“For the first time in 15 years, we are not teaching swimming”

Until end of February, I was in paradise. Enjoying my annual month-long vacation with my family in picture-perfect Playa Del Carmen, where the sun is hot, people are friendly, and life is just so good.

I am the President & CEO of the Montreal Institute of Swimming and the Canada Swim School, one of Canada’s largest private swim clubs, home to over 200 incredible instructors, trainers and coaches, working out of 40+ pools across 2 provinces, and proudly serving over 10,000 families per year.

That was a yesterday. Today I employ 7 people on a skeleton crew and for the first time in 15 years, we are not teaching swimming.

I, like thousands and likely millions of other humans, first realized the covid-19 situation was truly serious when the NBA postponed their season on March 11. I was still fresh from my vacation in Mexico, skin still bronzed, mind relaxed partly still on a beach somewhere, and stress levels low. That last part in particular wouldn’t last long. After ingesting enough news and information in a few hours and speaking with some colleagues, the seriousness of the pending epidemic sunk in. The scariest part was no one knew what to expect; this has never happened before. My thoughts immediately went to my family, then to my business (my other family). In that instant my life was thrown into uncharted waters.

“There is only survival, as fast as you can”

As the founder and proud leader of organizations built on the principles of the sharing economy, the impact of covid-19 on my business has been severe. My companies are unique in that we rent pool space, and thus rely of the health of our partners to exists. We specialize in private swim lessons. Spring, our busiest season, would have started March 16. We would be teaching close to 3000 classes per week. But as severe as the impact was, it was an awakening. There is nothing like being torn out of the fabric of routine to re-awaken the passionate, driven entrepreneur who once worked 80+ hours per week, did everything all the time, and did it all because he just loved it. It’s funny how before, you would think ‘this could never happen’. But once you’re in it, it Is your new reality. There is zero room for that type of reflection, there is only survival, as fast as you can. It kind of shifted me into high gear, feeling alive and younger (entrepreneurial’ly, at least) for the first time in a decade.

When the news first broke on March 11th that major sports leagues were suspending operations indefinitely, I knew we would need to do the same. I shifted into get-more-information mode, and simultaneously into damage control mode, the latter out of necessity and urgency. Statements were issued for employees, clients and partners, clarifying our awareness of the situation and our position, which was the maintain operations until further information was available. Employees were understanding, appreciated the quick heads up, and were quick to take initiative. Clients were appreciative too but we could sense more panic with on the client side. We resolved to forged ahead as safely as possible, but be ready to pull the plug and shut. It. All. Down. (It literally gave me goosebumps as I wrote those last 4 words)

Within 24 hours of the NBA announcement, we did decide to pull the plug and we shut down all operations. After 15 years without ever missing a week of lessons, we had gone from business as usual to out-of-business in 36 hours. Health authorities nearly simultaneously suspended schools, and closed numerous public services – including swimming pools.

“…clinging to the fading hope, watching their revenues plummet but still convincing themselves that every dollar counts”

Ha. Just realized that was Friday the 13th. What is still scary is that to this date there still isn’t much of an idea of when we can resume operations.

I haven’t had much chance to think back, it’s been a lot of scrambling since that date. Upon reflecting, I am so glad we pulled the plug early and committed to it. I have seen some entrepreneurs dragging on, clinging to the fading hope, watching their revenues plummet but still convincing themselves that every dollar counts. Accepting and implementing a full shutdown quickly gave confidence to our leaders, employees and clients. If people feel we made the right call, which I think we did, it ought to add to our reputation and credibility.

We turned our focus to addressing our key stakeholders, our employees, clients and partners. With no prior crisis experience, I had to do what felt right and quickly. We immediately held an all-hands-on-deck meeting with the entire management team for both clubs- something we would continue to do every day, sometimes twice per day for the next 10 straight days. Still, with new developments pouring in by the minute, it was difficult to settle on a fixed strategy.

We took control of our strength, and dug in there. Our part-time employees are the foundation of our organization, on the front lines with our clients, we have over 200 of them so we started there. We instituted daily video updates, which was posted across our social media, and links sent via email to our entire staff. We got all over it, engaging, sharing, liking and investing our time into this omnline community of 200+ young adults. We implemented a social media campaign internally for our staff to keep them engaged and informed. #SwImpact encourages our staff to post videos of their new daily routines, and share how they were keeping busy, how they were exploring their passions, challenge and nominate others, giving us an inside look into their lives. This has probably been our greatest success of the covid crisis thus far, as participation and engagement among our staff is at an all-time high. We are keeping the staff close, engaged, and we are actually getting to know each other better than before.

