Last week, my wife and I took the opportunity to spend a week away on the far South Coast of New South Wales. This is the part of Australia that through the Christmas/New Year period, was devastated by horrendous bushfires that destroyed vast amounts of bushland and cruelled local businesses at their busiest time of the year.

No financial statements that I have ever viewed in my 30 plus year career highlight the most significant item inside any family business.  It’s a huge number that impacts:

Some experiences in recent weeks, both of my own and those of my clients, have me questioning, again, whether the large corporates really care for their customers – or whether they’re considered a nuisance that gets in the way of said corporate’s day.

In my 30 years of working with family businesses, I’ve observed the greatest impact on the success or failure of any family business is down to the business owner themselves.

I’ve been saying since COVID 19 changed our lives way back in mid March that I’m incredibly optimistic about my clients, their businesses and the chances for all of us to emerge out of this period stronger, wiser, kinder, less wasteful and more resilient. Most people I spoke with during that period would often respond with “I hope so”, but without, necessarily a degree of conviction in their voice.

It’s been a long day. An early start, followed by a series of back-to-back meetings and Zoom calls and I’m done for the day. At 4pm, I fire up the 5.0 litre V8 and head out for a coffee and a short drive. It’s time to clear the head.

COVID 19 has wreaked havoc through our lives over the past 3 months like nothing else I can remember in my lifetime. It’s impact has been brutal and swift, yet it’s consequences for individuals, businesses and economies will have repercussions that last for years.

For almost 3 months, most family businesses have been running a management by fire strategy. COVID 19 hit hard and when Australia went into lockdown, businesses needed to adapt quickly to a fast changing situation. It was what most businesses needed to do to get through a period of complete uncertainty.

If your business is trades based, you’ll know what a Toolbox Talk is. If it’s not trades based, you’re about to find out.

Over the past 9 weeks, the world has changed like it has never changed before in my lifetime. Who would have thought that a virus could create more havoc in the lives of people and businesses across the globe than any war or natural disaster?