Managing through economic turmoil is always challenging, but the oil crash that started in 2015 and continued into 2016 was an especially tough time to work through. 2016 was and remains my only “red” year. What stung me the most was not the loss of profit, but the loss of people…of friends. Ultimately, I am responsible for leading a company and providing livelihoods to employees. When I have to let someone go, I take it very personally because we are not a “body-shop”…we are family.
2016 put me on guard, Harvey in 2017 validated the need to always stay on guard, so COVID-19 in 2020 found us on guard. My wife and I, as well as our core leadership team, have always approached finances and business growth cautiously. Growth may be positive, but it may also come with a heavy burden if not managed and sustained…and sometimes external factors hit you hard when you least expect it. We do not fear growth and we still strive for it; however, we are very careful about how we grow and assess opportunities for their long-term potential rather than a short-term gain.
Regarding our biggest win, I do feel we may be experiencing our biggest win as we live through, work through, and grow through 2020 despite its many challenges. We have not let anyone go. In fact, we have grown our team in the last several months. We quickly adapted our organization and services to the COVID-19 virtual business mode of operation. We have aggressively pursued business to ensure our employees and their families feel safe and secure on the professional front, which hopefully affords them more physical, mental, and spiritual bandwidth to tackle the many personal challenges of living during this pandemic. If we can stay the course until an upswing in the economy, then this will be our biggest win.