The WAY to WOW Shows
Business Continuity During Personal Crisis
May 28, 2025
Automatically generated from YouTube captions; names and wording may contain errors.

[0:00] [Music] And where are you going? What do you [Music] want? Hello and welcome to People Making Money. I'm your host, Kevin Bemel, and we're here every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about job hunting, career building, uh building a business, building wealth, all of the financial aspects of life. Uh so today uh we're

[0:37] going to I'm going to talk about a a subject that uh candidly um I I've dealt with um um in the not too far distant past and that is business continuity uh during a crisis. So uh without getting into you know my tale of of pain and suffering uh I know for me um the the u my situation uh it essentially uh created a I I I halted my business

[1:13] activities is really what it came down to and as a result lost a lot of momentum um that then I had to uh get started again and that that is just that's not an ideal situation to say the least when we're building a business. And so I um I put together a list of um tactics I guess for one of a better term to consider. Um and a lot of this has to do with with pre-planning. So I think most

[1:49] of us were so busy running our businesses, doing taking care of our clients, serving our customers, marketing our business. Uh like me, I do I do three shows a week to uh inform people but also to market my business. And I do a fourth one every other week. I I have community involvements that are also designed both to serve the community, but also to get me out there and and let people know what I do. And and and so we're all

[2:27] incredibly busy. And the idea of of preparing for a situation that we we probably just don't want it to happen, right? who wants to have our lives who wants to have his life in a crisis? Uh, nobody. I I I don't I don't think um so the idea of preparing for that I think leaves us a little cold and so it's an easy thing to postpone. I I I know I need to I'll take care of it next week, right? Uh I use I use Apple reminders. It's it's

[3:03] become sort of my way of of keeping track of of what I need to do, not just on a daily basis, but just, you know, long term. I have reminders for things that have to be done annually, monthly, etc. Uh, and it's it's one of the things I've noticed about it is it's very easy to just click on it and put something off to the next day. And so I've had to develop practices to prevent myself from procrastinating. Uh so it is it is though important that

[3:41] that we do this. So, as as many of you may know, my primary business is as an independent trustee and probate administrator. And I can tell you from the number of estates that I've handled where the person died in test state and what havoc that has wreaked with businesses that they've owned or property that they've owned, the lives of other people because there was no plan in place to deal with in this case you might call it the ultimate crisis, right? The person is no longer there. So

[4:19] it it it has in some cases essentially devastating consequences. And so we need to be disciplined about dealing with these issues. And uh you know part of this is is preaching to myself. I I I've had in my mind uh for the last year uh what I need to do if if you know, god forbid, a crisis were to hit. Um, I did have a crisis in my business about a year ago. I ended up in the hospital and fortunately a friend of mine with whom I work on a reg regular basis kind of

[4:54] stepped into the breach and handled things for me while I was in the hospital and and and we have kind of an informal arrangement that that's that we back each other up. Um, because we're both solo entrepreneurs, you know, we we have our own businesses. We're but we're the person in the business, right? So these are some thoughts on what you can do and hopefully plan them in advance so that I I don't think it's if a crisis is going to hit life is like there are we hit crises in our

[5:32] life. So for so when when we hit that time when for whatever reason we have to step back from our business at least a little bit we can't be there on a day-to-day basis the business will be will continue to operate and our clients and customers will continue to be served. So, you know, when I talk about crises, I I mentioned for myself a health crisis, there are personal crises, um, divorce, a death in the family other than our own, god forbid. Uh, there are natural disasters, um,

[6:09] earthquakes. I know when I had my real estate company uh before I was in the Navy, we had an earthquake hit um and I got to my office and the bookshelves, everything was strewn across the office. I think the phone system was down, you know, and fortunately it wasn't horrible. Uh but, you know, it took a day or two to sort of get things back into order so that I could operate my business. But imagine if you live here in California, there's some kind of devastating earthquake where you know

[6:44] phone systems are down and what you know what are you what are you going to do? God forbid a you know a terrorist attack that that that could be something as well. So there's no end of circumstances I could list in terms of what constitute crisis. And as we look at our own lives, we perhaps know better where our vulnerabilities lie. But I think that uh dealing, you know, making sure our businesses can continue to operate, the first step is to think about where are

[7:20] our vulnerabilities? what could happen uh you know that would disrupt our ability to run our businesses. So if you're not married, so then presumably divorce is not going to be one of them. For example, um you know, if if you're in excellent health, so a health crisis maybe is lower down on the list of possibilities, although you know, accidents, car accidents happen. Uh, I know. I got run down by a car uh three years ago. I think it was about three years ago now. Two. Yeah. 2000. Yeah.

