The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 49: June/July 2020 | Page 18

COMMUNITY VOICES
SUPPORTING BUSINESSES TH
Since lockdown began, ActionCOACHES Peter and Joanne Ro
centre of the business support effort for our region. Making
‘Little Black Book’ of contacts, gleaned through their work a
ActionCOACH network and through hosting their annual Sou
Summit, the team have pulled together to host a programme
sessions to help business leaders navigate these challenging
Zoomed with Peter to find out more about what the team has
How have you been supporting
businesses during lockdown?
Lockdown was always going to be a severe
business interruption, and whilst the ‘Stay
Home, Save Lives and Protect the NHS’
was the focus for the Government, it was
clear our focus needed to be on supporting
our community, preparing for the future
and saving businesses. That is exactly what
we set out to do. We started by moving all
clients to weekly sessions on Zoom (with
more support as needed). We created a
‘hub’ of knowledge for emerging stages
built around the information provided via
various media, clients ‘on the ground’ in
various locations around the world and our
international ActionCOACH network. We
added two webinars per week. Tuesday
at 8.30am to provide motivation, ideas
and support from the very best, Paul
Dunn, Philip Hesketh, Jim Lawless, Steve
Judge and our local celeb Alison Edgar to
name just a few. Friday at 9am to provide
expert information on subjects relevant
to businesses right now, from the HR
Department to the British Business Bank.
With a team capable of giving solid business
guidance for most situations we have, and
continue to offer, gifted advise sessions to
any business looking to drive their business
through the coming weeks and months.
How has the crisis affected
your business?
Well to start with we have become crazy
busy with dealing with what is now ‘normal’
(I don’t believe there is a ‘new normal’…
rather normal is just what we need to adapt
to and work with… and the normal we have
this week is likely to be different again next
week). Our revenues, along with those of
many clients, have taken a massive hit, and
we are grateful to the clients who have been
able to help us through the last few months,
as indeed we hope all our clients appreciate
the support we offer (their feedback would
suggest so which is incredible). There were
tears when we left our office, The Progress
Shed, to work from home and splitting our
team has been hard on us all. Exciting times
though as we are currently building offices
within our event space to create our ‘socially
(together) distanced’ offices.
In your experience, how are
businesses coping?
Businesses are in various stages coming
through this time. Initially we modelled
the emotional journey against that of the
seven stages of grief, working through the
shock and denial to anger and depression
before progressing to the hope and rebuild
– this has been surprisingly accurate. Few
businesses have been unaffected, some
have gained, the vast majority have been
pushed into an enforced state of paralysis.
Many have stayed there. More and more are
waking up and driving forward. As small
businesses there is a strength and resilience
that needs to be recognised. Businesses
can and will cope… if they don’t they will
struggle to recover or even survive. So, if
we refer to Steve Judge’s model, the wave
or resilience. Businesses started in a state
of shock and denial, for most this has now
passed. Many are now waking up to a degree
of anger (the news is fuelling this at the
moment, hindsight gives them an amazing
ability to point out the failings of decisions
made). Frustratingly many are colluding in
the ‘doom and gloom’ approach, the “there’s
nothing we can do about it”, the “we’ll just
have to see where it goes” approach, to my
mind this isn’t coping, it is staying firmly
back in denial! So, at this point, coping =
action. It is getting things moving to sell your
way forward, to find a route and create a
plan, flexible and clear enough to follow.
How are they adapting?
Well that depends on the business. All our
clients are adapting and changing to the
current situation. I say current because
things are moving so fast at the moment.
For some the primary job is to survive,
for others to transform and for others to
perform. This has involved some running
deliberate strategies to create new contacts,
others to completely re-invent the business
to reach different and new markets and
for others to reposition themselves, their
marketing, systems and teams to give
themselves the opportunity to not only
bounce back but to bounce higher!
What are the biggest challenges?
Wow, well the challenges are rolling. Cash
flow was an initial fear for many, working
from home, how to market, what to sell,
when to sell, how to move forward. Then,
how to manage the team, how to lead the
team, how to keep motivation and how to
move forward. Now, when to get back to
the office / workplace, whether to remain
at work, who to un-furlough, when to un-
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