Aug 5, 2020 4 min read

Have you felt as if life for the past five months has been like the movie “Groundhog Day”? It seems like we have been living the same day over and over.

The U.S. economy stepped outside the other day, saw its shadow and scurried back into hiding for a few more weeks. The gross domestic product experienced the sharpest contraction in modern American history during the most recent quarter, dropping nearly $2.2 trillion.

Since March, we have experienced chaos, confusion, fear and anger. We have seen scenes of horrific racism exploding across all manners of media. Generations of pain have fueled rioting and violence and death. We’ve had faltering systems and leadership failures, market declines and jobs lost.

Communities are divided. Home lives are disrupted. Oh, and all of this is amid a global pandemic. You cannot write or speak about business in our country these days without mentioning COVID-19 and the devastating impacts on the small business community.

The impact of COVID-19 is being felt by all businesses, large and small, around the world and the challenges have been immense. The tsunami of the pandemic and our government’s response, or lack thereof, has washed up on the shores of Southwestern Pennsylvania, threatening to wash away the foundation of our regional economy. Most of our small business owners are at a loss as to where they should focus their strategies over upcoming weeks and months.

We have an unprecedented opportunity during this unique moment in our history to become better – at literally everything we do. Particularly, the way we do business. Wayne Gretzky once said, “Don’t skate to where the puck is, skate to where the puck will be.”

This is perhaps the best business advice we have heard in a 35-year professional career. Think about this . . . where is your business going to be in six months, next year, even three years from now?

Looking ahead, of course, is exceedingly difficult when we are simply trying to survive. But in this moment, looking ahead is exactly how we will survive. It takes an extraordinary amount of courage to have maintained a growth mind-set and avoid slipping into a temporary fixed mind-set with all of the confusion swirling around about what we can and cannot do.

But if you look ahead, you have a huge advantage in the current marketplace. We do not believe our current reality is merely a temporary blip on the radar. This is the way we will be connecting with our prospects, customers and clients for the foreseeable future.

Now is not the time to roll up the tents and wait for this storm to pass. Now is the time to be brave, get out there and get your feet wet. Remember, when we Americans came together as a nation and did some amazing things? We set lofty goals – the kind of big, bold, and at times outrageous goals that were laughed at. And we made them seem easy.

If we come together again, we can emerge from this moment stronger and more resilient than we have ever been.

We will rebuild our economy by reinforcing our foundation now. Support our small businesses. Drive by the big-box stores and national chains. They are not here for us; they are here for themselves. Those local businesses down the street are here for us. They have supported us and nurtured us through our difficult times. Now, it is time we return the favor.

Jamie Protin is founder and principal of The Protin Group in Belle Vernon.

To submit business-related columns, email Rick Shrum at rshrum@observer-reporter.com.