From the Entrepreneur’s Corner (31): This Challenging Week
Having gone remote/WFH (a veteran in this, already), scrapped all 1–2–1 meetings, paused some agreements, cancelled participation to events across the next five months and even the spring retreat and (part of the) summer vacation, my priority is to keep everyone safe and motivated, create only the products and services in need at this moment — but planning for the post-pandemic world, and stay cash positive.
I had to reposition and adapt some parts of my business, and then communicate with most of my clients; still need to check with some local crews, validate their offensives and defenses and help the founders galvanize the teams.
The teams I’m working with have all agreed to a 20–40% pay cut; it’s people who will be the ultimate differentiator, and all brains matter. We made further savings by cutting down on some apps we used to run the businesses, and on all nonessential tools (the more some offer now free plans for the outbreak period.)
I looked again and again at finances and sources of cash and from where we can save. At this point, I’m also working on a contingency plan should the outbreak’s second/third waves and lockdown last beyond September till early next year.
We had several meetings on Zoom (including an all-hands team lunch), and although mentally we’re all strong and enjoy WFH, the mood in our families is somehow somber as covid19’s spread in Europe and US (and not only) is terrifying.
When Zooming and catching up on some ops issues, things can happen, like my mom calling or my daughter asking if I have received the mil-spec protective mask; this makes WFH funny.
Most of my friends are also working remotely, and hope that my wife will make it soon. There aren’t many struggles yet across all teams, but we’ve just entered into lockdown and restricted out of home travel. I was so lucky to travel this last Saturday some 200km to bring my mom some food provisions. To be frank, I’m concerned about my family still being exposed, as they have to get out, and not having enough supplies, as local shops are not well supplied and politics screw everything.
Today, the challenge of launching a new product while all working 100% remotely feels like it’s galvanizing the team.
I miss my swimming sessions, but my energy level is good (although I had to deal with a 4+ week very stubborn staphylococcus in the throat) and still need to improve my daily workout routine; have also stepped into meditations.
My calendar is full, and sometimes I lose focus. There’s also a big pile of stuff I need to read (and movies to watch.)
Interesting times! I’m still getting used to this uncertain feeling when going out, but let’s hope we’ll all make it till the deadline, from where the new reality starts.
My today’s preferred: DoNotPay launched a subscription sharing Chrome extension, where people can share their online subscriptions to services like Spotify, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney + and Hulu without giving away their password.
