A Note From Erik Hatch

Written by: Erik Hatch

Photo via the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber Of Commerce

Hatch is the the Owner of Hatch Realty, a leader in the business community and author of Play For The Person Next To You.

The truth of the matter is that we’ve been given a gift and we don’t even recognize it. We’re being forced to change our businesses, and forced to change the way in which we operate. And yet, most of our energy is spent trying to protect what we built rather than progress to being the next best version of ourselves. Most of us have asked ourselves the question, what happens if I start over? If it all comes crashing down today, what would I do different? We actually get that chance right now. So look at how we’re running our business is with new eyes and with a new perspective. 

We can use this COVID-19 crisis as a catalyst for our business and our decision making. We must protect our people, but not at the cost of not progressing our businesses and moving forward. There are huge opportunities that are being demanded of us. And right now, those that are swift to change will be the ones to benefit from it. Protecting what we’ve built is the natural instinct. And yet progressing to the next chapter is the only thing that’s going to allow us thrive and creates ample opportunities for those in our worlds. I’ve never had to make tougher decisions for business than I have the last 30 days. And yet, I’m consistently ready to make those changes 

 Right now those people with the privilege of owning businesses are feeling new pressures that we’ve never felt before. And our ability to act, even if we don’t know where we’re going, or what we need to be doing, is going to be the thing that will keep us afloat. Inaction is really dangerous right now. Waiting for the dust to settle and waiting for us to see with grand clarity what move we’re supposed to make, will leave us a day late and $1 short when all this comes to a screeching halt. What I would challenge business owners and myself to do is to start taking action. To start creating plans and keeping our fingers on the trigger to make tough decisions when we need to. If we sit idly by and our only action is inaction in this, we’re setting ourselves up for desolate and painful future. On the flip side of that is if we take action, and if we start enacting the plans, and the procedures and the protocol to reinvent our businesses, so long as we’re keeping our people as the utmost concern, that we’re serving them and not serving ourselves, that we’re willing to be the first ones to sacrifice and not the last, so long as we are setting our businesses up to change and evolve rather than to remain the same. We are finding ourselves in a really opportunistic spot. The thing we’ve been praying for and hoping for is now being forced on us and it’s going to be met with some massive resistance and some massive pain. From that pain will come massive gain for those that are strong enough to carry the load to get through So my overall advice would be to not sit idly by and instead take action. 

And when we come through this, we’ll be stronger for it.


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