What If...Ecommerce & The Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19)
What if......Throughout my career in eCommerce, I've always made sure we put thought into things from a "WHAT IF..." perspective.
- WHAT IF...our website crashes?
- WHAT IF...our credit processor shuts our account?
- WHAT IF...Google suspends our Ads account?
- WHAT IF...our website gets hacked?
- WHAT IF...Facebook disables are ad account?
- WHAT IF...Amazon suspends our account?
- WHAT IF...Canada Post/USPS goes on strike?
- WHAT IF...our product suppliers can't ship product on time to us?
- WHAT IF...our warehouse gets hit by a tornado or burns down?
and the list goes on...I've been through all these scenarios and successfully survived them....I even had to lay off 70% of my team when one of our accounts on Amazon selling $1million per month got suspended (I still managed to get it back after 9 months of trying). Always diversify your sales channels!The point here...NEVER have I thought of a scenario similar to what we're going through right now with COVID-19.WHAT IF...the world gets hit with a pandemic?You know what's important and still remains critical in order to pull through this situation and that has worked for me previously?LEADERSHIP!
- Leaders must focus.
- Leaders must listen.
- Leaders must be empathetic.
- Leaders must care.
- Leaders must promote teamwork.
- Leaders must reassure others.
- Leaders must communicate.
- LEADERS MUST LEAD.
As a leader, you may not have answers to everything, but others still rely on you to push through these tough times.Tough decisions must be made (work from home, temporary close operations, layoffs, store closures....)Making yourself available to LISTEN is a great first step.Stay safe people...especially the front liners (doctors, nurses, grocery store clerks, fire dept, police etc).and most importantly......remember this:HEALTH BEFORE WEALTH!Pay attention to your body, mind and soul!Stay Strong (and #StayHome if you can) ?Alaa H.Founder of eCommerce Training AcademyP.S. I'm currently reading this amazing book by John C Maxwell. I highly recommend it. See it on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca (not an affiliate link)