BIRD WILLIAMS: You're listening to Bird Means Business Episode 22. 

Dun dun duuuun. Today we are going to talk about the global pandemic of 2020 that is COVID-19. And more specifically, what it means to those of you who are looking to launch your business or grow your business. So I'm going to first share a bit on how COVID-19 has affected each of my businesses to kind of just provide some context. And then I'll give seven broad practical takeaways that I have noted as an entrepreneur in response to this virus. And I want you to know my perspective. This is a real scary virus and it’s taking the lives of so many, and honestly, that's just really hard to stomach. I have people in my family who've been infected, and I can't even say how tough it was to get that news. And I'm so grateful for the many medical professionals, some in my family, some even on our team at The League who have been on the frontlines of all of this. We owe them so much for their service. I also know that there are many of us who have not been infected. We've stayed home and we've stayed safe and kudos to all of you as well. There are so many different scenarios for humans during this time and I don't intend to take any of this lightly or any of those scenarios lightly by focusing this episode on small business implications. All right? 

There's something my husband, Terry has been saying. I just love it. He says, "COVID has affected us all. You don't have to be infected, in order to be affected. And if you haven't been affected negatively, you carry a responsibility to see to it that it affects you positively." So, you know we've all been affected. We've all been staying home, or, you know, social distancing and really having to change our lives around, and that's tough. But what you don't want to do is let this time go by without you becoming stronger and sharper and more productive because of what you did in the season. That's my take on it. It doesn't mean that in every moment of quarantine, you're super-duper productive and on top of everything, because that has certainly not been my experience, at all. But what it does mean is that this is an unprecedented time that we will likely never see again in our lifetime. So what will you be able to say of it?  

Before we get started I want to share a listener shout-out. k.alao left a review on iTunes that says, "Love Ashley's advice, and attitude toward business. Her vibe is so sweet like a bird, but she's all about business.” I love that. That's right. And you know, sometimes I feel like I've given a lot of tough love on here. But you all know it's only to make you better and stronger and really equip you with what you need to launch and grow your business. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm doing this every week. Thank you, girl, for that review. I really, really appreciate it. 

All right, let's go ahead and jump into the episode. I'm gonna tell you how COVID-19 looked for each of my businesses just real quick to give you some context for what I'm talking about. And you know depending on what business you're thinking of launching or where your business is right now. Maybe you can get a little bit more clarity. So, for The League. If you don't know I own a warehouse gym here in Houston, Texas with my husband. It's called The League. We've had it since 2013, and it's awesome. I will never forget the day we made the decision to shut everything down. I was running around and getting different news updates. I don't really watch the news. I didn't before this and I really don't now. I just don't like it. But I was getting updates from my husband and also just like my phone was dinging a lot. We had to make the decision to shut everything down. We had been thinking that something like that could happen. We didn't realize when it would be. And it was tough because we had so many Leaguers. We call our clients Leaguers. They were asking us to please stay open. They were begging us. They were like, this is the only place that really keeps me sane in my regular life. So if it's an outlet then, I'm going to especially need it now if I'm going to be quarantined at home. So please stay open as long as you can. And of course, we wanted to, but we knew we had to make the moral and socially responsible decision to do what was best for the well-being of all. It was before even authorities mandated that gyms shut down. We just decided to go ahead and pull the plug and adapt to having workouts posted daily online. We eventually started doing live workouts online. And that's kind of how that looked for The League. I mean, it was crazy. We still obviously have big bills to pay, and we're not able to generate revenue. So it's really scary but we're just taking it day by day. It is a lot to juggle and just stay on top of. But I'm going to pull out some of those takeaways in just a bit. So that's how it looked for The League. I basically had to shut down my brick and mortar, because of social distancing and people needing to be not hanging out in the gym and sweating and all that. 

Okay, next is Bird Williams Consulting. So, you know, that's the business through which I run Bird Means Business podcast. At first, it wasn't looking too bad. My clients were still moving things along and just hoping for the best. I was working with two big clients and then two medium-sized clients. Ultimately, both of the bigger clients had to pause things, which I completely understood. Again, tough revenue hit, but absolutely understood it. And I just feel like okay, if I'm not having to focus on those projects, I have so many other projects I can work on or I can get ahead with batching podcast episodes and think about new services I can offer, and again just adapt. And that's something I encourage you to do as well in your businesses. 

