2 Key Pieces of Advice For SME Businesses in this Challenging Time

1) Make sure you have a plan for cash flow If you don’t already have a budget or forecast, make sure you go and do that for the next 3 to 6 months.

We’ve been helping our clients with this through our “Emergency Assistance Meeting” ( https://calendly.com/inspireca/eam ) and we answer the question, “When are you going to run out of money?” We had a client a couple months ago and the answer to hers was September. So if nothing else changes, her sales have dropped, she’s in hospitality, but she’s still allowed to do takeaway – if she keeps as she is, then she’s going to run out of money in September. And knowing that for her, she has peace of mind that she’s fine for June and July. Then, it gets a bit hairy in August, September, but she might be able to organise some other things before then to help her extend that date even further.

2) Make sure you keep communicating with key people to do with your business.
Now, for me, that’s clients and team. So, have you communicated that you’re business as usual, or are you working from home and what does that mean for clients?

Now, as business owners, we’ve got this huge responsibility we feel for our family. This also extends to the families of the people that we employ – they’ve got their own stresses and challenges throughout this time as well. One of them could be fearing job security. So just like we’re talking about certainty around cash flow, work out what’s happening with your team.

Now, talking to your team is probably going to end in one of three or four ways –

• Standing them down;
• Making them redundant;
• Firing them for whatever reason;or
• You’re going to keep them on, it’s business as usual, and they’re not going to get pay cuts.

What you need to reinforce with them as early as possible is what’s happening to the business and how it’s going to affect them. Are they losing their job? Cool, then they can go and move on and deal with that. Is it business as usual? Cool. Take the relief off their shoulders so they can get on and be productive in what they’re doing.

Communicate early, communicate often. People are looking for connection and direction.

Watch the full video with @SimonBell on the Zen Business podcast – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH_K3yzQ_Rs&t=706s