Principal Attorney of the Campbell Law Group, Regina Campbell, discusses the current issues confronting the United States and the World: Inflation and Supply Chain Issues. She explains how the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the economies of the world and offers solutions for how your company can help curtail some of the associated problems.
The Campbell Law Group P.A. while representing clients whether in civil, corporate, commercial, employment, or family law matters, our company’s primary goal is first to help clients minimize the need for unnecessary litigation and conflict where possible
The Campbell Law Group P.A. while representing clients whether in civil, corporate, commercial, employment, or family law matters, our company’s primary goal is first to help clients minimize the need for unnecessary litigation and conflict where possible.
Contact us by calling our office at (305) 460-0145 or emailing us at service@thecampbelllawgroup.com.
Principal Attorney of the Campbell Law Group, Regina Campbell, discusses the current issues confronting the United States and the World: Inflation and Supply Chain Issues. She explains how the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the economies of the world and offers solutions for how your company can help curtail some of the associated problems.
The Campbell Law Group P.A. while representing clients whether in civil, corporate, commercial, employment, or family law matters, our company’s primary goal is first to help clients minimize the need for unnecessary litigation and conflict where possible
The Campbell Law Group P.A. while representing clients whether in civil, corporate, commercial, employment, or family law matters, our company’s primary goal is first to help clients minimize the need for unnecessary litigation and conflict where possible.
Contact us by calling our office at (305) 460-0145 or emailing us at service@thecampbelllawgroup.com.
0:10
Regina Campbell your host of the legal
0:12
zone podcast
0:14
and want to welcome you back today for
0:15
episode one of season two we want to
0:18
thank you all for joining us for
0:19
previous uh our first season episodes we
0:22
hope you've enjoyed them and they've
0:23
been helpful for you and your business
0:24
and your family
0:26
and we hope to bring additional content
0:28
coming up this year that should be new
0:30
and interesting hopefully
0:33
so today we want to talk a little bit
0:34
about how to manage inflation and supply
0:36
chain issues within your business
0:39
now everyone's very well aware of what's
0:41
going on in the world and the literally
0:43
seismic change
0:45
that covet has brought about
0:46
particularly
0:47
not just us humans right and to our
0:50
health and
0:51
you know concerns within this world
0:54
you know internationally but it has also
0:56
greatly affected our economies
0:58
and the united states and particularly
1:00
Florida is no exception
1:02
there is a supply chain issue that
1:04
everyone's talked about that has seems
1:05
to be
1:06
ongoing for some time and it seems to be
1:08
created starting with the change in the
1:11
pandemic that required sort of
1:12
everything to halt
1:14
and then also sort of re-gear up to what
1:16
we needed to on a short-term basis in an
1:18
emergency
1:19
basis basically chaotic at the moment we
1:22
weren't even sure what we needed all we
1:24
knew is that we had to change we needed
1:25
medical supplies we needed the raw
1:28
material that went into medical supplies
1:30
and testing
1:31
and we needed a hunker down
1:33
our consumer and business
1:35
behavior changed
1:37
um
1:38
causing ripples and uh in some cases
1:41
maybe tsunamis you know along the supply
1:43
chain we were hoping as we came out of
1:45
this it would get better little by
1:46
little people went back to business
1:48
they've been back to work, and we were
1:49
hoping that would kind of um alleviate
1:52
some of the changes but in doing so and
1:54
depending on the various waves that have
1:56
gone by also
1:58
we sort of went like this, so we go back
2:00
to work
2:01
we go back to work we start seeing
2:02
increase in
2:03
basically, supplies our need for supplies
2:06
and demand for various different
2:08
material have another wave we might shut
2:10
down again and of course that happens
2:12
all over the world and it's not
2:14
happening in
2:15
you know being synchronized so
2:17
it has different effects as a domino
2:19
effect where one country was having some
2:21
difficulty and shut down due to them
2:22
wave that affected various products that
2:25
