Oil Spill - What would you do if your business was affected?

Hi Guys,

I'm not much of a poster here but I was reading this article about the spill in the Gulf and it got me thinking. I also thought it would be perfect for the sowpub forum to go over.

http://guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/11/bp-oil-spill-shrimp-king

You guys here are a really creative bunch and was curious what you would do if you were in the position of the shrimp king. I'm in Europe and at this time not affected by any of this (but I was affected by the Icelandic volcano and it was a real panic for myself and those around me if planes weren't allowed to fly).

Let's say you were located in the area, relied on fishing, tourism or a derivative of those industries for income but those sources dried up.

If you had an established business that was brick and mortar and had all these resources just sitting around not doing anything, what decisions would you make and how would you utilise what you have available?


Mark

P.S - not sure what happened to my older posts. I know I've had a few in my post count but they've seemed to have disappeared...

Hi Mark,

Hopefully, those businesses and people Affected have been Banking...

Preparing...

A Nice portion of their Revenues & Profits into other misc. Smart investments & Creative Profit centres...

That's why Developing and Growing Multiple Streams of Income...

Is so Very important in this Never ending-changing world...

Might be a little old by Now...

But still a Critical step in your business planning for Tomorrow's daily bread...
http://books.google.com/books?id=OXd...page&q&f=false
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c...=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Phil

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by MarkC

Hi Guys,

I'm not much of a poster here but I was reading this article about the spill in the Gulf and it got me thinking. I also thought it would be perfect for the sowpub forum to go over.

http://guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/11/bp-oil-spill-shrimp-king

You guys here are a really creative bunch and was curious what you would do if you were in the position of the shrimp king.

Hi Mark,

I read the article - he seems to own and run the shrimp docks, which presumably is where the shrimp boats offload their catch and process them.

It's probably harder for him than for the boat owners, since the boat owners can move to other locations. However, by owning the docks, he's stuck there!

He basically has to find other uses for his docks, while catching shrimp and other seafood is impossible in the area. He's already doing this by selling fuel and water to BP clean-up crews, and renting out dock space to them... Even though it's only a fraction of what he made before.

It's hard as I don't know the industry. Is it possible for him to also use his dock space, for example, for seafood boats who operate from outside the Gulf of Mexico. Or would it be too far for them to process their catches there, since it would be too far to get to? Maybe for a cheap enough price, he can attract extra business from further away, where fishing isn't affected by the oil spill?

That's what comes to my mind (though it might be unrealistic). I'm sure someone who knew more about the industry could come up with better ideas. I'm pretty ignorant regarding shrimp fishing. That's even though I've watched many episodes of reality TV shows like "Deadliest Catch" (crab fishermen), "Lobstermen" (lobster fishermen), and also "Swords" (swordfish fishermen)!

P.S - not sure what happened to my older posts. I know I've had a few in my post count but they've seemed to have disappeared...

I checked up on things... You posted last year asking some questions for Gordon to pass on to Harvey Brody - Gordon later deleted that whole thread, and your post got removed with the rest of posts there. (I still have a copy of it though - I'd be happy to pass it on to you if you like!)

Best wishes,

Dien

[Ankesh]

Thanks for asking about what to do with a brick and mortar business when things go bad.

Idea # 1: Teach. Start teaching folks at your place.

Idea # 2: Exhibit. Hold special exhibitions. Eg: Paintings by fishermen. It obviously won't replace the million dollar a month profits. But it could be leveraged to get a lot of free publicity that could help when things get better.

Idea # 3: See if the place can be re-financed for lower mortgage payments.

[Ankesh]

If you had to take full advantage of a disastrous situation, you need to be prepared. And learn from the big boys. About how to create a cash kitty.

There is a reason companies like Microsoft, Google, Berkshire Hathway keep so much cash at hand.

When times are bad, they go on a buying spree. And start buying all these distressed companies that have good fundamentals but are in a temporary crunch.

The Iceland volcano was too small a time period to show a lot of such distressed sales - in my opinion. But the oil spill will show some awesome deals for people ready with money.