T
o get a jump start on the survival planning process, write down your best answers to these internal evaluation questions. You can find a workbook for easy use at:
As noted before, you must think about the past when times were good and make your best estimate of what the near-term future holds. This picture of where you are and what your customers will want and need is going to be critical to your success. If your business has been closed or disrupted for a period of time by uncontrollable events, do your best to “see into the future.” Get others with some added insight to help you if necessary. Do not be concerned if you think you have answered some of these questions before. Just jot down your best responses.
Here are the internal evaluation questions to carefully answer:
Who are your best customers? Why? (Will they come back? Stay?)
Who are your most difficult customers? Why?
Who are the key suppliers? How long have you done business with them?
Have you ever had any difficulty with your key suppliers? Explain the situation.
Who are your key employees? Why? Are there any issues concerning these employees … now or in the past?
Who are the employees most critical to daily operations?
Who really does the sales work for the company? How much do you do?
What do you do every day? Who else can do the things you do?
Who runs the company when you are gone?
What do you like best about the business?
What do you like the least about the business? Can you change this?
How long do you think it will take for you to “train” new employees and managers with the critical skills to effectively run the business?
What should be done to build the business? Why hasn’t it been done before?
What kind of problems do you have with the production processes?
When was the last time you lost a day of production due to such problems?
What kinds of problems do you have with the building?
When was the last time you had to address a major building problem?
What type of leases do you have for the operating transportation equipment? When are the leases up? What changes would you make in the new leases?
What worries you most about the business? What have you done about that?
Who are your primary competitors?’ (What channels do they use to attract and deliver to customers? Who are their top five customers or customer groups? Who are their top five managers? Who are their top five vendors?)
What can they do that you and/or the business cannot or has not done?
How does the business stack up to the competition in the areas of Products, Prices, Service?
What can be done to improve your competitiveness? Why have you not done that?
Who does the purchasing of primary raw materials for the business?
Who sets the prices? Should this change in the middle of a crisis?
What causes prices to be changed?
How are price changes determined?
When was the last time prices were changed?
How were these changes implemented?
How often do you personally meet with customers? (Will your renewed customer base accept virtual visits?)
When was the last time you met with a top ten customer? What was the subject of the meeting?
What expansion plans do you have in place? Are they in writing? Do you have any quotes on building expansion plans or for new equipment?
When do you think it will be necessary or desirable to expand the production capacity?
Do not keep driving the “old truck” when your competitors may be preparing to move on in style in a new hybrid with more horsepower. Do not jump into new “in vogue” changes, but do not rule them out either. There is no secret that online business models are taking a larger and larger share of the total market. The question on this score should be this: How do the customers want to “shop”?
In or out of a business crisis ... nothing matters more than having good customers. To paraphrase a noted political comment,
It is the Customer ... Stupid!
Every business owner and every employee should constantly keep searching for information on the current and future customers ... and then applying the lessons learned.
By completing the answers to all of these questions, you should be on your way to developing solid information to feed into an innovative set of goals and objectives and the strategies to reach them.