The recent Carnival Cruise Line catastrophe has been front and center in the news. Lives lost to human error. I don’t know how to properly express that, so I will just say tragic. Reports stated $40 million in insurance deductibles, $95 million in lost revenues and the negative impact on their stock price.
What we didn’t hear about is all of the businesses that will no longer exist. Think about it. $95 million in lost revenue! How many of those dollars are spent to employ the crew? Lost jobs. Items that get purchased to run the ship like fuel, paint, food, supplies, fees and the list goes on. I don’t know about you, but my experience is the cruise ticket is the cheap part. How about all of the dollars those passengers will never spend at the ports of call.
What can we learn from this event?
First, we have to acknowledge that the unthinkable can happen. In our homes, families and business there is always that chance for life-changing or business-ending events. How many businesses will fail because Carnival will not be pulling up to the pier in the near future? Cabs, gift stores, restaurants, bars, tour companies and many more that rely on the foot traffic produced by that particular ship.
Who is your Carnival? Is it the Food Lion or Kmart that just closed causing a significant decrease in traffic? Is it the detour that makes it inconvenient to get to your business? Is it your main supplier that just had a major fire and can no longer get product to your door that your sales rely on? How about if your major account that makes the difference of being profitable or losing money suffers major damage and will not be buying product from you for the next 12 months? Will you survive?
Are there potential business ending-events that you have not considered? I would suggest it is time to consider them and implement a strategy to eliminate or at least minimize their impact on your business should they occur.
Don’t wait for your ship to sail.