How to Navigate Your Business Through COVID-19
In this webinar, design industry business expert Julia Molloy shares tips to help firms adjust to these uncertain times
How best to make decisions about staff, workflow, financials and marketing are among the top concerns for architecture, building and design firms during this challenging time. As part of our Resilience series, business consultant Julia Molloy recently shared her advice in a chat with Reisa Elden of Houzz. In case you missed the event, read some of the highlights here or click the link below to watch the full webinar.
Advising clients during the downturn of 2008-09 allowed Molloy to collect data on which strategies worked and which didn’t for design and remodeling industry firms. “I’m using that information to inform how I see the current situation and how that experience applies to today,” she says.
Understanding your client base and whether they’re low-, medium- or high-echelon is key. “Who you serve will determine short- and long-term business strategies and how you have to pivot right now and later on,” Molloy says.
The ability to be flexible as a firm during crisis is a key factor for success. “One thing I recommend for every firm to do right now is to get very clear on your brand’s purpose,” Molloy says. “As everything shifts, sometimes you have to be broader than you were before.”
Understanding your client base and whether they’re low-, medium- or high-echelon is key. “Who you serve will determine short- and long-term business strategies and how you have to pivot right now and later on,” Molloy says.
The ability to be flexible as a firm during crisis is a key factor for success. “One thing I recommend for every firm to do right now is to get very clear on your brand’s purpose,” Molloy says. “As everything shifts, sometimes you have to be broader than you were before.”
Here are some of the key takeaways from the chat with Molloy:
- Run through three-month and six-to-12-month scenarios to navigate long-term decisions.
- Acquire short-term protection by applying for Small Business Administration disaster assistance and other loan programs.
- Create short-term business development action steps, such as figuring out clients’ immediate needs, reaching out to past clients and reconnecting and collaborating with industry colleagues.
- Get clarity on staffing decisions. Keep high-functioning staff members who can remain 50% billable. Consider temporary pay cuts and combining job roles where possible. Offer furloughs for high-functioning staff that aren’t 50% billable and layoffs for nonessential and lower-functioning staff.
- Create long-term business development action steps, such as marketing though trusted channels like Houzz, converting more of your business to online and considering long-term shifts in your target market.
To learn more, watch the full webinar.
- Understanding where you fit in the spectrum of design, architecture and building firms and what that means for short- and long-term business decisions
- Outsourcing recommendations to help bridge the staffing gap until the industry picks up again
- Remote communication techniques that will save you and your team time and frustration
- Options to consider to maintain cash flow
- Key metrics to evaluate and determine staffing structure
Molloy shares how a time of crisis provides an opportunity for firms to reassess their business strategies for both the short and the long term. “I’ve been helping clients make sense of the bigger picture and understand where they fit in the broader scope of the interior design and home remodeling industry,” she says. “You have a lot of difficult choices to make over the next few weeks.”