- Hi, this is Dan Lok.
I want to get this video to you immediately
and we've been self quarantine for a week now
and I don't want to wait.
So I'm making this video from actually my iPhone
and my wife, Jenny is actually holding this camera.
Now, if you've been laid off recently
or put on Pay leave, or you are worried
about losing your job and this video is for you.
I'll never forget when I lost my job at the supermarket.
I remember when I told my mom that I quit
my mom was so scared and I was very, very scared
I didn't know that how we are going to generate income
but I just knew deep down that's what I wanted to do
because I wanted to pursue my entrepreneurial career
and I know at a time I couldn't do it,
stuck at a dead end job and at a time,
that was the only job I've ever had.
Now because of the coronavirus
and because now this global crisis,
that a lot of people, in fact, millions and millions
of people are losing their jobs is very, very unfortunate.
So, if you happen to fall into the categories
and this has impacted you, impacted your career
I want to give you some tips that hopefully can help you.
I know one of my friends who are entrepreneurs
just in the last two weeks and with his permission,
I could share this with you, he laid off almost,
he had a team of 200 people, he laid off almost 170 of them.
So he's down to 30, so it's very challenging times.
So, if you're worried about getting laid off,
here are three strategies that could help you.
Number one, cement yourself in your current position.
If you still have a job right now, now is the time
to step up, now is the time to be proactive
because some income is better than no income.
When you get laid off, you don't know how long
it's going to take and you don't know how long
this coronavirus will last.
It might take you weeks or months
before you find a new job and generate income.
In the meantime, what are you going to do?
So now it's time to step up, what do I mean by that?
Now it's time to communicate with your supervisor,
your manager, your CEO, whoever is managing you,
leading you to communicate and say, you know what,
I don't mind working, I want to take on more responsibility
I want to take on those tougher assignments.
So when they're cutting people off,
they're looking at okay, if they have you and someone else
but you actually stepping up and they can see that
you want to fight with them in a company, chances are
they will let this other person go first
before they would consider you.
Maybe before you were working okay,
now you need to work extra hard.
Normal is out the window, there's no normal anymore, right?
How many hours you work, how much effort that you put in?
That's not enough anymore.
If you want to survive, if you want to fight,
you want to keep your job.
Yes, it means that maybe you need to work from home.
Yes, it means that you need to work through the weekends.
Yes, normal is out the window, to keep your current job,
you need to deliver extra value and you need to communicate
with the manager and supervisor and saying that
I'm here to stay, what do you need?
It also means that maybe now,
you need to wear multiple hats, maybe you were hired
to do certain things and now with so many people gone
and so many people being laid off, maybe you need
to take on a couple more things, it also means that maybe
you need to upgrade your skills.
Yes, it might mean that you need to volunteer
to take a pay cut.
You see, again, some income is better than no income,
especially, during a crisis like this.
Let's say you're making 4000 a month right now,
you reduce your pay to 3000 a month,
you lose 1000 a month, you're still making $3,000
versus you lose all $4,000 and you don't know,
when are you going to get your next job.
Maybe it's two months, three months, four months,
five months before you have any income coming in,
that will be very challenging for most families.
Number two, build that emergency fund.
In my previous video, I talked about this.
I recommend anybody to have at least, at least three
to six months or even a year of living expenses in cash
in your emergency fund account that you don't touch.
Now is the time to start that emergency funding.
Also, now is the time to leave enough to talk to your banks
to talk to the financial institutions to get
a line of credit if you don't already have one
or the increase the limit, to increase the limit
on your credit card, to ask for the equity loan.
Not that you want to use it, hopefully you don't need
to use it, but you want to be able to have access
to funds when you do need it in times like this,
now is a time because still banks,
they still need to loan money out to make money.
So now it's actually a good time to talk to them.
Not every banks will want to talk to you,
but you can talk to enough of them, one of them will say yes
and give you that extra line of credit that you might need.
Number three, cut all non essential spending.
now is a time for you to sit down with your spouse
and go through each expense line by line, line by line
and see hey, do we actually need this?
Especially those what are called recurring expenses.
Do we actually need this expense?
You sit down with them and say, you know what
we don't need that, now it's time to go lean.
Groceries, mortgage, your rent, yes, we need all that
but what about the other expenses,
do we actually need the cable TV, right?
If you have Netflix, maybe you don't need cable TV, right?
You look at all those expenses.
Maybe that big vacation that you were planning to take
now you have the extra cash,
put that in your emergency fund,
that big home renovations that you were thinking,
now you're going to delay delete it.
That new car you're going to buy, delete it.
Cut all non essential spendings, period.
Number four, turn your spare time into learning time.
Now is the time to learn, go listen to that podcast
go read that book, go watch that video,
they don't cost anything, now it's time to learn,
now is not the time to hide your bunkers
now it's time to actually expand and learn more in here.
Investing in yourself in your knowledge,
not money, it doesn't cost money
but you need to invest some time, right?
Now you have a lot more hours because
when this thing blows over, a couple of things would happen.
When this thing blows over, when the coronavirus,
when all this is over,
if you don't prepare yourself, now you have lost
it could be three months, six months
or eight months or even one year of productivity,
or actually this gets a lot worse
and you have already invested a few months
in your own learning, now you're more prepared.
Now you could pivot, you have more choices
you could test new things, you can maybe try a new skill
or go on a freelance website.
Yes, we are now transitioning into a different era,
that maybe you need to be more like a free agent
you need to be a freelancer,
now you need to be able to work from home.
Before, it's nice to work from home
now with what's happening with the financial crisis,
you need to develop that ability to work from home.
It also means maybe as a couple
maybe you are a stay at home mom or stay at home dad,
you're taking care of your kids, you're going crazy
I know that, so both could work together as a couple
so both could be generating money before maybe only one
was working, now both need to be working to generate
more money and income to put in that emergency fund.
And please remember, stay safe,
stay strong and stay healthy.
(calm music)