[7:56] No, two years ago. Yes. Two years ago. I got run down by a car while exercising. Um, I was in excellent health at the time, you know, at least physical health. Uh, and you know, and there you go. So I we need to examine our situations, see where we're vulnerable, where a crisis could disrupt us, and and then figure out how are we going to to deal with it. So I have a list of I think it's yeah 10 10 items to consider as

[8:31] ways of mitigating the impact of a crisis on on our businesses. So top of the list is we have to delegate authority. Now I would argue as a general practice we should be delegating authority. And uh so when I was when I was a chaplain in the Navy and my first tour of duty was with the United States Marine Corps. Now the Marine Corps is is

[9:09] interesting. It's it it actually operates I think differently than most people think it operates. So the Marine Corps in general tries to push down decisionmaking to as low a level as it can. It's one way of in a way forcing junior or younger Marines to develop leadership skills. Okay? And and so you'll have you have what what what what's called the strategic corporal.

[9:44] Right? Now, a corporal in the Marine Corps is an E4. That's the fourth level of an enlisted person. Okay? You have a private E1, PFC, P2, Lance Corporal, E3, and then corporal is the first level of what's called a non-commissioned officer, an NCO in the Marine Corps. Now, that corporal actually is required to make a lot of decisions. Now, the decisions aren't particularly weighty, like, are we going to attack this hill? Okay, that's that's not a decision the corporal would make. But the corporal is

[10:21] going to make a lot of decisions about the basics of training, day-to-day training. They're going to make decisions about discipline of his platoon or his his rifle team. Okay? So the the Marine Corps, just as a matter of philosophy, wants Marines from the corporal level and then on up. And and by the way, from the second lieutenant level on the commissioned officer side, which is the that's an 01, that's the first level of of of commissioned officer. They want

[10:56] them making decisions, okay? and and so authority will be delegated to them, okay, in an appropriate amount so that they will have get be able to have the experience of making decisions, seeing how those decisions work out and being able to learn from mistakes. Okay? So, the Marine Corps does not clobber uh especially a young Marine for making mistakes. They sit the marine down and basically have a conversation. Okay, how

[11:31] did you come to this decision? What went wrong? Why do you think it went wrong? What what might you do differently if you have to make a similar decision in the future? So I think we need to adopt that philosophy in our businesses and if if we have people working with us, we need to more so than giving them the opportunity to make decisions, we need to essentially require them to make decisions. And the reality is it's it

[12:06] can be very stressful for someone who's not used to making decisions to develop that particular skill. Okay. But this is my experience. Once they've had a taste of it and especially when they start making decisions on a regular basis and they are able to see the results of the decisions and start to see how they can positively impact a business. So then they get more comfortable with it. Okay? And and they will in a number of cases seek to get greater

[12:41] decision-making authority. Okay. And that's that's where you'll really see who in your team has the potential for future growth. Okay. So, we need to in advance of a crisis, a crisis or c Yeah. In advance of a crisis, figure out who in our team can handle whatever aspects of the business need to be lifted off your shoulders. Empower them with the discretion to make those decisions. Set some guidelines for them. Make them as clear as you can.

[13:16] Okay? And then give them some opportunity to exercise that authority before the crisis hits so that they're comfortable with it. Now, you don't want to give it to them and take it away, of course, but let them take it. That's one less thing on your shoulders. Okay? So it's one less thing uh with which you're going to have to deal if a crisis hits your personal life. Okay? So delegate authority. Start doing it now. Now if you're a solor entrepreneur like me, you say, "Well, how can I delegate authority? I don't

[13:51] have anybody working for me." Well, that may be true, but you're probably working with other people in other companies, other businesses. they're providing you support service or they're suppi they're supplying support services to your clients. So you can offload certain parts of your responsibilities potentially to those independent contractors. That's what I do u you know with my friend Bill uh that's what I did with my friend Bill when I was in the hospital. He came to visit me and I'm

[14:26] like I was completely stressed out. I hadn't anticipated ending up in the hospital, right? And so, you know, he said, "Look, what can I do to help?" And I said, "Well, uh, here's the list." He took down the list and, you know, and and off he went. So, you they don't have so we can delegate authority. It doesn't have to be to people who are working directly for us. It could be to in essence somebody another independent contractor, something like that. Okay. Excuse me. Number two, communicate transparently. I will be honest with

[15:01] you, I really don't like that term transparent. It it it it's it's sort of a buzzword and I I I just don't like buzzwords, but it's it's it's the concept that people use. I I I think we might use uh you know, communicate thoroughly, build that into our businesses. Okay. So, one of the things that I do in my professional fiduciary practice is on every case on which I'm working every week, I send out an update

[15:37] to all the people involved or at least all the people involved who want to get a weekly update. That way, they know what's going on. Okay? So, they're not left wondering, is Kevin taking care of things? You know, the answer is yes. or at least they know what I am taking care of. If they've got a concern that I haven't addressed, now they can get in touch with me and say, "Hey, what about X?" Okay, so on one of the cases I'm handling, right? We were dealing with a particular issue and for some reason it dropped off my sort of cognizance, if you will, sent out a weekly update. This was

[16:14] maybe about three, four weeks ago. And one of the people who got it said, "Hey, what about this thing that's, you know, that we were that we were working on." I'm like, "Oh." And I sent him back. I said, "Thank you for reminding me. I it it fell off my list." Right. And so, you know, I've got it under control. I've got a call later today to hopefully not so much resolve it, but but get the people involved who need to be involved to take care of it. Right. So, communicating thoroughly is important. And I do think that communicating in writing especially with our clients and

[16:50] customers is very important. Okay. Um you know between us and and our the people we work with daytoday maybe maybe that can work out verbally. Although if there's anything that's particularly important I think it's good to make the habit of you know communicating in email. not not so much to hold people accountable per se, but just to make sure that there is a record of what's go, you know, what's transpired. I know for me, I appreciate it when the people I'm working with email me because

[17:25] sometimes I forget the details and I can search, you know, the email and there it is. I don't have to call them and say, "What was it that thing we talked about?" Right? So, but but however you decide to communicate, whatever mode you use, use it regularly. Keep the communication going. Make it frequent. Okay? So, whether it's members of your staff, whether it's clients and customers, whether it's suppliers, um you know, in in one of the estates that I'm administrating, we've had a number of issues with the building

[18:00] department because the estate owns a lot of property, right? And so communicating with building inspectors, interestingly enough, they they appreciate that. What they what really annoys them is when they ask to have something done and then they don't hear from the people for a month or two months or whatever. So, you know, working with the the people who run the management company that the estate owns, I've I've train them over even overcommunicate with the the building department inspectors. they'll they'll appreciate it. Okay? They may

[18:35] not respond every time. That's fine. But at least they know what's going on. So, they're not worried about you or us. They're worried about the ones they're not hearing from. Okay? And if there is something that they need to tell us about or some response they think is so then they can, right? And from my perspective, I think that's the best way to to deal with it. Now, communicating thoroughly is most important when we have bad news, right? So, we want to be the one to communicate the bad news. And

[19:10] that is uncomfortable often times for people to do. It's uncomfortable to send bad news. It's uncomfortable to receive it. And when our life goes into personal crisis and we need people to take over from us, they need to have the experience of making those difficult communications. The first one of which may be telling our clients and customers, hey, you know, Kevin is not going to be available for the next week or the next two weeks.

[19:45] he's had a a personal crisis that he has to deal with. And so, you know, I'll be communicating with you in the meantime. So, please feel free to reach out to me if if there's anything you need or if you have any questions, right? So, if we build an ethos of um of uh communicating thoroughly, right? So then it'll be easier for the people to whom we've delegated to continue on that way. And for our customers and our clients

[20:22] especially, but for everybody else as well, we'll hopefully have built some trust so they know that we're we're communicating openly. We're communicating thoroughly. And so when they do get something, they don't look at it and go, "Oh, this is just an excuse because, you know, blah blah blah blah blah." they'll go, okay, well, you know, this is part of a pattern of of open and thorough communication. Okay, so build an ethos of thorough and open communication so that when a crisis comes, the people with whom you're

[20:58] working all will be able to keep on track. Okay. Number three, have a contingency plan so that then when crisis hits, you can activate it. Okay, so this is what I was uh this is along the lines of what I was talking about in the beginning. Where is your business vulnerable? Okay, is it does it have physical vulnerabilities? Right? So if you have some kind of if you're a manufacturing company right and you are a large power

[21:33] user you know electricity user right if the electricity goes down you may be out of business so what is the contingency for that do you have backup generators or maybe you don't have backup generators on site but you have a company that you've already vetted that within, you know, two hours or three hours can have those big generators on site to get you back going again like you see on on film sets. Okay. Uh speaking of film sets, so I

[22:08] remember this is back in my film production days, 1989, we were shooting a a feature film, a low-budget feature film. And uh so I was not the producer, I was the executive producer. The day-to-day producer was actually my younger sister. We had the a generator out on on site uh where we were shooting and halfway through the day the generator stopped and I get this frantic phone call uh from my sister saying the generator shut down. I'm like why? You know and she I

[22:43] don't know. I said well um is it does it still have fuel? You know that was the first thing I thought of. She said I don't know. So she went and checked. Sure enough, it had run out of fuel, right? So, fortunately for us, the generating the generator company was, you know, normally you'd have to schedule a day in advance, but they, you know, they were very cool about it. They got out there within a couple of hours. They refueled the generator and, you know, we were able to continue on. So, we only lost, you know, two or three hours, whatever it was, right? So, what is the contingency plan? with whom are

[23:18] you going to call to help you get through whatever the the the vulnerabilities of your business are? Now, if the if the vulnerability is an individual like yourself, right? So, you know, while you may not want to delegate um the the most important things you do, uh when you're not able to be there, you're going to have to. And so, you you want to have a written contingency plan that says, "Okay, this part of what I

[23:54] do, you know, Joan is going to take on that. This next part of what I do, Bob is going to take on that. and this other part of what I do, you know, Sally is going to take that on, okay? Or what obviously the names are just random, okay? And then, you know, give them guidelines. Now, presumably the you've written this contingency plan in advance, and so you've had time to uh vet it with the people who are going to be involved. You've had time to talk to them about it to help them understand how you deal with things. Um, and also

[24:31] give them the confidence that that if they if a if a contingency plan has to be activated that that you know that they're going to be able to handle things when you're not there. Okay? So, and and and you know, you want to look at the the key aspects of your job, right? So, you may do 10 things of which only four of them are core. And so the other six uh it's all right. They can sit until the crisis is dealt with or at least they can sit until the crisis is

[25:06] uh calm enough that you can, you know, devote a little time to these other things or whatever. Or you can develop some a longer term crisis management plan, you know, once you realize, you know, how long it's going to take for you to get back to work. Okay? So figure out the core things first. focus on those whatever it is the two three four f hopefully you don't have more than four or five a you know core activities that you're doing because if that's the case you're probably doing too much okay so I I would say you know core

[25:41] activities are communicating with clients communicating with investors making sure finances are on track uh and and making sure that um you know the the the oper operation of your company is continuing. Those those are probably the the four most key uh areas uh you know for you to make sure you have a contingency plan. Okay. Number four uh and this this is sort of echoing on the one that I just mentioned. Prioritize core operations. Okay.

[26:17] So, you know, look at who are your most important clients? Who are your most important customers? you know that you have to prioritize those. It may mean, you know, you're going to lose some of your smaller clients and customers. Okay. I mean, better than losing your whole business. Does it make sense to risk losing your, you know, five best customers who may comprise, you know, 60% of your business in order to save your 10 smallest customers who together may only comprise

[26:52] 5% of your business, right? And by the way, the small customers may be screaming the loudest. Okay? and and so from a just a a getting by daybyday, you know, situation, taking care of them may seem to be the way to go because, you know, then people aren't screaming at you. Okay, this is what this is what I've learned over the years. If if a customer or client is told that

[27:27] there's been a crisis that's impacting the business and they start screaming, okay, that's probably not a customer for the long term, okay? you know, for them to take the position that, you know, my your handling of my affairs is more important than the crisis in, you know, the business owners are one of the key people's lives. That that is that's just wrong. It's just wrong. Okay. Uh, and in fact,

[28:05] um, in one of the estates that I managed, I mentioned they owns a real estate s a real estate management company. And what I found was the smallest customers were the ones that screamed the loudest. And I had to do triage because the owner of of the company and and and the owner of all these properties died unexpectedly. Completely unexpectedly. No contingency plan, no estate plan, no nothing. I was brought in and I had to do triage. And one of the triages I did

[28:41] is I said, "Sorry, you're not a client anymore." Okay? I' I've got to be concerned with the people who, first of all, bring in more income than your property does, and number two are willing to work collaboratively while I deal with this crisis. Okay? You will find out who who which clients really value your service when you hit crisis. Okay? So prioritize those those core clients uh

[29:20] prioritize the core operations that you have. You may you may perform you know eight services. You may you may build eight products, but the fact of the matter is only three or four of those are core. Maybe three or four make up 80% of of your revenue. You may have to drop some of those smaller products or services or contracts in order to get through the crisis. Okay? temporarily scale back on secondary activities in order to preserve time, energy, and resources and

[29:57] and and and keep keep your business solvent and your people able to operate, right? They they may not have the experience to to juggle as many things as you do and and so rather than overburden them, burn them out, put them into crisis, it may be better to just scale back a little bit, okay? and then rebuild once you're able to get your your personal situation under control. Okay, so that's number four. Prioritize core operation core clients, customers operations. Number five, use technology

[30:32] to stay connected. Okay, now this is a lot easier to do now because so many people are used to remote work. you know, we're used to text messages and Zoom and Slack and all of these tools. There are numerous tools out there to stay connected uh with with the members of your team and even with your key customers. Okay? So when you hit that crisis point in your life and you have to step back from your business, okay, you know, you might take an hour of your

[31:10] day to call those, you know, early on when, you know, shortly after the crisis hits, day or two after it hits, you may take an hour to call your key customers and say, "Hey, here's what's going on. I need you to know this. I'm gonna have to step back from day-to-day operations for a while. Okay. And and you know, Joan, Sally, Bruce is gonna take over uh this aspect of taking care of you and your needs. Okay? Uh but you know, if if it's

[31:46] something absolutely crucial, you know, here's here's my number. You can send me a text message or or call me. I will do my best to respond. I can't say that I'll pick it up immediately because of what I have to deal with, but I just I just want you to know that this is what's going on. and and we can use technology to keep me in the loop so that you're you know if something is really going wrong and and uh you know it's it's absolutely crucial uh you know that that that that I be involved you know you'll you'll you'll

[32:22] have that you know you'll have that that that ability um going forward right now here's the interesting thing um good clients will not abuse that Okay, they'll understand that there's a crisis going on and they will respect that you're dealing with it appropriately and they will only contact you if it is just, you know, absolutely crucial. Okay? The ones who don't respect that are probably the clients and customers you don't want for the

[32:57] long term. Okay? They'll self- select. Like I said, you you you learn far more about people, including customers and clients, in a crisis, than you ever will during normal operations. Okay? So, use technology to uh stay connected uh especially with your staff, right? Especially with the people who are picking up the burden that that that you've had to lay down. Okay? Just even a brief check-in, uh you know, a text message. Okay, I I I had five minutes just checking in to see how things are

[33:33] going. Um do you have any questions? Um do you do you need to chat for a couple of minutes? Um you know and and maybe Sim saying, "Look, I have I have all the confidence in the world that that you're you're handling things. I just want to let you know that that you know that I am here um and and have a little bit of time if if you know if you need it kind of thing." Okay. Um and and and just those check-ins can can make a big deal uh make a big difference in your staff's um your staff's ability to work through the crisis so that you can take the time

[34:09] you need. Okay. Number six, outsource temporarily. Okay. So, uh this is I mentioned this in in my own practice earlier. So you may not have certain skills within your uh you know among your staff uh to be able to pick up one of your core duties. Okay, maybe one of your core duties is sort of public relations marketing. Okay, and you know on your staff you have operational capability, you have

[34:44] financial capability or accounting and bookkeeping capability, right? there's nobody on your team who can do the marketing that you do. So, it may be that you need to uh outsource that temporarily. Bring in someone or not not bring in but I mean bring on someone who uh maybe a company who will do marketing in your absence or at least keep your marketing going, right? So, it doesn't fall apart and you lose momentum and then have to start building it up over again. So maybe there's a freelancer who can pick things up. Okay. Maybe maybe

[35:22] you you'll you'll hire a temporary CEO on a freelance basis to come in and oversee things. Now if you're going to do that, again, just like all these other aspects, pre-planning will make it work much better, especially for example, if you're going to bring in a freelance C CEO, okay? Because for that person to just come in cold and start telling your staff what to do, that's that's not the best way. It can create a lot of resentment and and a lot of discord in

[35:59] your business. So if if if that is what you're if that is part of your contingency plans to bring in someone to temporarily replace you or to bring in someone to temporarily cover temporarily cover one of your core duties. So then vet that person in advance. Have that person come uh meet with your with the other people on your staff or the other people with whom you regularly work so they know the person. They have some comfort with the person and then when the crisis hits they can step in more smoothly to you know uh to become a more

[36:37] coherent member of the team. Okay. So again, planning is absolutely the key. All right. So that that was uh number six. Number seven, automate where possible. Now with the advent of AI, and in this case, I'm not talking about large language models. I'm talking about autom automation. It is possible to automate a lot more things than it was in the past. So for example uh you may have uh you

[37:13] may let's say you have uh some kind of uh company where you collect money on behalf of your clients on a regular basis. Okay, that can all be automated these days, right? The the people who are making the payments, it can all be set up online so that nobody has to be there to get the checks, make out the bank deposits, take them to the bank, right? Um and so you know how whatever you can do to automate autom you can automate the payment of expenses they can go directly from your bank account they can be be charged directly to your credit

[37:49] card and your credit these days I don't think there's a single credit card that can't be paid automatically you know by by setting up monthly you know automatic payments on of the credit card right so so much of finances can be automated but so can so can inventory tracking, so can certain aspects of marketing. So, a lot of social media can be automated. There's tools like I use Buffer, for example, right? So, uh at at the end of each week, I schedule all of my uh

[38:25] social media posts for the coming week. Okay? So, then I and I do I take an hour to an hour and a half to do that. And it's all done. It's all automated, right? Um, same with my email marketing campaigns, etc. So, there are a lot of marketing can be automated as well. And by the way, you don't have don't wait for a crisis to do this. Start doing it now. So, you're offloading routine chores from yourself. It gives you more brain space to be focused on thinking about more, you know, thinking about crucial decisions, expanding your

[39:01] business, whatever it is. Okay. So, so again, figure out how you can automate things and and maybe you don't know. So, start just start playing with it. Start playing with there's so many tools out there. Talk to colleagues, people who are in similar businesses. How are they using AI, large language models or automation, how are they using it? Talk to people who specialize in it. There's a a firm, I think it's called Optima AI, I think it was. They did a a seminar that I was invited to attend. This was maybe about a month ago. And these are

[39:38] really smart, creative people. And there's there's I I I just note them because I I had a chance to to learn from them. But there's lots of people like that out there. You know, vet them carefully so you have the real the real deal, so to speak. But figure out how can you automate your business or what what can you automate within your business so that there's less that has to be dealt with at the time crisis hits. Okay. Next, uh do a review your finances and make them as secure as you can.

[40:15] Okay. So uh you know again best to do this before crisis so that you know what your financial vulnerabilities are so that at the time of crisis you can deal with them more quickly. Okay. So uh you may have you may have uh expenses that really aren't necessary. Okay. So just get rid of those. one less thing to worry about when crisis hits. Okay? You may have certain customers that uh

[40:51] they're late paying and and it keep and and and the delay in payment keeps getting longer and longer and longer. Well, deal with those now, right? Because when crisis hits, those are going to be the most difficult things with which to deal for the people to whom you're looking to to delegate authority, right? They may not have the same relationship. They may be less likely to make a decision like essentially cutting a customer off until they catch up on payment that that you would make based on your experience

[41:26] dealing with the person, your knowledge of their business and how you know not receiving your product will will potentially harm their business and so give them an incentive to pay you or whatever it is. So look at those financial financial vulnerabilities in advance. make a plan for them. And so then at the point of crisis, you can sit down with your staff and you'll you'll be able to go through them, you know, bang bang bang bang bang, here's the financial vulnerabilities. Okay. So, maybe you have some non-essential expenses and that and because you're

[42:01] going to cut back on some of your uh secondary uh products and services, you know that cash flow is going to tighten. And so, you're either going to delay uh in incurring some non-essential expenses or you're just going to dump them or you're going to reach out to those vendors and say, "Here's what's going on. um things are going to be tight for us over the next one month, two months, six months, whatever it is. Uh are are you willing to carry us during that time or can we make some kind of arrangement? Right? So, if I if

[42:37] in your crisis plan you've got financial vulnerabilities identified, you'll you'll be much better prepared uh to deal with them expeditiously at the time crisis hits so that you're not bogged down in the business or worse, you know, the crisis is so bad that you just you cannot focus on the business at all and and you've left, you know, the people who are taking over for you with with a big mess. to to you know parse through. Okay. So uh make sure you secure as much

[43:12] financial flexibility as you can. Okay. Do it in advance so then it can be dealt with more easily when crisis when crisis hits. Okay. Number nine, lean on advisors. So, if you do not have advisors, and when I say advisors, I mean people outside your business, could be your attorney, could be your accountant, it could be a business coach, uh it it could be someone who is in someone you do business with regularly, so you're kind of in the same industry, but but you don't do the same

[43:49] things. Okay? So, I'm a, as I mentioned, a professional fiduciary. My friend Bill is a specialist in probate real estate. So, we're in the same industry. We do different things. Uh, and this is good because we have different perspectives that we can give each other on each other's businesses that are very helpful. Okay. As recently as yesterday, uh, Bill was able to help me out with something uh because he he's got a different perspective than I do. And I'm going to be using that for a call coming up about in in about 45 minutes. Right? So

[44:25] this is this is the this is the value of having established relationships with advisors. Okay. Uh my my lawyer I there are times when I lean on I had to lean on him a lot. I I basically had to say to him, hey, what do you think I should do? Right? and and and this by the way this is when I was kind of in the the depth of the crisis that I alluded to at the beginning of the show. So having people that you have an established relationship with with w with whom you've built mutual trust. Okay. So then at the time of crisis you can reach out

[45:02] to them and they can help take some of the burden off of you. It may be just saying, "Hey, you know what? Don't worry about these things. They loom large to you, but but I know you. I know your business. You don't have to worry about them." Or they might be able to say, "Look, you got you got a legal thing going on over here. I'll deal with it. Don't worry about it. Take care of yourself. Take care of your family. Whatever it is that's going on, and and I'll pick up the slack." Or or same with your accountant. Okay? So, build those those relationships, okay? Minimally,

[45:38] have a relationship with your accountant and your attorney. Hopefully, long-term relationships, okay? I know for me in both of those places, I have people that I've known for literally decades, over 30 years. Okay? They know me in in some ways probably better than I know myself, okay? And I know them. and and so uh you know when there's something difficult going on I can reach out to them they understand the long-term rel we're we're friends as well as as well as having a

[46:13] business relationship so they they want to help me okay I cannot I cannot encourage you enough to build those kind of relationships the best time to have start to start building them was you know 10 years ago the next best time is today Okay? And and and be overt about it. Say, "Look, I I I want to build a long-term relationship with you so that we have we can rely on each other, especially when the chips are down." Okay? So, lean on advisors. And then finally, and and this

[46:48] this is where this is where the crisis can get so gut-wrenching, and that is take care of yourself. Okay? If it's if if the crisis is is a personal health crisis or a personal emotional crisis, okay, you have to take care of yourself. If you don't take care of yourself, the business is not going to matter because it's going to fall apart because if if you are not whole, the business will will deteriorate and go away. Okay? I used to

[47:23] see this on a regular basis when I was a chaplain. I would have sail young sailors, typically they were younger sailors, come to me and they would say, "My my chief petty officer told me to come see you, chaplain." Okay. When that was the case, I pretty much knew what the story was going to be even before they told me. I said, "What's going on, mate?" Well, you know, my my family's been in a really difficult situation and I've been spending a lot of time trying to help them. We, by the way, we were on on on board the ship. Okay. the the the USS Ronald Reagan

[47:58] nuclear aircraft carrier, right? And we're we're sailing up and down the coast of Japan, right? We're not anywhere near the United States. And a sailor would come to me and, well, I've been spending a lot of time helping my family deal with a problem, and I've I've missed work a number of times, and now my command is really mad at me. Okay. Uh, and I I don't know what to do. Right. Okay. Well, so this was a sailor and I would have to help them come to understand that they're not going to be of any help to their family and helping their family with whatever crisis is

