Things To Do Other Than Panic About The Coronavirus

There is no doubt that many business owners are struggling right now in the face of a pandemic that is shutting everyone and everything down. Luckily, the Betties business model is set up to weather these types of storms. Our employees work from home every day so only minor schedule changes are needing to be made for team members with sudden loss of childcare. While we are able to keep on business as usual, we understand that many attorneys and business owners may not know what to do at this time.

Kids are home from school, your offices may be shut down, trials are being postponed, and clients still need your help.

Rather than panic, this is the time to take a look at your processes and start creating a new plan.

We’ve outlined some helpful ways to spend your time working on your business and ensuring that your law firm survives through this pandemic.

Go Virtual

• Alert your client base that you will be taking virtual meetings over the phone or through a video meeting platform like Zoom. This keeps you and your clients safe while also allowing you to continue to prepare for their current legal matters.
• Take advantage of our friends over at CLE Companion who are offering a discount with code “Betties” for your required online training.
• If you typically operate with an in-house receptionist, set them up virtually to take your calls. Froward their phones and consider restricting your office hours.
• If you typically take your own calls, set up virtual receptionist services so that you can focus on other aspects of the business while your kids are home and you’re juggling your family life. We are offering a 40% discount for one month to help attorneys get back on their feet during this time.

Work On Your Business, Not In Your Business

If business is slowing and active cases are falling off, it can be easy to feel defeat. But this is the prime time to really work on being efficient and productive. Don’t lose momentum because you can get through this.

• As mentioned above, use this downtime to work on your required CLE trainings.
• Draft up templates of common letters and documents you send out to clients and set up a workflow that automates them.
• Create a campaign calendar for your marketing. Be sure to include options that you can run right now as well as when the pandemic madness is behind us.
• Take a look at everything you do in the office that can be done virtually and start documenting processes for them. Our friends at Trainual are the perfect hosts for your documented processes and make it easy to share them with your team.
• Create an emergency plan. Late is better than never! Use your downtime to create the plan for a business emergency that you wish you would have already had in place. Ideally, this plan will cover every possible scenario that could affect your business and outline how to proceed in each event.
• Take business courses from the Small Business Association. They offer free online classes for every stage in your business, from startup to growth.

Ask For Help

• Apply for a loan through the SBA. Rates are incredible and funds will be available in every state once they sign a declaration. Not every state has signed yet but every state will be added after their governor shows that their counties are being affected. Anyone who can show that sales and revenue are being affected and is a private business or private non-profit is eligible. Loans up to $25k will be available without providing collateral.
• Facebook for business is offering $100 million in grants to 30,000 small businesses. More information will become available but grants mean you do not pay it back.

Other Resources

• The IRS has deferred all tax payments until July 15 with no interest or repercussions. Utilize this extension!

Above all else, stay positive, focused, and continue to work hard. The waters are rough right now and we are all in uncharted territory, but the best way to make it out alive is to keep on going.

If the Betties can help you with anything at this time, please feel free to give us a call at (800) 958-8591.