Managing Inflation & Supply Chain Issues Within Your Business

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.

Transcript

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