[48:34] going on back home if they lose their job and get kicked out of the Navy. Okay? If they're not getting any sleep, if they're not eating properly and getting some exercise. So the first after they would tell me what's going on, the first the first three questions I would ask them is, "How are you sleeping?" Well, not very much, Okay. Uh, how are you eating? Well, you know, I kind of eat when I can. Um, you know, a lot of junk food. Okay. Yes, they do have junk food on a nuclear aircraft carrier. Lots of it. Okay. And,

[49:12] uh, when was the last time you exercised? I don't remember, Chaplain. I would say to them, "Okay, so I mean, do you want me to just give you my advice?" Yeah, Chaplain, I can't afford to lose my job. I said, "Okay, first thing you need to do is get a good night's sleep. Go have a good meal. Get a good night's sleep. Wake up tomorrow and figure out when are you going to exercise and do that tomorrow and then do it the next day and the next day." Okay? You're of no use to your family

[49:49] thousands and thousands of miles away getting fired from the Navy. Okay? You're going to have to rely on them to take up some of the slack and get through the crisis while you're gone. Okay? So the same is true for your business to the extent that the crisis is affecting other people. And it's gut-wrenching if if it's especially if it's our loved ones. It's gut-wrenching. Of course it is.

[50:27] But are you going to destroy yourself to save other people and now you're not going to be there for the next time that they need you? That's not a viable solution. So, you do have to take care of yourself. Okay? You'll have limited energy. You'll have limited focus. Especially if it's a health care crisis, physical or or or mental, you're going to have to husband your energy. And you're gonna, as painful as it might be, you may have to say to your loved ones, I I can't be there as much for you

[51:04] right now as as as I have been, I I've got to get well so I can be the person you need me to be. But in the meantime, I need you to take up some of the slack. That's a tough tough thing to say. It's it's a risky thing to say. But if they re if they really are your loved ones, if they really love you, they will realize that this is something they need to do to show you their love. It's all good

[51:40] and well to say, "I love you." It's a whole different thing to show someone that you love them. Okay. And we have to ask. We can't necessarily expect them to volunteer. That may just they may just just not have that in them to do. So, we've got to have the courage and the strength to ask. The courage to let them know that we're not as strong right now as we might wish to be to open up and show them some weakness. Right? and the strength to

[52:16] have that conversation, right? So, take care of yourself. And if you can do now, you may not need to do all of all 10 of these, you know, tasks that I mentioned here. You may only do two or three of them to get through. Depends on how deep the crisis is, how long it's going to last, the nature of the crisis. All of those, you know, need need to be taken into account. Okay. The best time to plan for a crisis, five years ago, right? The next

[52:51] best time to play for a to plan for a crisis right now. Start working on it. Even if you just spend 30 minutes a day for the next couple of weeks. Okay, that's 10 hours. You can make a lot of progress in 10 hours. Okay? So, if you saw my show last week, business lessons from the military, I talked about lessons that run your business like a SEAL team, and I talked about lessons that can be learned from the training that SEALs go through. Basic underwater demolition/seals known as buds. And the

[53:28] seals have a a kind of a slogan. Two is one and one is none. So, we need to build some redundancies into our businesses so that when crisis hits, we'll be able to get through it. If there's no redundancy, meaning if it's just one and we're out now, we've got none. Okay? But if there's two, us and the triumvirant uh to whom we're going to delegate if we have to step back. So, we've got two. So

[54:03] two is one because if we have to back out, we still have our triumvirant to keep the business going. Okay? So it's a great philosophy not just for for seals but but for business as well. Two is one and one is not. So I'll leave you with that thought and I thank you very much for joining me today especially live viewers as always a treat. Next week on Monday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time is my show, Trust and Estates Weekly. On Tuesday is uh at 10 a.m. 10 a.m. Tuesday is Business Lessons from the Military. A

[54:40] week from today is the next edition of People Making Money. This is our last show for this week, but next week is my every other week show, Jigger's Place. On Thursday at 5:00 p.m. Pacific time, we'll sit back, have a cocktail, and talk about all the non-financial aspects of life that make it worth living. So, thank you so much for joining me today. Looking forward to seeing you next week and wishing you all the best. Signing off as I always do. Marie darling, you are my bell. Courage, especially on this

[55:17] topic. Courage at all times, my friends.