would come out of that country
2:26
uh including your raw material products
2:29
availability of things and it happened
2:32
in different areas
2:33
the other concern was we changed us
2:35
behavior quite significantly a lot of us
2:37
stopped driving to the to the office to
2:39
different places uh to go to retail
2:41
stores to go grocery shopping and it
2:44
shifted the need for such things as
2:46
shipped to Instacart and other delivery
2:48
services of groceries and other needs
2:51
this also
2:53
became another shift a lot of people
2:55
were more interested in doing gym at
2:57
home exercise at home they were getting
3:00
more into what they eat changing you
3:02
know actually a lot of them a lot of
3:03
people have developed uh
3:05
a desire for vegan they've kind of
3:07
learned a little bit more about cooking
3:08
about the keto diet there's been some
3:10
sort of an awakening also certain
3:13
behavior and thoughts to make our lives
3:15
better overall and of course
3:17
always understanding we're trying to
3:18
make sure we stay healthy whatever we
3:19
could avoid getting you know gravely
3:21
psyched with coping
3:23
and that also caused us to do a lot of
3:24
things of course online as we all know
3:26
this is the zoom age
3:28
team I’m sorry let me not preference
3:30
anybody team google hangout
3:33
zoom as many as numerous other
3:36
platforms that existed out there on the
3:38
virtual level
3:40
and basically it
3:42
changed the many things now there's a
3:43
demand for products and services um you
3:46
know greatly for certain things we never
3:48
thought would have been such an issue
3:49
and you know for technology change of
3:50
technology
3:52
uh software
3:53
ability to do more things at home to you
3:56
know run platforms and more sort of um
3:58
driven you know from the cloud including
4:00
businesses driven in that manner we're
4:02
also because of the issues with the
4:04
employees not just also um because
4:06
they've become sick and there's been a
4:07
lot of absenteeism due to covet but
4:10
there's also been in the United States a
4:11
particular great resignation that has
4:13
caused a need for us to become more
4:15
technologically reliant less reliant on
4:18
sort of human beings so to speak well as
4:21
we've all learned we are definitely
4:22
needed um you know you know employees
4:24
are definitely needed and there's also
4:26
been an awakening you know by various
4:29
industries and employees that maybe it's
4:31
time for a change in life um which is
4:34
added to the supply chain issues because
4:35
of course, there's not as many employees
4:38
in these different locations they're not
4:39
the same availability everything that we
4:41
had in place basically before
4:44
shifted and changed people moved from
4:46
different from the different cities in
4:47
different states they decided to change
4:49
careers there's no more work for them in
4:51
certain places they had to leave you
4:53
know there's a lot of they're looking
4:55
into going back to school changing their
4:57
careers making more money
4:59
making having a better life for
5:00
themselves the stimulus money
5:02
particularly united states also helped
5:04
that growth because Islamic center
5:05
wasn't that immediate need to live
5:07
paycheck by paycheck although there were
5:09
significant other seismic changes that
5:11
we’re occurring as well
5:12
so
5:14
that coupled with
5:15
different there are reliance on
5:17
different countries for raw material for
5:19
products
5:20
uh you know
5:22
became sort of the Achilles heel
5:25
and some people said well that's you
5:26
know more of an you know more reason to
5:28
everything all American-made and and you
5:30
know don't import and don't export so
5:32
much and I’m not saying that there
5:33
should be some rebalancing of certain
5:35
things and maybe some less reliance you
5:37
know it's possible as we kind of learn
5:39
there's certain things maybe we want to
5:40
have a little bit more on hand uh you
5:42
know on a short term basis so to speak
5:44
however it's just not generally
5:46
it worked before we had it down fairly
5:50
fairly efficiently we had because we had
5:53
patterns of people's behaviors of
5:55
consumers and we can watch over a slow
5:57
period of time then change and adjust in
5:59
markets and economies and transportation
6:01
companies
6:02
and various different companies from
6:04
different industries can watch that
6:05
change right
6:07
this was immediate and it's still
6:08
somewhat immediate as we get out of each
6:12
wave we okay we need this now okay we
6:14