For our full-timers, it was important to me that I provide some certainty for their way of life. They are the glued that holds it all together, the glue must be strong. I absolutely had to ensure they/we had the confidence from the get-go. They had to know they had the company’s unconditional support. Thus, I immediately instituted a 6 week plan that would guarantee each of them at their income and benefits – everyone was keeping their job.

Taking care of our clients was more challenging, but we wanted to do it right. I have to give full credit to my customer service team, who built our position on transparency and flexibility. While other companies would shrink away at the notion of refunding/losing significant revenues in the face of an operations freeze, we made the option readily available to our clients. Clients were grateful for the flexibility and over half agreed to keep their credit with us. Similarly, those who were in a difficult financial position were especially grateful for the no-hassle money back option.

“Within 48hrs we cut operating costs were down 80%“

We issued personal Thank You’s to everyone who kept a credit with us, as without their support and trust in our business we would have been in choppier waters. But the support has been overwhelming This vote of confidence has ensured more jobs will be kept, the lights will stay on, and that calls & emails will be keep being answered promptly for the duration of the pause.

Throughout all this, we updated our pool partners, those who rent pool space to us. They are all such understanding, amazing partners. It is important to point out here the incredible professionalism and generosity of every single one of our partners, to be immediately flexible with any rent agreements. They have been truly professional and accommodating, a true lesson in business or ethics (take your pic), and thus have guaranteed that we will want to do business with them long into the future. We wished each other luck, agreed to stay in close contact and update each other as new information became available.

With the initial impact addressed with our key stakeholders, we shifted quickly our focus to divesting and optimizing our operations for the duration of the shutdown. We split into 2 teams.

Team Compensation was 100% dedicated to ensuring our employees were informed, guided, and most importantly taken care of. They were incredible. Within a day all 200+ of our employees were well-informed of their options for income compensation, which government programs were applicable to them, how/when to apply, and most importantly what was the company plans for short-term and long-term scenarios. This information was circulated and updated daily across all our social media and correspondence channels, and integrated with #Swimpact. We created polls on social media to ascertain how educated our staff were, and followed up with anyone who seemed uncertain what to do.

Team Cost-Cutting was in charge of reducing our operating costs by 75% within 48hrs. The goal was to maintain 3 critical aspects: staff support, client support, and infrastructure support. The trick here was that we needed to cut all possible costs on the inside, while on the outside appearing and remaining fully intact (answering phones, emails, providing updates etc). They also performed flawlessly. Within 48 hours we operating costs down by 80%.

“How long can we survive like this?”

With the initial rush over, it was now time to ask myself the big question: how long can we survive like this? The answer: long enough. Fortunately, the timing of the shutdown wasn’t terrible, and thanks to the support of our amazing clients and the quick actions of our team we have a strong war chest to subsist on.

With the fast and decisive work done, some well-earned (though brief) time off was deserved.

With the initial impact behind us, and the present under control, it was time to focus on the future. “Never let a good crisis go to waste”, they say. It was time to let opportunities flow and dare to dream about what the new world could look like and how could we make the most of it.

Fortunately and unfortunately, emerging trends are starting to appear in the countries where covid-19 has been in the longest. Initial fact-based projections – while still with a fairly large margin of error – are becoming available for recovery timelines. Unfortunate because as we all suspected, this will likely be a long- battle.

So that’s where we stand today as of this writing, March 30.

What does the upcoming week yield? Daily all-hands-on-deck or strategy meetings with my team, to strategize, revise, and repeat. We will be ready to ramp up business safely at the earliest opportunity, and scale the recovery. We are exploring new possibilities and how to seize them. We are imagining a possible new world, and getting prepared for every possible scenario. (And there are a lot of them)

For the first time today, my mind wandered back to our place in Playa Del Carmen, if I listen closely enough I can still hear the sounds of the beach. That was only a few weeks ago but it feels like another life.

I hope I get to go back there.