By Scott Nichols, salon GM and consultant

If I was standing in front of each and everyone one of you, I would ask for a show of hands if the Covid-19 crisis had a negative impact on your business. I know pretty much everyone would raise their hands.  The next question I would ask is if Covid-19 still has a negative impact on your business. Most of you will probably still raise your hands. If asked what the negative impact is, I would hear customer counts, lotion, sunless and EFT sales are down. With a lot of travel, school dances and etc. cancelled, we are losing those customers. My last question would be what is your plan to overcome this?

I have talked about excuses in past articles and I want to touch on this topic again. It’s important because excuses can justify a reasoning for failing. It makes us feel good about an outcome we had control over by fooling ourselves in thinking it was an outcome we couldn’t control. I understand that we can’t control Covid-19 and your local or state government might have shut you down, but you are responsible for what you can control!

I am currently reading a book by Michael S. Hyatt called “Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals.” In this book, the author talks about the importance of “After-Action Reports.” He goes on to say after each mission the military conducts, each team member/leader writes an After-Action Report. It will explain what happened and what each team member did during the mission. Then one of the most important things happens next: They must focus on how they can improve. What did they do wrong?  Was there anything they could improve on? They must show where they can get better. They do all of this to improve the next mission.

Click here to read the entire article in the latest issue of Smart Tan Magazine online.