need that now now our children are need
6:17
this additional help I’ve never seen
6:19
such a such a need for virtual tutoring
6:22
um for the most part it used to be hard
6:24
to find a an in-person tutor and it
6:26
still is but it's actually hard to find
6:28
a virtual tutor and you would think wow
6:31
but that's her tutor can be anywhere in
6:33
the world so it should be exponentially
6:35
more more people available to fill those
6:37
services and yet it has actually not
6:40
been
6:40
um so you know the advent of technology
6:43
and what has occurred there's been some
6:44
pros but there's also been some cons I
6:46
mean of course there's things that just
6:47
don't communicate very well also over
6:49
technology
6:50
but surprisingly
6:52
the medical industry has changed
6:54
significantly and done pretty well going
6:55
to virtual office appointments and
6:57
possibly that could be an increase in a
6:59
beneficial to most people as they get
7:01
better care it's easier to get care
7:03
they can go their lunch break and do a
7:05
quick doctor's appointment versus before
7:07
having to take time off travel across
7:09
town sit in a waiting room for three
7:10
hours and come back in which case they
7:13
miss half their day
7:15
you know they're able to resolve that in
7:16
a half an hour call
7:18
okay and attend to their medical needs
7:20
to make sure they're being they're
7:21
taking care of themselves
7:23
a lot of the you know things a lot of
7:24
testing can even be done you know from
7:26
home
7:27
so there's been
7:29
it's it's been it's been I think there's
7:31
been a lot of positive change also for
7:33
what has occurred unfortunately a lot of
7:35
the industries that have not done so
7:36
well or that have struggled because of
7:38
the supply chain issues waiting for
7:39
certain products to come from other
7:41
countries and whether they were dealing
7:43
with covet outbreaks themselves or
7:45
instability
7:47
there was also transportation slowdowns
7:49
companies that are I mean even truckers
7:51
there's a huge shortage in truckers
7:52
there was a huge shortage in uh you know
7:55
port
7:55
uh
7:56
port employees to man them to actually
7:58
unload the container so you had
7:59
containers going back and forth across
8:01
the world as usual
8:03
using the usual
8:04
in place sort of infrastructure that we
8:06
had but you didn't have the employees to
8:08
offload them whether it's because of
8:09
code illnesses changes in employments
8:12
they moved out of the city
8:14
all of these things have contributed to
8:15
an increase in cost and short of
8:17
bottleneck of the supply chain
8:20
but I also think it's important to note
8:22
the same way we kind of got into trouble
8:23
really fast little by little it appears
8:26
that we're kind of getting out of
8:27
trouble okay what do I mean by that
8:30
we're figuring it out you know we're
8:32
figuring out alternatives
8:33
alternatives uh to products whether it's
8:36
another product uh competitors product
8:38
or
8:39
um you know using uh you know different
8:41
material you have a lot of people going
8:43
into vegan so now they need actually
8:44
different type of plant
8:46
sort of um
8:48
food that they may not have normally
8:49
needed uh so there's a lot of dairy
8:51
products maybe you have a you know
8:52
shifting to more plant-based products
8:54
that might be easier to source where
8:56
you're at
8:58
I also find businesses becoming very
9:00
creative you know trying to find things
9:02
more locally sourced
9:03
smaller businesses that normally might
9:05
have been too pricey for them have more
9:07
flexibility to work with them then they
9:08
don't have the same transportation cost
9:10
if it's going across town versus across
9:12
the country
9:14
they're using their resources though the
9:16
companies I see survive and do well
9:19
are adapting
9:20
so sort of this I wouldn't call it a
9:22
full new normal I call it a medium new
9:24
normal so to speak
9:26
because I still think we have some short
9:27
short term issues that have to be
9:28
resolved and there's of course midterm
9:30
goals and issues with companies that
9:32
they have to figure out what that looks
9:33
like and be able to adapt to them but
9:35
more importantly speculative right now
9:37
seems to be the long term where is this
9:39
world going whether your local store
9:42
you know the your state your statewide
9:44
store international store where are we
9:46
going in some ways it looks like it's
9:49
clear with certain consumer demands okay
9:51
we got this now we had this shift we
9:53
