How to jump before the bandwagon forms
Since the pandemic's start, most businesses have been in flight-or-fight mode. Adapting as quickly as possible to the safety rules and regulations and looking for alternative means of support and offerings to weather the storm has been imperative.
The term "pivoting" has been used in excess when it comes to businesses who looked to utilize their resources and areas of expertise in alternative ways, playing to the needs generated by COVID.
CEO and Owner of Gemini Builds It! + Showcase Acrylics, Courtney Wright, had the foresight to jump before there was even a bandwagon. For others, the decision to "pivot," was made a little too late.
"I'm a student of this game of which I've been playing my whole life," Wright said.
"I saw the writing on the wall and knew it was going to be big. I had fellow business owners start talking about 'maybe pivoting' six months into the pandemic. I just didn't have that luxury of time."
Early on, Wright began interviewing her customers to see how they were reacting to the situation and how they felt they needed to prepare. She "just knew" it was going to be longer and harder than the couple of weeks others assumed it would be.
She moved from allowing Net 45 term payments to accepting credit cards.
She met with her suppliers to forecast and obtain materials that were likely going to be in high demand. This wasn't last summer or even in March of last year when the first stay-at-home order was enforced, Wright was in crisis aversion mode when talks of the coronavirus making it to the United States was a possibility.
Gemini specializes in the distribution of moulding and framing and the custom manufacturing of acrylic and display cases. When rumblings of the pandemic began, Wright expanded their portfolio to include PPE items, including acrylic dividers, countertop shields and sneeze guards.
"I basically hunkered down. The warnings were there and I believed them. I had to either make it happen or experience the death of my business," Wright said. "When some of my competitors were finally starting to think about pivoting, I was already seeing major profits from my preparations. I couldn't hesitate. I had to move. If you don't start, you'll never know what could have been."
As we move into the next reopening phase of the pandemic, Wright and her team have been working around the clock to equip schools, nursing homes and businesses with sneeze guards and partitions as recommended by the CDC for areas where you cannot space 6 feet apart.
"We expanded and changed focus so we could stay open, and now we are working so others can reopen. There is risk in anything you do when it comes to owning and running a business, but you have to be able to assess the current industry climate and understand what the market will bear," Wright said.
"Quick decisions can be some of your greatest or worst, but you don't get to those big achievements if you don't move. Win or lose, you have to be prepared to stand behind your decision and not let downfalls turn into endgames. Our foresight and ability to leap without industry affirmation or adhesion to status quo is what moved us past surviving and into prospering."
• Courtney Wright is CEO and owner of Gemini Builds It! in Elgin.