As you read this we may be in another hard lock down or not. However even the limited lock down calls for businesses to be more prudent and customer centric.
Taking lessons from the last hard lock down and from the last 12 months, here in no order of merit are some tips for business to stay afloat.
1. Payment systems should be up and running
The idea is make it as convenient for your customer to pass their money to you. Having a registered mobile money payment option or visa point can make the difference between clients doing business with you or not, especially as they may be doing it for home because of the lock down or for fear of getting covid-19. They do not have hard cash but they can pay. And by the way, studies have shown people spend more off electronic payment systems than if they were passing on cash. Not to mention that holding cash now more than ever carries with it some serious health risks. So be smart and get your payment systems up and running.
2. Invest in delivery service
This should be a no brainer by now, offer your clients the option to deliver to their door. Either you link up with networks that are providing this service or better still invest in it so as to provide a personal touch to your clients. And we the clients will gladly pay extra for the service, because we may have spent that amount or more to drive out to you. With little to no walk-in traffic this is where the smart money is headed.
3. Know where your customers are
Related to the last point, know where your customers live. Sometimes we are home and want some thing but forgo it because of the hustle of going out to do it ourselves. But if our favourite shop can deliver to our door with out the pain of having to direct them it would be such a relief. Assuming you have been building relationships with your best people get their physical addresses, dedicate a phone to taking delivery requests and your clients may very well kiss the ground on which your shop is.
4. Invest in smart phones
Again related to the last point, get your delivery people smart phones and go a step further and teach them how to read google maps. This business of the delivery man needing directions to your home because he can not follow the directions to your location is not on. This will also mean an extra cost in data and chargig services but look at these as investments rather then just costs. I now have a healthy interpretation of map reading in these lock down times, I thought it was obvious to all who had been to school, but clearly not.
5. Mend fences with your banker
Your bank maybe the difference between you going under or staying afloat in these hard times. If you have been banking with your banker for a considerable period, he has a good idea of your cashflow situation and can provide some working capital facilities that can tide you over some rough patches. A business can have full shelves and open every day but close in an instance, because the time between getting paid and meeting your obligations – delayed payments from clients versus immediate payments to your suppliers, can not allow you to operate.
6. Cut costs to the bone
My favourite American Warren Buffett says that cutting costs should be like breathing, it should be unconscious behaviour. There are two ways to spend money, eating it with no chance of return or to invest it with hope of return sometime in the future. In business terms it often means reinvesting profits or passing them on to the owner to blast away. The businesses that have shown resilience are those that have invested in themselves and built up reserves over the years. It may be too late to build reserves, but to give yourself half a chance of survival you need to take a microscope to your costs and hack away at any excesses mercilessly. The trick is not to hack costs that affect service delivery – often labour costs but to cut those that take away from the business – your girlfriend’s credit, for instance.
Believe it or not however bad the covid-19 situation gets there will be businesses that survive or even thrive. Chances are they may be the minority, why not give yourself a chance to be in that winners’ circle by focusing on your clients and keeping your cashflolw situation healthy?
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