Our culture saved our business. Part 2

 

One late October night in 2010, thieves broke into our business and stole almost everything that was the heartbeat of our business.  Our computers, cameras and other production gear, and most important- our server and archive storage.  

 I had nightmares that looked like this for months.

Much to my regret, I had earlier determined that our growing business could not afford off-site storage of our video work, or an alarm system. (Yes, I may be cute, but I can be pretty dumb at times.)

It was like starting over...but worse. 

When we came in the next morning everything from our custom business forms to five years of client’s work was gone. It was like starting over again after a long struggle to grow, except this time we had we weren’t starting from scratch in our garage.  This time we had contractual obligations to fulfill to our clients, our landlord and vendors. And this time we had a staff for 11 full time employees.

The business had finally started to really take off.  In fact, we had just ‘broken even’ the month before; we didn't owe anything to anybody.  Our biggest jobs --ever-- were in progress, so we had to scramble to fulfill obligations that we had already sunk a lot of time and resources into.  One of those jobs was due the next day after the break in. We had no tools to complete the work and the footage and graphics that we had just completed for delivery were gone.

It was a disaster.  A calamity. 

 

 The police were still taking finger prints when we rallied our team.

While the police were still taking finger prints downstairs, we gathered our team in the meeting room upstairs.  The team looked confused and fearful for their futures. I had never seen people like this before.  We delivered a speech that assured them we would make it through.  That this would not kill our business.  That they would not miss a paycheck, and they could count on us to deliver on these promises.  We frankly had no idea of how were where possibly going to fulfill these statements.  We told them to get busy and figure out what was missing and prioritize what challenges we needed to meet first. They left looking more confident and determined but still a bit scared. 

After that speech, I went out to a remote part of the parking lot and wept.

The days and months and year that followed taxed our business and my wife and I to the breaking point.  We went from our highest profit months ever, to months of nearly zero income.

But we survived.

When the chips are really down, where do you turn?

And although it came at a terrible price, we came out stronger. Looking back, I realize now know what factors played the largest roll in our survival. 

Over the previous years we took great effort to build a team that was not only talented, but also knew that we valued them. We had built a culture that focused on respect, loyalty and the belief that we had each other’s backs.  We had worked hard, played hard and downed enough beer together that we trusted each other.  This culture we had created was now going to be put to a very hard test.  Turns out the relationships we had formed with other business people in our community were also going to play a role in our survival.

But I will leave these parts of the story for next time.

More soon.