So I had two clients pause. And I'm sharing this because I've had a lot of people ask. And I think people don't know if they should ask, but I'm super transparent. I share these things because I want you to know how it looks and to have an insight into what it will look like if you are running a business or if you are running a business to maybe get some ideas. Okay? That's how it looked for those clients. I also had two speaking engagements. One was local for a university and one I was going to have to fly across the state to. Both of them obviously got canceled. Actually, both converted to being virtual. One I actually already did and it went over really really well. Got really great response from those who attended. And the other is happening soon. So I'm grateful that we were able to still have those events, even though we couldn't be in person. That’s how it looked for Bird Williams Consulting. But basically, at first, it was like I still had a lot of work to do. My clients are still expecting deliverables while I'm trying to do all the things that happened when we had to shut down our business. Working with vendors, changing everything in our system to change where our classes weren't available for people to book. So it was a really crazy couple of weeks because I was having to do a whole lot more in both my businesses when I was already tapped out. That's how it looks with Bird Williams Consulting. And then my husband, Terry, and I have an app called TerrytheTrainer app. It's obviously his app, it's awesome. We actually launched it back in November, but we had a lot of issues with the developer and so we ended up having to completely change our developer. Thank, God, we did that and solidified it just a couple of weeks before everything hit with COVID-19. And I say that because it has done very well. We've had a surge. I don't even know the percentage, but hundreds of people have downloaded the app. and it's a freemium model, meaning it's free to download and you can access certain content. But to get premium content you would pay for it. Well, what we did during the quarantine is we have a tab that's absolutely free to anybody. It's called the Family Room. You can jump into the Family Room and get workouts every week. You can get meal prep ideas with the grocery list included. He does motivational inspirational talks. I mean it's just so good, honestly. And then on top of that, he started giving information on clean eating stuff. He did one on what intermittent fasting is and it was so good. It actually made me want to start intermittent fasting and I have been doing it for like three weeks now, and it's been amazing. We've just been powering up, getting more content out there. And God bless him. He's having to generate content for The League because we're pushing content there. We're pushing content through the app as well. But it's been great. So, in a way, it's been a blessing for that business. 

And finally, it's the Bird Gallery. If you listened to one of my earlier episodes I can't remember the number right now but it was on creating a project plan for Q1. I talked about the Bird Gallery and it's the business that I'm going into with my family. It's an event center down in Galveston County where I grew up. And that one has had to be put on hold, we were actually in the process of working through a renovation, or renovating the space that we own. But it's an event center and my dad is extremely risk-averse, and he's ultimately the decision-maker. And he's like, yeah people, aren't going to be gathering for events anytime soon. So we had to put that one on pause. And if you remember in that episode I talked about my goal for that. It was to be profitable by the end of the year. We haven't even launched yet so that's gonna be an interesting goal to achieve. But again, you have these goals. You do what you can. But you can control something. You just surrender it. It doesn't help to be upset and stressed out over something you literally can't control. 

What can we do? Well, I guess we can go ahead and start planning the website and building that out and knowing exactly what it will look like before we spend the money to actually get it. But we have a whole plan. We have it done. We don't have to worry about that later on. Once this thing opens back up we can get the renovation going and get open. You just adapt to make it work. That's just like overall how this virus has affected my small businesses. And now I'm going to share with you some takeaways. There are actually seven. 

All right. So number one is the importance of community. You've heard me talk about community, as one of the core values at The League. It's something that when we launched The League, Terry and I were like, “We want this to be more than just a gym. We don't want people to just get fit. We want to address the holistic person, all of their needs, their deeper goals beyond their fitness goals.” And so community we thought would be a great way to do that while making people feel a sense of belonging. I think people yearn for that and I honestly think that after college, it's really hard to create those relationships organically because you're not on a campus and in these social clubs. You're just out in the world working. So anyway, we wanted to be able to provide that to our leaders and, y'all. It has never meant more to us ever before than now. Because for years we invested in our community. It was always people over profit. What can we do? How can we add this gathering or support this cause that one of our leaders is going through or whatever it might be? And now that same community that we've invested in, they're investing back in us during a time where we've been hit really hard financially and it’s tough. But of course, there are clients who are having to pause their packages or cancel their packages. And at the same time, there are clients who have been like, “Hey, bill me for three months. I know it's tough right now.” Or we had one client go on and just buy like two PAC(K) bundles, which was like $260 bucks, just because. They know they can't obviously use them right now. But they just wanted to be able to support it in a time where we really, really needed it. And I cannot tell you how grateful I am for them for that. 

So I just encourage you as you think about your small business. Don't skip over building that solid foundation by answering questions about things like your core values or your vision or your purpose. What are you doing? What is important to you? And then making actual practical steps for implementing that into the vibe of your business. So you can say, community is one of our core values. But then you don't actually have community in your business. There's not a tangible tactical approach to it. That's actually something that I walk clients through in my Bird's Eye View foundations interactive. It's one of the four pillars of your business. I have one for your foundation, operations, marketing, and financial. With the foundation, we do just that for two weeks, or really as long as you need depending on your specific implementation timeframe. I guide you through nailing this down in your business. So if you want more information you can just go to birdwilliamsconsulting.com/birdseyeview to get more info. Alright, that's number one, the importance of community. 

Number two, have a business disruption or continuity plan. My financial planner, Helen Ngo. If you want to follow on Instagram because she's brilliant and has such great content and information. She's @meethelenngo. She's amazing and she's been doing these webinars on the impact of coronavirus, and really, specifically, the Cares Act that the government put out and how it's affected unemployment and retirement in small businesses and all different things. And y'all these webinars are so enlightening. You can actually go to the link in her bio if you're listening in real-time to go on and download the recordings. Because, seriously, it’s really helpful. I actually had a friend who was looking to withdraw from her 401k and she told me about this month ago. She had a strategic way of doing it and now the early withdrawal penalty is waived for that. So she's able to do that with no penalty and she had no idea. And I heard this on the webinar and I sent her the link. So if it's something that you're interested in too, again, it's @meethelenngo on Instagram and you can just download the link or get her link and get that information. But anyway. I was not intending to pub her. She's just awesome seriously. She's been our financial planner for, I think, two or three years now, and brilliant. Love her. So she has these monthly mastermind chats with other women CEOs. I guess I have been probably on those every month for maybe a year or so, maybe a little bit longer. And we're on one of these chats, and she says, “So, ladies. What does your business disruption plan look like?” It was like crickets. What? She's like, “You know, your business continuity plan?” We did not know what she was talking about. This girl, of course, had this whole plan for exactly what was happening and what was going on with this virus and having to social distance and basically not able to work from her office she has a whole team. And she has this business disruption plan that answers questions like, what happens if the internet goes down? What happens if we need to work from home because for some reason we can't access the building? How does it look when we work from home? What changes in our protocol? What is the protocol for everything we do in our business? How and when are our files backed up? What are all our passwords? How do we access that? How exactly do we communicate with our clients? What does that process look like? When and how do I do everything in the business? But she has this whole plan. Who are our attorney and our accountant? And how do we contact them if we become incapacitated? So the point is, how does your business continue on if there's some kind of disruption. 

I think about this for our business. There's so much in our business that I just do that Terry does not know how to do. There's so many things in our business that he does and I don't know how to do. And so we should have a document that really outlines that so that if something were to happen to me and I'm in a coma he can still either do it himself or get someone to do the things that I do and it's very clear and easy. I do have those systems set up, I just don't think that there's like a document or a central place where he would know where to get those from, really tying it together, almost like a business plan. But it's like a business disruption plan.

I think it's amazing. She's basically like dusting off her business disruption plan that I believe she looks at every time she updates her business plan. She's just operating based on that, so her whole team knows exactly what to do. They know where everything is. How they're going to adapt to working from home, and all that. It's amazing. So I encourage you to do the same. I sit down and update my business plan, each quarter. And when I do that for April, because this is now Q2, I'm going to do exactly that. I'm going to look at this business disruption plan created for my business. And I think you should too. Because guess what. There is no better time than right now because you're actually doing what you have to do in that situation, so it's top of mind. All right, that's number two, your business disruption plan. Super-duper important. 

Okay, number three is legal documentation coverage. So when all of this happened, one of my first thoughts was rent. Crap. This is one of our biggest monthly expenses, and I was like, oh wait, I think there's a clause that's called like force majeure. I don't really know how to pronounce it, or something like rent abatement in our lease agreement, which says something like, if there's a natural disaster or for some reason, the government prohibits us from operating our business for any reason or accessing the building, or there's always language, we basically don't have to pay rent or the terms will basically change for some period of time, based on whatever you know the language is in your agreement. And you know I got so excited. I like pulled up our lease agreement on my computer, only to find that this clause was missing y'all. It was in the lease agreement for our first location but it was not something that was included in the lease agreement for this location where we are currently. So in all honesty, landlords likely will be very scarred by this event. They will not want to put this force majeure or rent abatement clauses. They're going to make sure that they're covered too. So it's not so much about that specifically. But it's about knowing what you're covered for in your business. If you want more information on things to consider in the lease agreement, and how to work with an attorney, and what the lease process even looks like, check out Episode 15. If you do have a lease agreement just check and see if you have any rent abatement or force majeure clause in your agreement because you might have an opportunity to defer your rent payments or your landlord might forgive them. I've heard so many different stories with landlords. I know another gym owner who reached out to me and said that her landlord just completely forgave two months of her rent, which is amazing. Our landlord is not doing that. I've also heard some landlords who are not changing anything at all and not offering any option and they're having to just pay rent, and that is really really really tough. So you just want to kind of know what's in your agreement and what options you have there. So that was number three, legal documentation coverage. Just always be really aware of where you're protected in something as big as the lease agreement. 

Okay, next number four is how diversified is your business model. When I say business model I'm referring to the ways your business makes money. You can also think of this as revenue streams in a way. Do you have a recurring revenue model? How easy is it for you to adapt to a fully online or a fully digital business? How diversified are those revenue streams? Just being thoughtful around your business model in that way and again this is for anyone who's launching a business. As you're going into this and thinking about this, I'm hoping that this crazy pandemic is helping you think about your business, maybe in a different way. What can I add if this is happening to my business, and not again? This may never happen again. But the point is how agile can your business be? Let me give you an example. And shout out to the Robinhood Snacks podcast. I listen to this every weekday morning, as I get out of bed, literally as I get out of bed. I actually use it to help me get out of bed, because I'm not one of those who pop out of the bed, excited about the day. I'm not a morning person. But anyway. I was listening to this podcast, and this was brought to my attention as I listened. So, Uber versus Lyft. Both are primarily ride-sharing businesses. But what else does Uber have? It has Uber Eats. So in a world where ride-sharing is on pause and people are not trying to get up in people's cars. They don't know who's been with a lot of other people and they’re trying to social distance. Uber can still thrive because they also have an angle to their business where they deliver food to people who don’t want to go to a restaurant right now. You can’t predict every possible negative outcome. But you can and should be diversified in your business model. That’s number four.

Number five. Get creative. So now is not the time as a business owner to throw in the towel. It’s the time to get creative. And this is not the only time that you’re going to be surprised in your business. You can really just go ahead and get used to unpredictability like this because this is entrepreneurship. Of course, it’s not ever been for me on this scale of a global shutdown. But I had to adapt again and again. So honestly I just feel like this is an exercise, like a workout, just for you as an entrepreneur as you’re having to get creative and adapt. Have you ever heard me say that word before? Probably. I’ve said it so many times because it’s a very important skill to have as a business owner. to be able to adapt. Okay. I say this gently. But you can go around and pout and sulk about what’s going on. But while you’re doing that, other business owners are getting creative, changing things up, and just basically serving their clients the best way they know how because that’s all you can do right now. This is where you think out of the box. You try new things. You can kind of try anything right now that serves your core values and your clients. Okay? That is number five. Get creative, y’all. 

All right. Number six. HR and leadership. Y’all got to communicate. You must communicate. I’m gonna say it again for the people in the back. You gotta communicate to your team. You gotta communicate to your clients. It’s important in a time like this that you are vulnerable and transparent. And that does not mean you go into a team meeting like, “Guys! It’s COVID-19! It’s a pandemic! What are we going to do?” You don’t freak out, of course. You don’t tell them, “We’re just draining money! Bills are still being paid, but nothing’s coming in!” You don’t freak them out. But you are honest about, hey, this is where we are. And this is what I think is hard for a lot of entrepreneurs. And I’ve had this conversation with so many during this time. It’s hard to say, “I don’t know.” It’s hard to tell somebody, “I don’t know the answer. I don’t know if I’ll be able to pay you. I don’t know if we will be open or not. I don’t know how we’re gonna adapt to this. I don’t know what resources we have.” That’s very hard for entrepreneurs because I think a lot of us want to feel like we’re in control and we know we’re the leader. That’s great. But it’s ok if in a time like this, you look at your team and you say, “You know what? Every day I’m on calls. I’m figuring things out. I’m listening to this and getting information. But I don’t know. I don’t know exactly what tomorrow is going to look like or what next week is going to look like. But when I know, as soon as I know, you will know.” And just giving them the comfort there. I think it makes you very human. It makes people connect with you. So don’t be afraid of the scary questions of your staff or your clients or whatever they might ask. Just lean into the unknown. And for us, we’re doing what we’ve always done in terms of regular communication with our team. It’s super important we have weekly team emails. We’ve done this for literally years. And we’re just encouraging our team to make sure they’re reading those emails cause that’s how you’re staying on top of what’s going on. And also just text messages. Checking in with our team as a whole. Then also like I said, we have two people on our staff who are in the healthcare field and we’re just checking in them making sure they’re ok. Making sure they feel supported. We’re checking in with our team on how things are going in their lives and how they’re feeling about everything. The point is that you don’t want to shy away from communicating with the people. You don’t want them to make assumptions on their own. And I saw a lot of this happen when there was uncertainty initially, with whether or not businesses were going to have to shut down or people were going to have to work from home. People didn’t know if they were. You know, it’s okay to just say, “Hi, we know that there’s a problem. There’s a whole thing going on. And we don’t know exactly how we’re going to tackle it yet. But we will let you know as soon as we can.” Just saying something goes a long way. Okay? That was number six.

And now we’re on number seven. So we’re going to talk about your emergency savings account and also fixed and variable costs. So you’ve heard me say that when you launch your business you should have 6 months of operating capital. And that came from what I heard when we launched The League, which was that most small businesses fail because they don’t have enough operating capital. And so I said, we’re gonna make sure we’re good on that. But what I also want to advise is that you have six months of your total fixed expenses also saved for emergencies. This will vary based on the needs of different businesses and your cash flow and all of that. And I will say that we certainly have not always had 6 months of our fixed expenses saved on the side. So this is not a judgment zone situation. I’m just saying that the ability to have capital like that in a time like this when you’re not generating revenue, but you still have to ultimately pay your bills whether or not they’re deferred would be so nice. So it’s important to have emergency savings account for your business. And you’re going to base this off of your fixed expenses because those are the ones that are must-pays each month. Your rent, your utilities, your insurance, stuff like that. But then your variable expenses are more like pest control or cleaning services, or just kind of one-off things like equipment purchases maybe, again depending on the business. So those don’t necessarily need to be included in how you calculate your emergency savings, you know, that 6 months. But again it’s just really going to depend on your risk aversion in your specific business. 

Those are the seven take-aways that I have for small businesses around the whole COVID-19 global pandemic. And I thought about adding resources and giving more information there which could be helpful. But y’all, things are changing by the minute. For example, I literally just got an email that said that the funding that was allocated to the SBA’s paycheck protection program has been exhausted. Meaning, it’s gone. And the SBA is not accepting new loan applications. So that’s an example of a resource that many businesses, big and small were depending on. Which apparently is out. That’s why I’m not gonna give a whole list of resources. 

But I will say this. One, there are grants out there. And this is money that you don’t have to pay back if you qualify for the specific grant. I looked up one, example, I think it was Texas Woman’s University that had one for women-owned businesses. And I was like, ooh yeah that’s me. And then I went on and it was like it has to be 51% woman-owned. And me and Terry are 50/50. So that didn’t work. But there are a lot out there. Just Google COVID grants and will find a ton and apply. I’ve applied to a couple. But again you want to make sure it’s the ones that you qualify for or you meet the criteria and if you actually really need it. I have not applied for any grants for Bird Williams Consulting because my overhead is so low. It stopped my revenue. But what’s going out isn’t bleeding my business like it is for The League. So I have applied for grants for The League because I need it there. So just think that as well. 

