas and specializes in companies which lease or buy office and warehouse properties.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash