How to Handle a Crisis in Business

On January 14th, 2008, I thought that my business was done for. We had a distracted employee who wasn’t monitoring his responsibilities and all of our servers from our data centre shut down. 80 different customers/companies could not access our software and lost 5 full days of data. I felt completely hopeless.

So there I was, 8 years into starting a company, making next to nothing trying to get my business off the ground, and for what? At least that’s what it felt like at the time.

Naturally, I called my number one mentor and the best businessman I know, my father. I was panicked and worried about losing it all. Having never dealt with a crisis of this magnitude before I asked him “What do I do?”

I still carry his advice to this day and have taken away many valuable lessons from that one, single phone call. Here’s the advice I received:

1. Panicking and getting frustrated doesn’t help anyone or anything: The first thing my dad said to me when I called him was “Relax and remember, this is not who you are and this situation is not everything. Life is bigger than this.” And he was right. One hiccup may make a slight dent in business, but it’s not the end. In a crisis, staying level-headed and calm will not only help you think clearer, it will also let your employees and customers know that everything is going to be okay.

2. Figure out what you can do to help in the present and do it: The next thing my dad told me was “You’re talking about a lot of things going on that you have no control over right now. What are one or two things you can do at this very moment to help you with this?” Writing down a list of ideas from most important to least important on how to help your situation will inevitably help you organize your thoughts and stay calm.

3. Building deep customer relationships is crucial to your business success: The first thing I did when I got off the phone with my dad was start calling my customers. I called them for hours on end, explaining the situation without holding anything back. I called every single one of them and apologized and offered them free services or whatever I could to ease the situation. And because of the relationships I had built with my customers—whether it was meeting them in person for dinner or nurturing our relationship at events—I was lucky enough to not lose a single customer.

These lessons are what helped me stay calm when COVID-19 took over, and I know they will continue to help me when or if other crises arise.

Attention to detail and staying calm in the face of a storm are crucial traits of a successful business person. I invite you to reflect on these lessons and consider how you might be able to implement them in future challenges of any size.

Important Question to Ask Yourself This Week:

What steps can I take to prevent me from becoming paralyzed in a crisis situation?