29 Heaven forbid if you must downsize

 

This chapter covers

  • Expenses are higher than revenues, and options to increase the top line have been explored. Now what?
  • How do you go about executing layoffs with humanity and compliance?
  • Is there a trick to delivering this bad news with empathy and still boosting the remaining team’s morale?

You are watching your cash burn and the resulting runway, and you are losing sleep. The revenues you were sure your sales team would start bringing in are not coming. The dogs are not eating the dog food. What is wrong? Is it the product? The business model? The assumptions that led to your forecast? You must figure out the answers, and fast. Raising money at this moment may not always be possible, especially if the issue is the product and you need to rework it. Perhaps the problem is that you or your predecessor expanded too fast, and the burn rate is too high for the rate at which you can sell the product. In any case, there is a mismatch between your expenses and your income. You are rapidly heading for that cliff.

29.1 Heading for that cliff

 
 
 

29.2 How to execute layoffs correctly

 
 
 

29.2.1 What is the cause of the layoff?

 

29.2.2 The form of the layoff

 
 

29.2.3 Communicating with those being laid off

 
 

29.2.4 Communicating with those remaining at the company

 
 
 

29.3 The moral of this anecdote

 
 
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