Let’s face it: There’s no one here on Earth who is an expert on how to adjust your marine business for success in the face of this Coronavirus Pandemic. Frankly, none of us have been through this before – the “experts” included.
But we all need to begin adapting to the changes taking place, whether we feel perfectly prepared for it or not. Whether we have all the answers or not.
We’ve gathered together some COVID-19 resources for businesses that we hope will help, and we keep adding more. You can check them out here.
But where to start? We like the guidance provided by business thought leader, educator and speaker John Spence in his video, Leading Thoughtfully and Effectively in a Crisis, available here.
In it, John shared the four lessons on where to focus during challenging times that he learned from the best, most successful leaders during the last recession:
- Priority #1: Take amazing care of your employees, especially your top talent:
- Provide:
- Training
- Support
- Resources
- Help
- Coaching
- Mentoring
- Give them as much safety, trust and stability as possible
- Communicate courageously and transparently about problems
- Provide:
- Priority #2: Take incredible care of your customers
- Priority #3: Keep your eyes on the financials
- Priority #4: Find someone outside of your business to talk to
Here at MRAA, we can help with all four of these. And we’re going to continue to develop new resources in these areas and others. Here’s what we can provide today.
- Priority #1: Take amazing care of your employees, especially your top talent:
- Provide training, support, resources, help, coaching and mentoring
- Visit the MRAA Resource Center, organized by department and topic, for resources you can use and share: https://mraa.com/page/Resources
- Check out the online learning courses we have available here: https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.mraa.com/resource/resmgr/resources/ULTIMATEGUIDE_MAR2020.pdf
- Or go to MRAA.com, sign in with your member username and password, then select MRAATraining.com from the menu to browse our online course catalog. Learn how to create an account for your staff here. If you’re not a member, learn how to create a free account here and use it to access MRAATraining.com here.
- Give them as much safety, trust and stability as possible
- Check out this advice for employers from a team of workplace lawyers: https://www.fisherphillips.com/resources-alerts-comprehensive-faqs-for-employers-on-the-covid
- Communicate courageously and transparently about problems:
- Here is some brief advice on creating a communications plan: https://www.aon.com/getmedia/d014d969-0ef1-4a90-8a0b-ecadf39f0a06/Novel-Coronavirus-Communication-Plan-Sheet-Feb2020.aspx
- Here is a deeper dive into communicating with your team, customers and partners during a crisis: https://www.ready.gov/business/implementation/crisis
- Provide training, support, resources, help, coaching and mentoring
- Priority #2: Take incredible care of your customers
- This starts with having a plan for communicating with current and prospective customers about what you can do to serve them safety and securely – and what you’re doing to protect them. For example, if you have customer boats in storage or in the service department, you may be getting questions like: Can I pick up my boat? If so, when and how? How can I pay for it?
- It’s okay to not have all the answers right away. But that shouldn’t stop you from communicating. At a minimum, let them know that you care about their situation, and you’re working on a plan as you and your team adapt to a fast-moving situation. More about communicating in a crisis is available here: https://www.ready.gov/business/implementation/crisis
- Priority #3: Keep your eyes on the financials
- Three key areas you will want to watch closely are your budget, the aging of your inventory, and your cash flow. Need help tracking these? Our friends at Parker Business Planning have made templates available to you here: https://mraa.com/page/FinancialManagement
- Priority #4: Find someone outside of your business to talk to
- If you belong to a 20 Group or you’ve participated in Roundtable Discussions at MRAA’s annual conference, you know the power of this first-hand.
- But what if you could plug into an even larger segment of the dealer community 24/7/365? That’s the goal of the platform MRAA is about to launch on its website, which you can access by logging in to MRAA.com. If you don’t have an account, you can create one (even if you aren’t a member).
Just like you, the team at MRAA is adapting to a fast-changing situation, developing new tools, resources and education to serve you and your team. As you navigate the uncertainty and challenges that come up, our goal is to meet you where you are with as much of what you want and need to be successful as possible. Please contact us to let us know how we can help.
Matt Gruhn, President
763.333.2421
matt@mraa.com
Liz Walz, Vice President
315.692.4533
liz@mraa.com
Allison Gruhn, Director of Business Development
763.333.2419
allison@mraa.com
Mike Davin, Brand Director
763.402.7232
mike@mraa.com
Liz Keener, Certification Manager
763.333.2417
lizk@mraa.com
Nikki Duffney, Member Development Manager
763.333.2420
nikki@mraa.com
Mickaela Hilleren, Program Marketing Coordinator
763.333.2424
mickaela@mraa.com
Katie Eichelberger, Marketing Specialist
763.333.2423
katie@mraa.com
Sarah Korbel, Events & Operations Specialist
763.333.2418
sarah@mraa.com
Adam Fortier-Brown, Government Relations Manager
202.737.9779
adam@mraa.com
Michele Rosacker, Administrative Manager
763.333.2425
michele@mraa.com
Bob McCann, Lead MICD Program Consultant
763.333.2422
bob@mraa.com
Jim Million, Certification Consultant
jim@mraa.com
Rallee Chupich, Certification Consultant
rallee@mraa.com
Zane Stevenson, Certification Consultant
zane@mraa.com