know what people want now so more about
9:56
technology more about purchasing things
9:58
at home
9:59
less people are going to the gym
10:01
but will that shift
10:03
and a lot of businesses are trying to
10:04
figure this out as we speak
10:07
and also baked into that is the
10:10
increased cost of materials raw
10:12
materials production employment
10:14
transportation that many businesses are
10:16
having to deal with so that's forcing
10:18
them to think about alternatives also
10:20
and
10:21
creating alternative products and
10:22
services to offer to meet
10:24
not just that immediate short-term need
10:26
but the midterm so they have enough of
10:28
uh
10:29
ab depth adaptive
10:32
excuse me
10:33
sorry
10:34
to be able to adjust when needed but not
10:37
create such an infrastructure that's
10:38
geared towards one set of markets or one
10:40
side consumers I think businesses are
10:42
learning from that that they have to be
10:43
a little bit more flexible they have to
10:45
be able to get up and go or change as
10:47
needed so the important thing is to
10:49
create
10:50
the flexibility in infrastructure cost
10:53
cost of capital currently right now
10:55
before interest rates go up I see a lot
10:57
of businesses refinancing some of their
10:59
debt trying to obtain credit lines where
11:01
they can if they're strong enough to do
11:03
so
11:04
to
11:05
whether maybe an increase in the cost of
11:07
credit so to keep their businesses
11:08
flowing to the next stage the next level
11:11
this is also important on how to attract
11:13
maybe even investors at this time that
11:15
are savvy ones that are looking for
11:17
opportunities sort of in missed places
11:19
and places that most people aren't
11:20
looking
11:21
you know not streamlined you know I’m
11:22
not mainstream they're looking for
11:24
businesses that have value that just
11:26
don't shine in the same manner or
11:28
national scale
11:29
when you can show an investor that type
11:30
of value and that
11:32
you know resilience you can most likely
11:34
attract also investors that will help
11:36
you get through these crunches and help
11:37
you with a vision of the future okay
11:40
kind of a combined forces so to speak
11:42
where you normally didn't uh expect to
11:44
to have that
11:46
adapt to ability I don't know why that
11:48
word will come out today but in any case
11:51
um you know so it's very very important
11:53
uh you know cost of transportation look
11:55
at alternatives whether it is by sea or
11:57
whether it is by different kind of
11:58
trucking company consider possibly you
12:01
know purchasing your own trucks
12:02
depending on the distance and the amount
12:04
you're referring to you may want to
12:05
start these delivery processes yourself
12:07
maybe you're using services like uber
12:10
and doordash they do have actually
12:12
commercial sort of um services you want
12:15
to use platforms that might be able to
12:16
lower the cost things that we don't
12:18
normally think about you know this is
12:20
how these businesses are able to stay
12:22
afloat even in these supply chain issues
12:25
are coming about they are increasing
12:27
cost
12:28
the employment situation increases cost
12:30
but I do think this is going to even out
12:32
at one point also when consumer demand
12:35
starts to sort of
12:36
slow down and get to a little bit more
12:38
stable location which is hopefully going
12:39
to happen hopefully
12:41
cover the worst of covet is over
12:43
god willing fingers crossed right
12:46
um I’m sure it's always going to be with
12:47
us but hopefully it's not going to come
12:49
in the same waves that we've seen in the
12:50
past if it does we are ready we have
12:53
some indication of what we need to look
12:55
for we know what we have to store we
12:57
know how to live we know how to change
12:59
our habits certain consumer habits to
13:00
some extent and business happens for
13:02
that matter
13:03
so today I just want to give you guys
13:04
some points about what you can do from a
13:06
legal point of view so
13:08
once again I always tell everyone look
13:09
at their contracts but it's true it
13:12
helps
13:13
look at your contracts not just with
13:14
your customers but with your vendors
13:16
your distributors
13:17
see where
13:18
you can change something or try to
13:19
negotiate something that might be
13:21
mutually beneficial that allows
13:22
flexibility
13:24
and add that
13:25
stability
13:28
oh goodness that's just going to be one
13:30
of these days today um you know to it so
13:33
that you can continue to be resilient
