It's the morning of Sunday March 15th, 2020. It has not been a good week. We mourn the loss of thousands of lives lost worldwide to the new enemy of humanity: the Corona virus we all now know and hate. The stock market saw significant disruption and turbulence this week. Travel plans are being altered. Events are being cancelled, postponed or modified. Life as we know for the next 12 days, 12 weeks and 12 months will be different. The pandemic is changing how we work. Some of the changes are going to stick with us for a while, may be for life.

This has obviously impacted certain industries like travel, tourism, hospitality, retail and restaurant. I am confident that someone will do something to bail them out. Some industries will get hurt more than others, but people will take notice and talk about that. Wall street will take care of itself.

The forgotten collateral damage will be on Main Street in America. Small businesses with 2 to 20 employees will get hit hard with another problem. That problem is FEAR. The widespread fear among people triggers downward movement in business and slows or even kills progress. We will have to climb out before we can climb up.

My business plan for Q2-2020 will change. We had a good year in 2019. We stockpiled some cash and earmarked marketing funds for 2020 growth. This week makes last 15 months irrelevant. We have a crisis on our hand, and the only thing matters is your goodwill in the market and the cash on hand.

Emergence of social media and digital economy made us less social. There has been a steady decline in human interaction. Now, there will be even less human interaction. We are moving away from hugs, handshakes & high-fives. We are moving to an era where 'Machine to Man Marketing' is going to be a new norm. People would want to deal with machine more than they would want to deal with the man.

That means, role of sales is changing. The buying process is controlled more by the buyer. History has shown that in traumatic economic times, trust is no longer taken for granted and buyers demand proof & accountability. Buyer must read, see and hear enough to be satisfied before they buy.

As a seller, you must trigger success. Only failure will trigger itself. The most powerful force that will trigger failure is lack of action.

We have already been in a multi year, (even multi-decade) recession that never ended. Don't let the economic numbers fool you. Small businesses already had to work harder to build & grow. Between 1990 and 2020 there has been steady erosion of trust. People just don't believe other people. They are afraid that 'all is not OK'. 

And this fragile humanity and economics gets hit by corona virus.

Today is not a good day. Today triggers a time in our life where the journey from 'hello' to 'here is my money' will be more treacherous. The buyer will take longer to buy, and they will expect you to have a more trustworthy, more believable, more human-friendly selling process otherwise they will simply abandon the deal. There will be more appointment no-show and appointment no-sale in next 15 months than you had in the last 15 months.

And there will be less 'hello' in the next 15 months than you had in the last 15 months.

There are other adversaries in micro-economics that makes this macro-economic impact even more painful for small businesses like us. I predict a sharp increase in CPL (Cost per lead). I predict a sharp increase in CPNP. (Cost Per New Patient). I predict a sharp decrease in CLTV (Customer Life Time Value). 

Wait! Where is that coming from? Why would CLTV would go down? This virus thing is temporary, and this too shall pass. What could possibly happen that would trigger a sharp decline in CLTV? Fair question, rght?

One word: competition. In coming days, weeks and months your hungry & nearly broke competitors will attack your clients with new energy and effort and your loyal, faithful, friendly client will be persuaded to review their relationship with you and see if 'there is a better option out there'.

May be I am wrong about the whole CLTV decline... but let's just be conservative and compensate for this factor too. If I am wrong, we can celebrate your victory together. I hope and pray that I am wrong about the CLTV.

It's unlikely that I am wrong about other variables. It's unlikely that I am wrong about upcoming challenge that my small business owner friends will be facing.

Now, for some good news:

Fortunately, we have been preparing for today. As Dan Kennedy said: 'There is a long, harsh winter coming and it will show up at our doorstep without warning' and for that reason we have been hoarding cash. We can afford to weather out this storm. This is just a medical thing. It's just a virus. The entire humanity on this earth is united to fight this beast as one cohesive force. It's a matter of time before we get our arms around this corona thing. Yes it will do its damage, unfortunately we will have to endure the suffering, but we will tough it out. This is not the end. This is just a setback. And we can afford to deal with it.

