Pub. 60 2019-2020 Issue 6

11 WINTER 2020 Continued on page 12 TADA is a fantastic place to do all of these things, especially meeting people. What are two things that you have learned from past experi- ences that are helping you navi- gate now? There are two keys to weathering a storm: • The first is having and keeping a strong financial position. Protect the dealership by making healthy decisions so you can open. Don’t make desperate decisions or oper- ate in fear. • The second is staying positive when you are afraid. In the late 1980s, the U.S. had to deal with an oil embargo and a stock market crash. We knew at our dealer- ship that if we didn’t turn it around in a month, we would be done. What made it worse was that we had employees who depended on us; it is hard to let someone go. We decided we would never go through that again, and we have been cash hoard- ers ever since. When the pandemic hit, we were ready. How did you weather the pan- demic storm? We knew we couldn’t shut down because we are essential. People need their transportation. We also knew that the situation in April 2020 was temporary because this economic downturn wasn’t based on demand. We started with sanitizer, a cleaning crew and mask mandates. If people felt unsafe, we told them to stay home. We changed our staffing to a skeleton crew and rotated its mem- bers. We kept everyone employed by having our own PPP plan before anyone else offered us one. We could afford it because we had saved for that proverbial rainy day. I saw the tragedy of COVID first- hand. This past summer we lost three employees to it. That was tough. Nothing makes up for the loss of life. What is the takeaway for you from the pandemic that will guide your future business deci- sions as a small-business owner and leader? Future business decisions will be differ- ent because of the health perspectives we gained. We were ready financially, but there was a learning curve about protecting our employee’s health.