Business is affected due to the coronavirus outbreak. Yet, they must act as the lifeline in supporting many people from producing, delivering essentials to providing livelihood for the workforce. Eventually, it becomes the jobs of the entrepreneurs and business to be prepared and protect the businesses to keep the company running.
The COVID-19 outbreak has been declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization. Most businesses could only survive up to 3 months on their cash reserves. Even as governments and policymakers extend preferential loans and introduce tax breaks, among a slew of other measures; Authorities, won’t be able to extend life support to all.
Businesses are facing double pressures; On the one hand, they need to recoup the losses of a long shutdown and on the other, they need to carefully manage staff during the ongoing outbreak. Since offices and factories are public spaces, any infection will have serious consequences, economically or legally.
Managing a Long Shutdown
Whilst the priority remains human welfare, we also need to manage other business challenges. The short-term impact of the coronavirus outbreak on global economy is inevitable, especially in labor-intensive industries. Enterprise businesses still have to pay employee salaries and rents during the suspension of work. Small business has come under great huge financial pressure due to the fixed costs like rent, unused supply and closure of business. Some small business is asking employees to take long leaves without pay during the shutdown. Obviously, affecting both the livelihoods of entrepreneur and the worker.
Read More : How Prepared Are Businesses to Work in Lockdown Scenario?
The company should already put preventive measures in place, long before the virus outbreak would affect. The most critical factor for every business in managing a long shutdown during the management of the coronavirus outbreak is, to make the business survive.
Running Business Successfully After the Coronavirus Outbreak
If your business has been significantly affected by COVID-19 outbreak, you should consider the viability of your business. While many businesses reopen and operate successfully after a disease outbreak, some do not survive.
When assessing the viability of your business, consider:
- Do you have the finance needed to reopen your business?
- Do you want to continue running your business?
- How severely has the natural disaster affected you, your employees, your local community and local infrastructure?
- Has the market for your products or services changed, decreased or increased?
It is also a good idea to review your previous operations and identify any areas that you can improve on.
Crisis planning
A strongly developed crisis response capability is required to ensure the efficient management in crisis planning. Therefore, in order to minimize associated negative impacts, meet government priorities around maintenance and confidence. Also to ensure the continued delivery of critical national infrastructure; Many organizations have these plans in place for the workplace and supply chain. But, COVID-19 has already unveiled flaws in some given the unknown variables surrounding the outbreak. It is important to review crisis and business continuity plans.
Let Staff Work from Home
The longer the disruptions drag on, the harder it will be to avert significant damage to employment. To contain the spread of the Coronavirus virus, most business owners have thus chosen to have their employees self-isolate and work from home.
Sharing Employees
One way out to manage employees is to share the workforce with other businesses that are enjoying an increase in demand like E-commerce platforms. Let the staff taken on short-term work with third-party firms like supermarkets or online platforms. It helps employees find temporary employment supporting their livelihood.
Diversified Supply Chain
The interconnectedness and complexity of global supply chains means that when disruption happens such as in the event of natural disasters or disease outbreaks, impacts will be felt on a human, social and economic level. The COVID-19 is a humanitarian crisis but also has the potential to bring with it extensive economic consequences. No-one knows how quickly the epidemic will come under control or how widely it will spread. What is certain is that supply chain disruption will be felt around the globe and across many sectors.
Learn More : 4 Strategies to Improve Supply Chain for your Business
The difficulty for many businesses is that their reliance on Chinese exports isn’t always immediately apparent. Many businesses have a small window of opportunity to plan for what’s ahead; A few weeks’ supply of goods were already in transit when the epidemic hit. Which might be enough to provide a short-term buffer. So what can businesses do to protect themselves?
Diversify the supply chain. Identify your critical products and suppliers. Focusing on the most critical products and tier 1 suppliers should help to prioritize and expose key vulnerabilities. Once identified, estimate how reliant are these suppliers during the virus outbreak in your region.
Contingency Planning
An epidemic like COVID-19 brings specific challenges around the restriction of movement of people and the impact on productivity. But there are wider implications; over time consumers might change their behavior and increase their online retail activity, for example, placing extra pressure on logistics networks. Careful planning, as well as respect for the unpredictability of such an event, will help to see businesses through the coming months.
What are the options to re-address the balance of supply and demand? Further, Can production be scaled back or amended to protect scarce stock? Is buffer stock or a safe alternative supplier available? What is the impact on medium-term strategy? The seasonal nature of many retailers’ stock, for example, may require a rethink of markdown strategy and inventory control over the coming months.
Read More : Trade in New Opportunities and Business under COVID-19 Outbreak
Consider the financial and legal implications. What will be the impact of supply chain disruption on margins, cash flow, loan repayments and terms? Are there legal implications if you’re not able to deliver supply to customers?
Communicate
Supply chain disruption brings the risk of unintended reputational damage – a clear strategy for transparent communication with customers, external stakeholders and employees, as well as along the supply chain, will be critical and can become a competitive advantage in these situations.
Keep Your People and Working Environment Safe
The ongoing situation with COVID-19 means that employees, or the potentially impacted communities they work in, will be looking to your organization for a response, guidance and regular communications. Review your travel rules, HR policies, first aid plans and create safe ways to exercise the arrangements. The working environment should also be considered; so that you can continue to provide a safe place for employees and visitors to work as intended.
Stay Motivated
A disease outbreak can affect your business in many ways. Even you might start to lose confidence, but don’t give up just yet. Remember, When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Inspire your employees, sell hope along with your product to your customers and the local community who have been significantly affected by the coronavirus outbreak as well.
Assessing the impact, coronovirus has had on your business will help you put a plan in place so you can clean-up efficiently and begin to rebuild your business. Time will change. So, Never Give up.
Do you know How Protected Is Your Business to Deal with Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak? Share them on Trdinoo for others to learn and please share us with your friends and network.