13:34
and potentially attract other investors
13:36
but not have sort of a um
13:39
a base or a structure in your company
13:41
whether it's capital or business model
13:43
that doesn't allow for this flexibility
13:44
that's needed currently okay you can
13:46
work with these vendors even consumers
13:48
uh you know and customers they are very
13:51
you know they're very wise right now
13:52
they understand that things are
13:53
expensive but they understand the value
13:55
of someone that gives a quality and that
13:56
has products
13:58
sort of uh stocked all the time and
14:00
quality things they may be willing to
14:02
you know do short-term bargains with you
14:04
you know whether it's certain pricing
14:06
for bulk or short-term increase in
14:08
pricing but you give them maybe an
14:10
additional
14:11
product a similar product that might be
14:13
complementary but that doesn't cost you
14:14
as much get creative with these things
14:17
right now in order to grow your business
14:18
or at least maintain it and see a little
14:20
bit in the future to leave it some room
14:22
to grow
14:24
another thing is employment
14:25
relationships
14:27
employees most certainly right now can
14:28
command quite a bit of power
14:31
and we see their value you know now when
14:33
you go to the store and you don't have
14:35
someone to restock the stores and you
14:37
might even have the product but not in
14:38
the employ not the manpower to restock
14:40
the shelves
14:42
you know your reports are needed in
14:44
manpower I have many customers or many
14:46
clients that are enabled that actually
14:48
unable doing fantastic in business and
14:50
they weren't able to get their products
14:52
unloaded from one of the containers and
14:53
they would sit there for weeks and be
14:55
behind
14:56
potentially in default of a contract
14:57
because I could not find people to
14:59
unload the containers
15:01
so
15:02
these are things that we need to find
15:04
possible alternatives and think ahead
15:05
about you know is it a particular
15:07
container
15:08
uh you know company that can you know
15:11
change the container you know maybe
15:12
where your material is located consider
15:15
other forms in which to get it into the
15:17
country or use possibly even a local
15:20
you know material or manufacturer in the
15:23
interim um to offset your cost and these
15:25
particular issues that can happen and
15:27
cause you to be in default of a contract
15:29
uh in general employment though it's
15:31
it's really important this was always
15:33
the rule I always find it's easier to
15:35
maintain an employee than it is to keep
15:37
finding new ones
15:38
the cost of obtaining new employees or
15:40
acquisition so to speak if you want to
15:41
use that word kind of a strange word in
15:44
terms of employee but
15:45
it's used sometimes just to explain you
15:47
know the hiring of employees
15:50
is a higher and it's an unknown that an
15:53
employee that's been proven
15:55
here that does good work and may be
15:56
having difficulties at home you can have
15:58
you can provide some flexibility and
16:00
work schedules and payment schedules and
16:03
different things that we can offer
16:05
additional benefits that might be of
16:06
assistance offer value and offer
16:09
humanity and compassion you know often
16:11
people say would you know this is a
16:13
business are you crazy you know what are
16:14
you thinking here
16:16
try smiling at your employees
16:18
try to try to speak to them about good
16:20
things let you know praise them when
16:21
they do things right
16:23
talk to them constructively if something
16:24
goes wrong and they need to be retrained
16:26
in something
16:27
how you treat people makes a big
16:28
difference
16:29
otherwise it's less likely they're going
16:31
to want to be sitting in your office for
16:32
eight hours a day
16:34
okay offer them fair pay
16:36
that you know especially in cities Miami
16:39
has just been found to be one of the
16:40
least affordable city in the united
16:42
states we actually beat out New York
16:44
city
16:45
I don't even know how that happened I
16:46
used to always think of New York as that
16:48
sort of
16:49
mountain you could never climb so to
16:51
speak in terms of housing and cost and
16:53
here we are
16:54
well consider the you know cost of a car
16:57
or cost of gas for you know employees
16:59
coming the time loss to doing so be
17:02
flexible if they do have to go to
17:03
doctor's appointments
17:05
I think it's very very important to
17:08
you know to have that
17:09
