If you live in the South in the summer, you know what to expect—hot or rainy. Or hot AND rainy. On any given day, someone will complain about the heat. And someone else will say they love it.

But if you live in the South in the winter, all bets are off. Case in point: during the month of January in Georgia, we started the new year with a light summer, moved into tornadic spring, and we followed that with the harsh clutches of winter. Heat, sun, wind, and frigid temperatures in the span of a week. A saying that I’ve heard often is “Don’t like the weather right now? Wait 5 minutes.”

A couple of weeks ago, we got the unicorn of Georgia’s winters: that longed-for (or for some, often-dreaded) snow.

I went to the grocery store preceding the blessed event, where I encountered a great number of people and very few completely stocked aisles. While the continuing pandemic and supply chain problems might have been partly to blame, that day I knew for certain that southern snow was the culprit.

At the time, we were forecasted to receive anywhere from zero to five inches of something, any time over the course of three days. Maybe ice. Maybe snow. Maybe really cold rain. Nobody really could predict. But what was certain was that every grocery store had a run on milk and bread, which has always confused me since those two could never go together.

It seemed like everyone had an idea of what was going to happen, and it all depended on who they were listening to for their weather news. I always heed the advice of my stepdad, who when I ask him whether it’s going to snow says, “Yes. Somewhere. Sometime.”

In the words of the band Chicago, does anybody really know?

That’s the thing about the weather. It’s going to do what it’s going to do. All we can do is prepare for it in the best ways available to us.

In the same way, we are perpetually preparing our businesses for the inevitable snow day. And your level of preparation will depend on who gives you your weather forecast. A new product, a shift in community needs, an unexpected turn—all of these can lead to stress and moments of crisis if you haven’t planned well ahead of time. Being without power is never fun, but it’s made better when you went ahead and bought the generator beforehand. It’s worth the expense when you’re staying warm and able to continue to live comfortably while the power companies work hard to restore electricity following an ice storm.

A marketing plan can serve as your generator. With an already established relationship with a marketing agency like Forum, you have all your safeguards in place. And just like your local meteorologist details their forecast around the specific data in your region, Forum creates a personalized plan just for your business or organization. You get the knowledge of our entire team of experts, on board to help you make sure you’re ready for the next big (or small) thing.  So while the electricity runs great, and you’ve got all the power going to all the right things, you’ll know that in the event of a crisis or moment of uncertainty, Forum is there to help strategize what your next steps should be. When the ice and snow arrive, we have already come through and salted the sidewalks.

Would you like to learn more about what Forum can do for your company or organization? We would love to chat with you. That way, you’re never left without supplies for your milk sandwiches.

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