A free online webinar that was hosted by Golden West on April 9, was attended by over 1,000 business owners.

Pushing Your Business Through the Pandemic was the focus of the webinar with the aim of sharing advice and providing tools to small businesses trying to operate during today's economic uncertainty. With discussions on how to continue communication with customers, and strategies on how to operate in a digital world, along with tips on working with and managing teams remotely the webinar worked to touch base on many different areas for a variety of businesses.

With 3 guest speakers from different areas on hand to share their ideas with business owners, there was a great deal of information available to those who attended.

Matt Sunshine, from the Center for Sales Strategy, was one of three speakers on hand to share their ideas with business owners there was a great deal of information available to those who attended.

Based in Plano, Texas, Sunshine manages a team of 40 full-time employees that have been working remotely across the U.S. for the past 25 years. While talking about the transition that Canadians are facing in working from home as both the employer and employee Sunshine shared from his experience, “It is a proper mindset, it’s how to get ready for work, it’s what are the required tools, and how do you communicate correctly.”

When learning to manage a team remotely there can be challenges and unknowns as businesses learn to walk a new path, KPMG’s Stuart Pollon spoke about these challenges and what factors a business owner should consider in a remote working environment.

“How do I access the programs, how do I access the funding, we’re seeing a lot of our clients, and the folks we work with very focused on cash flow and liquidity and managing that,” in regards to cybersecurity Pollon noted that focus in that area is just as important, “We are seeing (that) at an unbelievable proportion, not just globally, but here in Canada and across the west, we are not immune to that.”

While working remotely has become the new normal for most business owners today, marketing is also something that needs attention to ensure a business is able to promote and get the information to their customers about how they are operating under the new guidelines set out for them.

Chuck Medford is a founding partner of Brands Formation and explained now more than ever businesses need to get their message out, “It’s a time of enormous media consumption, there are some studies out right now because people are using media a lot more obviously at home, consumption is off the charts.”

George Leith, the Chief Revenue Office at Saskatoon’s Vendasta, said it’s important for owners to look ahead and to get prepared for something he refers to as the bounce.

“What are you going to do in your business to get ready for the bounce,” was the question Leith posed to the webinar participants. “If you look back in history, there’s always been a bounce that’s occurred after some sort of downturn, and how you may be able to prepare for that bounce.”

View the full webinar HERE.