As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to grapple the world, business is changing at a pace we have never seen before. For start-ups there are many unprecedented issues that have arisen. When beginning a startup, entrepreneurs are aware that markets can change in an instant and that businesses will face difficulties as they progress. However, an issue that is affecting every market is not something that businesses can plan for. Crisis Management is something businesses have to face at some stage. In order to ensure that your start-up continues to operate through these uncertain times here are a few tips that you can use when navigating your business over the next few weeks.
Finance
It is important that businesses have a steady cash flow in order to continue operating. This will evidently be impacted by the ongoing pandemic. However, start ups should look to managing their finances more effectively during these times. Ensure that you are distributing the finance you have to areas that require it to keep the business afloat. If there are areas that do not require heavy investment allocate those funds elsewhere in the business until the market picks up again.
Opportunities
Although you may feel that there are no opportunities presenting themselves at the moment, that is not the case. Other start-ups across your industry are in the same position as you. Reach out to others on possible collaborations that you can collectively work on during this time. This time also presents a time to research more business opportunities that you may venture into in the future. By keeping yourself occupied with collaborations and research that will benefit your business you will ensure that when the market begins to operate and normal you will be prepared to continue as normal with your start up.
Reflection
Use this time to look at how your business has been performing to date. Have you been meeting the deadlines that you have set for the business? What issues arose to date? Have you ensured that any problems evident in the business have been addressed? By assessing where your business currently stands you can plan accordingly for the future. This opportunity to reflect on your businesses success to date ensures that you can identify what is working for the business and what is not. You can then make adjustments to the business to ensure that future operations will continue to be successful.
Of course there are some hard decisions that will have to be made at this time. Due to the decrease in cash flow it may be necessary to temporarily leave some staff go. While this is undoubtedly difficult, measures such as this may unfortunately be necessary in the current climate. If you can continue to employ ensure that there are appropriate measures in place to ensure effective communication. Create a whatsapp group and schedule meetings through applications such as Skype, Zoom etc. by maintaining communication you will ensure that staff morale remains high among your employees.
Ensure to maintain communications with your customers and suppliers, they are inevitably facing the same issues as you. Ensure that you are all on the same page going forward to ensure that collectively your businesses will run as seamlessly as possible. Try to establish a strategy that you can all work towards in the short term so that when operations return to normal each of you can move forward and continue at a suitable pace as the market recovers.
While these are uncertain times it is important that we first look after our own personal health and then the needs of our business. While this stage can be daunting for startups there are small changes that can be made to ensure that business can hopefully resume as normal when the time comes. There are a number of resources available to you so do not be afraid to reach out. People are more than willing to help, especially now as we all join together as a society.
Both Enterprise Ireland and Local Enterprise Offices have specific Covid-19 supports for start-ups SME’s including free mentoring and business advice clinics.
