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It is easy to become inundated with information in our modern society. Reports of death and disease, economies on the brink of collapse, and political infighting lend us to feelings of fear and overwhelm.

There is no doubt the struggles we face today will require agility and will most likely reduce or contract any goals and projections we had our sights set on as the new year and new decade began.

However, truths gleaned from history can provide a sense of calm and a way forward; a map to help navigate the proverbial fork in the road for business and financial viability in the months and years to come. When uncertainty and confusion are staring us in the face, we find solace in truth.

“Despite the persistence of disease and pandemics throughout history, there’s one consistent trend over time – a gradual reduction in the death rate. Healthcare improvements and understanding the factors that incubate pandemics have been powerful tools in mitigating their impact.”  Presently, COVID-19 is 16 out of 20 for deadliest pandemics in history. With advances in medicine and global efforts to mitigate the spread, hopefully, it will remain a less deadly virus.

As of the time of this writing, the DJIA sits near levels as of the beginning of 2019 and the SP500 is higher still than those first few weeks of 2019. Markets rise and fall, the economy is cyclical and we sit in a late-stage of the long-term debt cycle. What we hope for now is a “beautiful deleveraging” by our federal government and central banks. In other words, we know a retraction is coming, it always has and always was. The best thing we can do is acknowledge it’s imminence, think strategically about how it affects our business, and ride the wave instead of swimming desperately against it.

Recession, Depression, or Opportunity? Using the strategies of mindset shifting we ask this question of ourselves in order to pivot in an uncertain time. Staying “open”, thriving even, and continuing to provide jobs for our employees and service to our customers is possible and companies have done so throughout 17 recessionary periods in just the past 225 years.  Small businesses and schools all over the world are being forced to innovate.  Cost-cutting and restructuring alone will not propogate growth and sustainability.  It will take agility and creativity to succeed during the COVID-19 crisis.

“Business owners [and leaders] need help understanding their options, navigating loan officers at the local bank, calculating their payroll, even quelling their fears that they’ll miss out and risk losing their business.”  We have seen this first-hand, helping our current clients wade through the thick muck of stimulus packages in the past few weeks.

We are firm believers in entrepreneurialism and leadership.  We have built a strong connection to creatives, industry leaders, educators, and small business owners over the past 20 years. We know your joys and your pains. We are here for you. Let us know how we can help.

“When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters — one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.” John F. Kennedy

— CFO Team