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Running a Business During COVID-19

Geoff Livingston • Aug 13, 2020

Running a business through COVID-19 is by far one of the fastest moving and most difficult challenges I’ve had to deal with in my professional career...

It is difficult because it weighs on so many emotions. You have worked so hard to build systems, bought hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment all while trying to build a culture that makes Noravera truly what it is, to then have to rethink the whole thing within a matter of weeks and make decisions that are scary, emotional and ones that you don’t want to make but have to be made.


The dance becomes about how to keep the team together and keep as many working as possible, while looking out for the business by maintaining cashflow so there is something to come back to when this is all over.


As the entire world is unsure of what the weeks and months look like ahead. It has forced us to make some decisions that were not easy ones. We’ve had to adjust our team, our services and what we do as a business altogether. The large portion of our business has been forced to shut down due to the fact that social isolation means we can’t spend time together as a team or spend time with clients whether it is for planning shoots or actually filming with them.

One thing that is very interesting about this time is that everyone is in the same boat. No one understands what’s going on and everyone now needs to find new ways to communicate and get their stories across. It has made us rethink how we do things. It has made us look at what we spend money on and how can we do things more efficiently and better than we did before. It’s been an interesting time with the evolution of new systems and new operations and new ways to access the content that we have filmed in the past. It has also helped us think about how we can create content moving forward. There is a lot of back and forth I am sure in any business owners mind on how to approach the coming months and there’s a lot of uncertainty. Externally in the market and internally around how can our company and the team stay as productive and highly functioning as possible. It is a challenging time right now, there is no doubt. We will make it through stronger and smarter on the other side. The most important thing is to stay safe and healthy as more money can always be made, your life and the loved ones around you can’t.

I want to personally thank the team that has helped smooth out these last few weeks with their understanding and taking the time to talk through all of the decisions that have been made. I would also like to thank everyone who has gotten back to us from our outreach efforts with our new service offerings. We really do appreciate the support. It means a lot to me and I’m sure the rest of the team too. I wish everyone the best in the weeks and months ahead. Stay home and stay healthy. I look forward to seeing you for a coffee/ beer/ hug again soon, and through a video call even sooner.

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