Peter Ranyard shares his thoughts on taking the initiative.
It would be stating the obvious, so I won’t, that we are in unprecedented times for small businesses, damn there I said it anyhow.
Many SME’s, nearly 7000, have wound up since March 2020 or thereabouts.
The question really is though what strategies we can take to minimise the risk to the business we have and therefore navigate through this season and survive.
In WW2 planes would fly off to drop their payloads onto the enemy and very often had to sacrifice fuel weight in favour of bomb weight, this meant in many cases the planes would not have sufficient fuel to make it back to base and therefore had to ditch into the ocean or risk crashing or landing behind enemy lines.
How does this relate to business today you may ask?
Well, the answer is ‘sacrifice,’ what are we willing to sacrifice to survive. Do we need to shed some weight in the early days, or do we head off in some direction with no definitive plan of knowing whether we will survive?
The truth is none of us know how long the government is going to continue with their strategies, whether you agree with them or not, they are wielding the sword now and scything through businesses with gay abandon.
So, to really make sure that your business remains viable you need to understand and plan for there being no end to the situation.
As tragic as this sounds many businesses have lived in the false hope that it will end soon, from the “two weeks to flatten the curve” to ‘traffic lights’ and no end of ‘make it up as we go along’ strategies then they have either run out of cash or run out of customers.
To avoid being another victim to the swing of the blade you need to act now, or plan now at least, for a moment in the future when you either lose some, most or all your revenue.
This means looking at your overheads, your head count and determining a strategy when you need to change them, re-structure or even consider a temporary suspension of activities. For example, if you have a lease the time to discuss your lease with the landlord is now, so that you are not putting your knee pads on when it is too late and begging for help, have a plan now that says; If ‘a’ happens can we do this or if ‘b’ happens can we do this.
Need help with this?
Oxygen8 have the experience and skills to help you navigate these uncharted waters.
Peter Ranyard is a Business Success Partner with Oxygen8 Consulting. For help with your business, or for a free Business Diagnostic, contact Peter at peter@oxygen8.co.nz or 021 242 6986.