Experts Outline Business Strategies To Survive Covid-19 Pandemic
ANGEL JAMES
As businesses come to terms with the economic downturn occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic, experts have urged small and medium business owners to adopt the remote working option in addition to knowing and providing the basic essentials of life that are needed to survive in this critical time.
At a virtual conference titled “Developing a Budget to keep your business Afloat” organised by First Bank of Nigeria to answer questions on concerns and challenges to small businesses, experts said those are the current strategies currently required to better manage budget and keep business afloat.
Ojuigo Ajunwa, Co-Founder, Ritetrac Consulting Nigeria Limited, stated that in other to work along with any business budget for the season and manage staff without laying them off, business owners should adopt remote working methods or time shift.
She defended this option as the one that can assist the business owners in determining a worker’s efficiency while every cash spending could be tracked and accounted for.
“Revisit their contract with you, if they are working full time and the full efficiency is not high, offer them an alternative of working part-time or working remotely. if it is part-time they could come in at a particular time in a week, and if for remote method, a few hours in a week with communication. Draw up a roster and share, put them on a flag and have a communication group”
She added that if recruitment has to be made when the return for remuneration is slim, the jobs should be redefined and streamlined at the right productive and billable time, while the salaries for the options should also be negotiated.
Ojiugo advised business owners not to take any loan except the structures have been put in place for a path to profit, saying that “The government has several interventions to tap from, and if you are in a condition where there is no growth and cash flow is dropping, then it is better to grow organically”.
Ojiugo also explained that technology is a leveller in business, she advised SMEs to adopt the technology. She disclosed that data being very important in a business, for SMEs it has been difficult to get a good accountant, but using mobile applications will help give a good database. “If you embrace technology you will find out you don’t need an army of staff, there are so many tools out there, embrace and adopt technology”
She finally advised entrepreneurs to have a review of what has been done, revisit the products and services, survey audience and package what they need, get the voice of the customer data, analyze competitors, look at the market perception and pivot
Abayomi Adewumi Founder, Global Leadership Institutes said that in a period like this, business owners need to think deeply, act fast but not to get into paralysis. He urged them to try, test, and measure whatever has been done or will be done, understand the income and asset and also find out the essentials of people.
“The world Is growing fast; customer preference is growing fast. Know the industry you fall in and find out what people are interested in”.
Adewumi noted that the only way to get value in the market is to identify the problem and proffer solution, stating that this is the traditional way to get value in the market as it reduces the money that could be spent on marketing.
“Ask people what they need, their preferences, check your value chain end to end”, he stated.
Abayomi said that COVID-19 will have a short and long-term effect on businesses, explaining that the short term will be a reduction in the purchasing power of consumers particularly luxury goods while the long-term effect will be changing in business methods and budgeting.
“Conferences are becoming normal, and more businesses are moving away from physical infrastructure into technological infrastructures, rent will advance into a subscription, while payment will be based on the level of productivity”.
“This is the time to hire right, revisit the office space cost to cut down expenses, the advert with no productivity should be reassessed. In the long term, businesses will change to employing for functionality”, he explained.
He advised those with fixed cost challenges like rent to approach and dialogue with the property owners, explain the situation on the ground and work out a way to delay payment.
He advised that it is important to think of what innovative solutions the existing resource can be used to sell stating that It is important to think about what else can be offered this period over a fixed cost.
The expert while addressing business owners stated that a business starts failing when the cash flow is consistently negative, emphasizing that if the liability is more than the asset then the business will soon no longer exist.
He further advised that entrepreneurs should look at the historical record and correlate with industry-standard in budgeting, in other to know a realistic and sustainable budget, he said “business plan is a product of a process, budgeting is continuous, when there is a budget act fast and measure continuously”
The tourism and hospitality sector seems the hardest hit by the pandemic with the increasing shut down of hotels and event centres.
For those in this sector, Adewumi said “People have been holding conferences virtually and a lot goes into organizing it. As an event planner, the value you deliver is convenience and ease in setting up a conference event. You have the expertise, focus on the right industry now, you could focus on seminar, conferences and Microsoft team, get a team of people that are vendors online, get the equipment and give your value proposition to organizations”
Abayomi also highlighted, “Understand your asset and income generators, categorize your spending into capital and current expenditure, rework you payable and loans, speak with your suppliers, secure your supply line, design a COVID 19 response strategy and invest in it. This is not the time to pay out every loan. Identify new sources of COVID 19 revenue, look inward, deep think, act fast, and measure continuously.”
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