Economic Stimulus Package for Small Businesses

Let us all wait for the government to create a small business bail out package. One where every entrepreneur will be guaranteed to be compensated for time invested and risks taken. One where government will mail us checks to cover payroll and wipe off all our debts. One where government will create an economic task force that will generate guaranteed number of qualified leads that will convert, pay, stay and refer.

Or we can do something about it by ourselves

I am not too hopeful that some external force (be it God or Government) will actually do something to help us out. I am not hopeful that we will see enough action from our government fast enough to make a difference in the life of an entrepreneur.

Historically, we have been given the freedom to do whatever we want to do to a reasonable extent, but we have had to cook our own meal. We get freedom, protection, opportunity equality, safe/clean work environment and economic infrastructure... and I AM grateful for all of that.  But money we have to make.

Its the money we make that actually pays for everything. So, let's get this straight. They don't pay us, we pay them.It's OUR checkbooks that actually write checks. No one mails us checks. We print checks, we sign checks, we mail checks. It is OUR job to stimulate our own economy. Let's all get together and support each other. We are all we got. 

So, let us all get off the couch, turn off the television and go make some money. Our employees, our vendors and our government is expecting us to recover from this and start carrying the weight on our shoulders. Let the bio-scientists find the cure for Corona. We the business owners got bills to pay, dreams to catch and a nation to build. Let's get to work! If we are locked up in our homes and offices, let's get on phone!

My Gift To You: Magnetic Marketing Funnel

I have been a business owner since 2002 and I have seen a lot of action. I consider myself a battle hardened soldier in the battle for market share. I have a history of victories and a database of things that can go wrong.

I remember the battles of economics between 1989 and 2020. Dot Com bust, post 911 economic blues, the wars (all of them), mortgage meltdown and few things that happened specifically to my business.  I have been wounded multiple times, but I survived and thrived. I am not proud of how rich I am, but I am proud of what I have been through and survived.

I am no genius. I am not even lucky. I am trickster. I got tricks and hacks that helps me land on my feet when I fall.

The MOST VALUABLE PLAYBOOK I have right now is a Magnetic Marketing funnel. I have modified the core concept of Magnetic Marketing that I have found to be working during economically distressed times. As you may know, I am a certified MMA (Magnetic Marketing Advisor).

So to combat the economics blues of Corona 2020, I am going to be doing this. I have built this funnel out in Hubspot, Infusionsoft and Click-Funnels. If anyone who has studied Magnetic Marketing and understands the principles of this concept can get this funnel and companion follow up campaign from me FOR FREE. No really, FOR FREE. I don't need to sell this to make a quick buck! I will share this with you so you can implement it yourself or for a modest fee you can hire my team members to turnkey it's implementation. We will share the funnel in your Click Funnels account. We will copy the campaign in your Infusionsoft or Hubspot account at no charge. You do not have to hire us to implement this. You can do this yourself or hire anyone you want. (We hope you would consider hiring us for implementation, and we can talk about that).

All you have to do is to write copy and shoot five videos. I will even give you the framework and formula for writing your copy and scripting what to say on your videos.

If you are a dentist or an orthodontist, we have an ever sweeter offer. We have Magnetic Marketing Campaign for Dentists FULLY POPULATED WITH COPY AND CONTENT complete with traffic drivers, lead magnets, funnel pages, follow up campaign and staff training material all built out, designed, written, implemented and tested. We will GIVE (not sell, GIVE) them to you so you can customize them and launch them quickly. Just book a call with me at www.elaunchers.com/client and when we meet I will install this funnel and campaign in your account.

All Hands On Deck

On Friday a dentist sent an email to one of my sales people: "Hi Johnathan,  Thanks for the email and call. I am still interested in considering working together. However, right now it is a "all hands on deck" situation managing the Corona Virus issues."

I feel the same way. It is a 'all hands on deck' situation managing the Corona Virus issues.

If you feel the same way and if you are in an 'all hands on deck' situation, can you use my hands on your deck? What can we do together to help you deal with the economic turbulence ahead?