The days since the result of the referendum on the European Union became known have been unlike any I can remember in the UK. The initial euphoria felt by the Leave voters has changed to confusion on all sides as many of the key players have left the battlefield, and it is now unclear when, or even if, the UK will actually leave the EU. There is a palpable sense in the UK that, in the short term at least, nobody is steering the ship. Uncertainty is all around, and this makes it the worst possible environment to try to conduct business. So what should owner-managers do?Well, the good news is that we have been somewhere a bit like this before, and in many ways our past experience was more challenging than this one. The financial crisis of 2007-08 presented a challenge of a similar nature; some might say with a gloomier prospect. So we can draw on our experiences there to help us set our businesses up to succeed now.
Those experiences tell us a number of things:
- There will be winners and losers. Many organisations grew successfully through the crisis and recession at the end of the last decade, and many others will grow successfully now. As the leader, you need to be determined that yours will be one of those.
- Love your customers. Your core customers are with you for lots of reasons. If they are close to you, price will only be one factor. There will be competitors who begin to struggle, and who respond to their struggle by slashing prices in the market. Make sure your customers are feeling the love from you, so they value working with you. In the best cases, you will find that your customers will tell you what your competition are doing, rather than being swayed by it.
- Stick hard to your knitting. Now is not the time for speculative punting on new ventures (business divisions, international operations, pet projects) - unless you have a big enough war chest to allow it. Be clear about your core business and your key differentiators. Make sure you maintain them, and that you communicate them, and keep communicating them, clearly.
- Keep getting your message out there. The rise of digital makes it easier – and also more important – that your message is out there. Digital also makes it more cost-effective to keep lines of communication open with customers, leads, and web site visitors.
This last point is vital and links closely to the second point about loving your customers. A digital approach makes it possible for us to understand the individual needs of each customer better, and so tune our engagement to suit their needs better.
Over time, we can see from their interactions with our website and our other material what their interests are, and we can make sure we tailor our communications accordingly. Our digital channels, such as Inbound Marketing and social media, become new ways for us to listen to our customers, and share information with them. The beauty of the digital approach is that success there is more about original thinking than it is about big budgets.
Finally, keep an eye on a rapidly changing world. The picture is changing daily, if not hourly. We know we can cope with the worst case, and by following the best practice above, we will be in great shape for when the picture becomes clearer.
Update: In the 48 hours since I wrote this piece, the picture has become clearer in that we now have a designated new Prime Minister in Theresa May. However, short term uncertainty remains, and the rules above still apply.
