Amazon Business Emergency Plan For Continuity Through the Coronavirus
We’re in the midst of an interesting time in our country, in the world, and in our business. As this coronavirus continues to develop and spread, we at Eye Love need to remain vigilant so that our company continues to thrive during this time of uncertainty. The following is our plan to continue running our business and come out on the other side better than ever.
Cash Reserves On Hand
Every two weeks when we do our Profit First assessment of all income that has come in, the first thing that is put aside is 10% of that income into a “Profit/Emergency Fund” account. This allows us to have an adequate runway in case scenarios listed below are hit.
Preparation for the best case scenario, a bad scenario, and worst case scenarios – Examples
- Best Case Scenario
- Sales increase due to increased advertising, increased pr, and doubling down on what is working.
- No changes are needed and everyone gets bonuses
- Bad Scenario – sales drop by 40%
- This would put the operating expenses account about $1,000 under what it needs to be for each month, which would require changes to cash allocation
- Reduce profit account/emergency fund allocation 10% and move to OPEX (Operating Expenses account)
- This would put the operating expenses account about $1,000 under what it needs to be for each month, which would require changes to cash allocation
- Worse Case Scenario – Sales drop by 60% or more
- This would put the operating expenses account about $10,000 under what it needs to be for each month, which would require significant changes to cash allocation
- Reduce charity donation 100% and move to OPEX
- Reduce profit account/emergency fund allocation 100% and move to OPEX
- Reduce owner’s compensation by 33% and move to OPEX
- This would put the operating expenses account about $10,000 under what it needs to be for each month, which would require significant changes to cash allocation
- Worst Case Scenario – Sales drop by 80% or more
- This would put the operating expenses account about $32,000 under what it needs to be for each month, which would require significant changes to cash allocation
- Reduce charity donation 100% and move to OPEX
- Reduce profit account/emergency fund allocation 100% and move to OPEX
- Reduce owner’s compensation by 50% and move to OPEX
- Reduce team salary by 25%
- This would put the operating expenses account about $32,000 under what it needs to be for each month, which would require significant changes to cash allocation
People Over Profits – Taking Care Of Our Team
This is our #1 priority with everything happening right now. We want our team to know that they are protected during this time. Fortunately, they have always worked from home and will continue to do so. No travel will be planned for the team during this time, including (but not limited to) mission trips, conferences, or supplier visits.
If a team member is sick or if they must take care of ill family members, we will continue to follow the absentee guidelines agreed upon when our team members joined Eye Love. None of their contracts or pay will change during this time, unless the worst case scenario is hit, then we will need to take action to save the company.
Service Before Self – Take Care Of Our Community
Show empathy for our customers and let them know you know how they feel. Figure out how you can create goodwill by giving something away. This could be something as simple as free shipping or a free course.
Get Creative – Disruption Creates Opportunity
The entire game resets so we need to figure out how to capitalize on this opportunity in an ethical way.
Increase our advertising during hard times because our competitor is not. Calculate our runway of cash first (done above) and push more ads when we can
Increase our PR during hard times → we are reading the book FreePR by Cameron Herold to get more ideas for this.
Excellence in All We Do – No NEW Things
Do not start new projects, and instead double down on what is working right now. Try not to order anything new, start anything new, or do anything new. Rally our team around the core things that push our business forward, and double down on those.
Amazon Fulfillment by Merchant
We will turn our focus onto Amazon FBM (vs FBA) during this time. All of our products, and additional bundles, are available via Amazon FBM and will continue to be. We realize that this may lead to slower sales while Amazon FBA is not shipping our goods, but we are confident in delivering the fastest service possible for those customers who order through our listings.
Free Website Shipping
We normally charge for shipping on our website when the order is under $50. To help out with the shortage of Amazon deliveries during this time, we are extending free shipping on all orders to our customers. This will allow them to save by shopping directly on our site, and we will make more profit by them doing so.
Supply Chain Evaluation
We are continuously evaluating our supply chain to ensure that there will be no shortage of Eye Love products during this time. We will focus our supply chain with made in the USA products with some diversification of the supply chain into China, Mexico, and Europe.
Communication Plan
We will continue to communicate with each other (as a team) as we always have. We will continue to meet twice per week, on Mondays and Fridays, via Zoom. This allows us to bring up potential shortfalls and address them in a timely manner, before it becomes a problem. In addition to business talk, we’ll make sure that we as a team and we as individuals are thriving as much as possible during this uncertain time.
Choose Joy
We choose joy… In everything we do, during every uncertainty, and amidst all of the panic. We choose joy as individuals and a company because we believe in continuing to make the world a better place. We will continue to check in with our dry eye community to ensure that they are choosing joy as well, and we will bring nothing but joy into the world.
Take Care of Yourself
We will continue or start new healthy habits, drink water, take supplements, eat healthy, meditate, exercise, and read positive books. We will STOP WATCHING THE NEWS.
This list was the creation of the Eye Love leadership team, which used two of our favorite podcasts, Rise by Rachel Hollis and The Mike Dillard Podcast.
We believe that the current situation is a challenge, and nothing more than that. It is a challenge we can overcome and choose joy while working through it.
It’s a challenge that we’ll face as a team head on, and we believe we’ll come out much stronger on the other side.
