Dear Key Signature Family,
Six months ago the worst thing that we thought could happen in our business happened. A wave of cancelations and rescheduled events hit us due to the pandemic. Six months later we’re still here. A few times people have called our office and were surprised that we actually answered the phone. They then go on to tell me that they are surprised that Mikayla and Tius are still working here. I can understand being surprised after seeing so many of our colleagues laid off or furloughed as our industry came to a screeching halt back in March. It was important to me to keep the team together even though I knew things were about to get very difficult.
When the walls started to crumble around us, the first thing I thought of was how am I going to keep Mikayla and Tius employed. I had planned well by keeping a reserve for a rainy day. I just didn’t know it would rain for six months straight with no end in sight. The federal grants and loans definitely helped but that boost in cashflow didn’t stop the invisible countdown we were all experiencing as businesses. I look at wealth as not just being about money, but you can be wealthy in people. The value that is Key Signature Entertainment is in its people so I did and am still doing all that I can to keep them here. Not to say that we all didn’t have to make sacrifices to stay afloat, but we all agreed that we need to stick together in the good times and now in the not so good times. We have confidence that things will turn around and we’ll be better and stronger for it. And if you don’t know what Key Signature Entertainment is about by now, then I don’t know what rock you’re living under.
Another reason it was important to me to keep Mikayla and Tius on was to make sure we could still offer high level service to our clients who were distressed with not knowing what to do with their events. I didn’t think it was a good look for clients to reach out to whoever was assisting them from KSE and get an auto-reply email that they were no longer employed or away for an extended period of time. No one wants to have to track down someone to assist them during a difficult period of time and uncertainty. So we kept working and continued to be easily accessible even though we knew the calls and emails we’d get would be bad news. Its just a part of the gig I guess but its better to go through it together. It would not be fair to our clients to just be available when its time to book but go missing when its time to cancel or reschedule. We needed to take care of our clients on both ends and we did just that.
The pet peeve I’m having right now is when I’m dealing with other service providers who act like the pandemic isn’t happening and it’s business as usual. Empathy is what is needed from everyone right now. There are plenty of unknowns out there that we just can’t control and as a business we recognize that. We’re in the people business first…..remember?
The positivity and encouragement I am experiencing right now is in this odd space we were given during Covid. Time we normally wouldn’t take to do the things we keep pushing off. We developed a new user friendly website that we hope you will all be using soon. We basically moved in to the LEMG office with all of the projects we’ve collaborated on lately. These things probably wouldn’t have happened in 2020 if everything was business as usual. We’ve formed some strong bonds in this fight and its nice to see we weren’t the only ones who worked hard to continue to be present for their clients and employees through all of this. Back in March I would tell the team that this is going to be a mental marathon and surprisingly we’re still running it. I know most of us are waiting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and many of us hope that light is not a train. For me, I hope it is a train full of all of the people I haven’t gotten to see in person since all this began. A train full of all of the people ready to get back to what we do best and thats producing events.
So as things start to pick up and everyone is back to work we just ask that you remember us for all of your live music and entertainment needs. We’ll be here.
Brandon Crumpton, President