friendly environment that helps people
17:11
grow show them that they have the
17:12
potential to go into other positions and
17:14
to learn other things and they feel part
17:16
of a family it's not all just about
17:18
money you know um and of course I do
17:21
suggest that you be market uh at least
17:23
give market value you know give a decent
17:26
you know salary to these employees
17:27
that's a that goes a long way to
17:29
attracting talented employees and
17:31
ultimately it's going to benefit you
17:33
keep your company stable and benefit
17:35
whatever services and products that you
17:37
sell
17:38
okay it'll show
17:40
okay
17:40
and you'll shine in a time when a lot of
17:43
companies are having difficulty even
17:44
answering the phones or even answering
17:45
them with simplest or finding employees
17:47
answering the simplest of questions
17:49
okay so
17:51
invest in your employees also find that
17:53
balance you know in employment policies
17:55
and in pay and the way that you treat
17:57
them the environment you create okay um
18:00
also you know we've talked a little bit
18:02
about finding alternatives to
18:03
transportation costs we talked about
18:05
contracts also potentially consider
18:07
alternative materials you can source
18:09
them locally a lot of times you'll be
18:11
surprised there's local businesses that
18:13
had trouble before being seen by the big
18:15
players
18:16
or international you know national
18:18
international scene they're always a
18:19
little maybe too costly for you in the
18:21
past maybe they're willing to work with
18:23
you now they might be cheaper now or at
18:25
least still cheaper than buying them
18:26
across the uh across the ocean so to
18:29
speak and that might be at minimum
18:31
a resource for a short-term
18:34
stop gap and products and services that
18:35
you may need okay to complete you know
18:38
the overall picture
18:40
and potentially lower the cost of any
18:42
the supply chain issues that are
18:43
currently happening
18:44
try to reach out to other competitors
18:46
also not not your competitors but
18:48
competitors within
18:49
whether it's a staffing agency or
18:51
whether it's a transportation company
18:54
product distribution look and see what
18:56
else is also out there look at
18:57
alternative products that are similar
18:58
that also might be in demand a lot of
19:01
consumers nowadays are very climate
19:03
conscious so to speak and if you can
19:05
offer them an alternative product with
19:07
material that's more
19:09
conscious towards the environment that
19:11
might actually be a bigger hit than
19:12
anything you were selling previously and
19:14
it is needed it's something that's
19:16
becoming more and more important every
19:17
day and people are more conscious of
19:18
that as well
19:19
so these are a couple tips I can
19:21
hopefully help you with the cost of
19:23
inflation like I said try to actually
19:26
I think it's a short-term issue brought
19:28
on about a stimulus and sort of the
19:29
change in the behavior um you know some
19:31
of the same products that we're buying
19:33
now we weren't buying back then before
19:35
the pandemic
19:36
the infrastructures and the economy and
19:40
everything that goes all the moving
19:41
parts are a little valuable adapting and
19:42
adjusting
19:44
so that'll take a little bit of time
19:45
with inflation I do think you know it's
19:47
going to
19:48
you know it's a good thing in many ways
19:50
also people don't realize that as a sign
19:52
of a can be a sign of a healthy economy
19:55
it just has to be in the right areas
19:57
so what we can't do as this is a
19:58
business owner we cannot affect
20:00
geopolitical
20:01
economic circumstances but we most
20:03
certainly can try to mitigate what goes
20:05
on with our individual lives and our
20:07
business lives and that is try to keep
20:08
the cost of credit down think about
20:10
doing so now before interest rates start
20:13
to increase
20:14
and hopefully
20:15
little by little some of these supply
20:16
issues are going to start to work
20:18
themselves out and bring down the cost
20:20
of material and services and other
20:21
things to a more normal level and
20:23
everything will even out hopefully
20:26
well good luck to everybody as always
20:28
and we hope to see you for our next
20:29
podcast and please follow us on our
20:31
social media accounts and become a
20:33
subscriber on to our podcast the Legal
20:35
Zone and also the Campbell corner
20:38
thank you and it's a pleasure seeing
20:39
everyone again and happy 20....
20:46
2022