Another thing is now may be a good time to refinance your debt, if you have debt because interest rates are so low. And y’all this really depends again on your risk aversion because you also might want to wait and see how things go for another few weeks or months before making a decision like that. But, again, it just really depends on your risk aversion. Okay? 

So in summary, I reflected on a lot during this time. And every Sunday, I sit down and I plan my week. I remember the first week of the stay at home mandate when I pulled out my laptop and it was like delete delete delete delete delete delete. There were all these appointments that before this were just so important. Oh, I have to do that or this is just something I can't say no to. Well, actually not. Actually, things can really shut things down and I actually have control over what I say yes to and what I commit to, and how I define essential. So whenever I come out of this, my personal challenge is to not fill my schedule with things that don't really enliven me, that don't make me excited, that don't really bring me closer to my ultimate goals. If there’s an event I don't want to attend. That's okay. I can love them from a distance, right? I’m doing it now. I have a friend who was saying there was this baby shower this was months ago. She really just didn't want to go, but she felt like she had to. It’s okay. You don’t have to. It’s okay.  

If there's a weekly recurring event that was just really a time suck and something you just don't like to do. There's an organization that you're involved with that just really isn't serving you. It's okay to just politely decline. You don't have to do it all. I don't have to do it all. Again, it's my personal challenge to remember that I have control over that. And I really just don't want it to take another global pandemic to remind me of that. 

So as I close here's my ask of you. Please find ways to support small businesses during this time, and this is not a plug for my businesses. This is just having had so many small business owners contact me which I was honestly surprised about, in a way, I guess. In the beginning of all this kind of like looking for like a, what should we do, you know? And I know it's hard right now for small businesses. So anything helps. If you can't spend money like buying a gift card on their website or something, just show them some love on social media or tell a friend about their business. Here's an example. If you saw my Monday Instagram post. I was saying how I wanted to spruce up my temporary COVID workspace because I was kind of in a funk for I guess a couple weeks. And I really wanted to do something to make the space just a little bit better since this is where I'm spending a lot of time having to work now. And I got so many great suggestions from many of you, so thank you. And I ended up deciding to get a fiddle leaf fig tree. And guys, I am obsessed on so many levels. Like today, I was supposed to be doing a lot more work but I was just googling how to care for it and buying planters. It was a hot mess. I mean, this fiddle leaf fig tree, something I've always seen and wanted. I just thought you know there's no better time to get one than now. And I mentioned it to my husband just in passing, and he sent me a link to this perfect little fiddle leaf fig tree on plants.com. And I was like, so excited, looking at all this stuff. And I was getting ready to order it, and I thought, wait, I'm sure there's a small business, a local business here in Houston that I can support and buy this plant from instead. So I reached out to a friend of mine who's like a plant guru, her name is Brandi Lisenbe, and she's actually going to be on the show next week. I'm interviewing her and it's an awesome interview so stay tuned for that. It's going to be great. Anyway, Brandi told me about this local shop that she loves called Buchanan's. So we went, and, y'all. It was like an oasis of all things wonderful. I wanted to stay all day, especially since it was really nice to get out of the house, and the weather was so gorgeous. It was amazing. The prices were way lower at this local shop. And one of the workers was there talking to us about how to care for it. And like this is no shade at all the plants.com. It’s just that I know that I wouldn't have gotten half the experience, had I gone with that initial route of just buying it online. And I got to support a small business that I know has been impacted during this time. So will you do the same as best you can? Small businesses would greatly, greatly, greatly appreciate it. 

All right. So I hope you've enjoyed this episode. As always, if you have any questions, hit me up on Instagram. Just shoot me a DM. I'm @heybirdwillaims on Instagram. Or you can book a consultation call at birdwilliams.com/consultation. You just fill out a form. You'll get an email with a scheduler to book your call and we'll chat. Okay. I hope you'll hit that subscribe button right here on iTunes, because this ensures that you won't miss any of the Bird Means Business podcast episodes. I also hope you follow Bird Means Business on Spotify. And if you know of anyone who's looking to launch or grow their business. Tell them about the pod. Alright? All right. I'll talk to you all next week.