Who said “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…”, I know it was that Kipling bloke (no not the one who made exceedingly good cakes). The novelist and poet.

He could have been writing about the government’s reaction to the Covid-19 virus, which has been both extreme and indiscriminate. Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs. Research last week suggests that a fifth of businesses are already struggling and a third will be after three months of lockdown.

In Sweden, by contrast, they are allowing the virus to spread slowly through the healthy population while protecting the most vulnerable, so by mid-May 60% of the population will have been infected (the threshold commonly used for herd immunity).

Scientists here admit that the lockdown won’t bring an end to the spread of the virus, it’ll just slow down the rate at which it spreads. We know that it is dangerous and life threatening for those with serious existing medical conditions, especially if they are elderly. For others the symptoms are relatively mild.

Could a short period of lockdown and business closures, with tougher measures for the most vulnerable, be more acceptable than the huge damage that is being inflicted on the economy from which it will take years to recover?

But that is not to say that businesses are powerless to help themselves. Some will survive (and maybe thrive) whilst others will fail, but for the vast majority their fate will be in their own hands and will depend on the actions they take. Here is my list of the 10 things every business should be doing NOW to survive.

1. Plan: prepare a plan that sets out clearly what you are going to do that will enable you to put your business in the best possible position to emerge 10 weeks, 12 weeks, 20 weeks from now, when this thing ends, a plan that will enable your business to emerge in the rudest of health, in the best possible shape and able to exploit the huge opportunities that are coming your way.
2. Critically examine your business model: most business owners do what they’ve always done the way they’ve always done it. Maybe there is a different – or better – way. One of my clients, whose restaurant is closed, has started a Meals-on-wheels service for local residents. Ask yourself ‘Could I sell to someone different?, ‘Are there other people that might buy this online that weren’t my customers before?’ ‘Could I sell differently? Can I sell online?’ Or, ‘Is there something  different that I could sell?’
3. Know your numbers: there are going to be some tough decisions to take in the coming weeks. Unless you know the financial consequences of these how will you know the right thing to do? To conserve cash, by reducing working capital, it may be prudent to reduce sales by not supplying low margin customers, for example.
4. Update your cash flow forecast: survival depends on maintaining cash flow – not making a profit. An integrated profit, cash flow and balance sheet forecast is an essential tool every business should deploy and update weekly.
5. Choose your attitude: stay calm and focus on what you can control, be the positive force in the room, or wherever it may be. Choose your attitude every single day. Your attitude shapes everything in your life.
6. Eliminate non-essential expenditure and defer as much other expenditure as possible: print a list of your overheads and cash expenditure for January, February and March and review each item critically. Stop, suspend or defer every possible item that doesn’t contribute to positive cash flow.
7. Become a marketer: make the intellectual, emotional and actual switch from being a doer of your thing to a marketer of your thing. This is your time to properly fix your marketing. When you’re in lockdown this is what you should focus on. This is a really big deal. And just to be really clear marketing is not non-essential expenditure. Marketing is exactly the opposite of non-essential expenditure.
8. Furlough non-essential staff but keep the business trading: you will be stretched but consider taking on a virtual assistant or bookkeeper to help and take some of the pressure off you.
9. Build your marketing foundation blocks: there are 11 foundation blocks in total which every business needs. Putting these Foundation Blocks in place - assets that will serve your business for a long time to come – will generate sales and revenue for you for many years ahead, and it’s the type of work that always get left in ‘business-as-usual’ times. Which is why it’s so important for you to tackle this now whilst you genuinely do have the time. Whilst the lockdown is a very, very big challenge for every business there is an upside to this if you think about it properly. There’s an opportunity for you to use your time to properly ‘fix’ your marketing.
10. Build relationships: raise your profile and demonstrate strong leadership to your market. Now is the time to wrap your arms (metaphorically) around your customers and keep them close to you. Now is the time for you to help people and show that you care.

Remember take control and accept responsibility. That’s what’ll get you through this thing. Take control of the situation. Lead – don’t react. Make it happen… Good luck.

Noel Guilford