Is your business too reliant on good (or consistent) weather?

I ask that question, since I am seeing too many people say they can’t do or go about their business due to the snow.

Sam Kelly has recently written about procrastination on Ecademy, but I think it may well go further than that. Have we simply stopped taking risks or having the ability to function on a day to day basis? A meeting with a team member suggested it is more than a mind set.

I recently wrote about What is your Why on the 10th January before the snow fell.

For me, I am fortunate to be in a business that doesn’t rely on the weather, but profits from extremes.

Getting cold – great, people turn the heat up and I earn more.

Getting hot – great people turn up the air conditioning, and I benefit, even when they are out and about using their mobile phones.

There are issues though – the building trade has come to a halt, since it is too cold for mortar/concrete to set. And realistically, it is not safe for building materials to be delivered. I accept that.

However, hospitals are now clearing non urgent admissions and appointments – my own check up has just been put back by a couple of weeks.

Schools are closing by the dozen if not the hundred due to risk.

This creates further problems and a financial drain as parents either have to take time off from work or pay for a child minder. This impact is wholly wrong. I never had snow days as kid in the 1960s. Sometimes, teachers didn’t come in, so classes were combined, or a film shown in the main hall. The school coped, and my parents weren’t inconvenienced.

I am off to Stevenage this afternoon (Monday 21 January) from South London for a business meeting and training for team members, and building in an extra hour travel time in both directions by public transport unless it gets cancelled by someone else.

Why are people so unable to cope now?

So what is your view?

Laurence

PS A bit of thought for posties and leaflet delivery people today and this week. I know they are suffering in this weather.