Challenges Business Owners will Face with Recovery from IDA
Business owners located in the New Orleans Gulf Coast area are going to be faced with a number of challenges, trying to recover from Hurricane Ida, which recently made landfall. Before we get into the recovery efforts, let’s start with some good news.
First, any business owner that has lived in New Orleans for the last 15 years, has been through this before. They all have lived through and remember Hurricane Katrina and because of that, they have to understand that they’re not starting from scratch, they’re starting from experience. My prayer is that the people in that community, the higher-ups, decision-makers, and the local government have prepared and tried to do a better job than what they were able to do years ago. However, the preparation still doesn’t wipe away a lot of the hardships that are going to be faced by the business owners in that region, as well as the people in the community. I believe that these business owners are going to immediately deal with the shock value. I can only imagine how hard and tough it is to survey your property and see your place of business underwater, the roof ripped off or all of the windows busted out.
The next challenge a business owner is going to face in their recovery is with their customer base. Their customers could have lost loved ones, or they could be trapped in their homes or any other issues that stem from a natural disaster of this magnitude. If your business doesn’t provide something for emergency purposes for them, it’s going to take a while for you to get your customer base back, especially, if you have things that are leisurely. Right now, the average consumer is thinking about buying things that they need and that’s going to help sustain them through this crisis. Their other concern is getting the financial and other assistance needed to help them begin to rebuild their lives. That’s another big one, if not the biggest one because a lot of times the local government or the federal government doesn’t give support fast enough. Maybe their insurance doesn’t pay out fast enough. And at this particular time, your customers are dealing with everyday madness, which means the faster they can get the support, the better off they’ll be in their recovery.
The biggest recovery method I want them to focus on is their mindset. In times like these, you have to have a mindset that you want to keep going forward and not being defeated, understanding that this didn’t only happen to your business, it happened to thousands of businesses. So, you’re not being singled out. You’re not being mistreated because of something you did wrong. You cannot control natural disasters. As business owners, we choose to take on the brunt of any good and bad that happens to our companies. And I don’t want you to necessarily take this as a bad thing, where you are saying to yourself, This is my fault because I didn’t prepare for this. There’s no way you could have known of the damage. The local news could have reported that it was going to be a category one hurricane and by the time it finally made landfall, it was a category three. You couldn’t know that. At the end of the day, you have to get past that point of blaming yourself. You have to get past that point of saying, woe is me, and the faster you can get out of that, you can get to the answer of how can I start over? How can I get right back to where I was or better than what I was? When you can get to these answers quicker, the better off you and the people in your community will be because you provide a service or product that the people in your community enjoy, and quite frankly some of them need. As a business owner, you have to be thinking like that.
You have to have that community mindset. It’s not only about you. What is your business? What are you doing? Do they count on you? Maybe you only have a bar, and this is the place Saints fans come to watch the games, and you have to hurry up and get it back, so those customers can have that sense of normalcy. That should be a level of motivation for you. Maybe your business is a marketplace where they get their fresh fruits and vegetables. You have to want to have that back, not only for you because a lot of times we’re not enough. We’re not enough to push us over the top. We have to look at our kids. We have to look at the people around us and say, I want to do it for you.
I want to do it for my community. I have something else to strive for. A lot of times we’re not going to inflict that type of pain on ourselves, but we’ll go to the edge of the earth for other individuals in our lives or for other causes. Whatever your number one cause is, put that at the top of your list going forward.
The last thing I want people to get from this article is that this is a hell of a learning experience. You’re going to learn so much from going through this. Nobody wants to go through it. However, the people who do go through it learn so much and you are going to be better for it. If you can get past the crisis management portion of it, you’ll be so much better. If you didn’t have the proper insurances prior to Hurricane Ida making landfall, moving forward you’ll have all the proper insurances, and whatever else you were missing before.
You’re going to get it this time. You will know better, and you will start prepping. You start planning and through this crisis, you’re going to have other reasons to provide different services or different products. We’re also still going through a global pandemic. A lot of major companies during the pandemic started selling masks and PPE products through that crisis because every crisis presents new needs.
You might be in a position to meet another need that you never were able to meet before. You will learn what that is, and over time it will be revealed to you. Now, it is up to you, you have the opportunity to take full advantage of it. Ultimately, I want you to know it’s not all bad. It’s just all bad right now. Tomorrow, and the day after that, things can continue to get better and better, only if you choose to allow it.
