Staying in Business | Public Service Campaign

Our Story
Almost as soon as the coronavirus crisis began to unfold and less than one week after the NBA announced a Utah Jazz star tested positive for COVID-19, suspending its season in response to the global pandemic, tectonic plates underneath Utah’s Salt Lake Valley and Great Salt Lake Desert quaked. We started our day, Wednesday, March 18, to a 5.7 magnitude earthquake. For us on the fourth floor of our Salt Lake City NACVA HQ, it felt like our world was falling apart.

If not for the quake that morning, NACVA HQ and its 30 employees would have continued our rapid-fire deployment of strategic crisis management, addressing online telecommunication, staff restructuring, and implementing an immediate work from home plan and policies. Safeguarding our health and the health of our loved ones was, and is, paramount. COVID-19 pandemic concerns were amplified by state and municipal emergency services springing into action that morning.

Within three hours of the quake rumbling beneath our feet, the entire staff was accounted for and safe. We closed our offices for the day but continued to focus on our necessary restructuring. A few days later, our entire staff had been relocated to work from home spaces. We are now fully functioning, carrying out essential member services, actively running credentialing training programs, and utilizing organization-wide process automation. Infused into our memories, we will forever associate the beginning of the coronavirus chaos with the day the earth shook around us.

Moving Forward
The muscle behind NACVA’s global association and resource network is a company much like the core demographic of our membership—a small company run by a dedicated and talented team of professionals. When crisis hit NACVA, we hardly skipped a beat. Collectively we stayed the course. We stayed in business.

In these frantic, riveting, and unforgettable moments in time, bewildered by the speculative and evolving global pandemic, along with the unsettling economics, it has become crystal clear to me just how important it is that we stay focused and truly join together to wrestle down circumstances beyond our control. This applies to all of us; it is the only thing we can do if we want to survive. We must, as an association, band together to bring about positive impacts to the financial health and continuity of businesses in the U.S., and for the greater global economy.

Staying in business in these challenging times requires that you never lose sight of the foundations upon which the business is built, and that you listen and tune in to the needs of your clients/customers. Staying in business, now more than ever, requires that you provide unmatched resources and services, and make thoughtful and well-informed decisions. You must rely on your team. Do not work in a vacuum. Finally, staying in business means paying it forward, contributing to the benefit of  your profession and the community.

What We Can Do
In that spirit, we have some positive news. NACVA is developing an expansive webinar series for members, business owners, and their advisors, entitled: NACVA’s COVID-19 Public Service Campaign—Staying in Business. It aims to:

1. Enlighten the global business valuation community with continuing professional education, technical guidance, practical advice, and answers to difficult questions in light of what is now consuming the globe.
2. Help members support Main Street businesses, and businesses of all sizes through the delivery of crucial, timely, and most particularly, relevant information and resources.
3. Build and expand your global network of qualified experts and training services to help you sustain a solid practice now and in the aftermath of this global crisis.