What does your New Normal look like?
By Tina Zawila
In the last week or so it has been refreshing to hear and see a move from crisis-mode to talk of recovery. Businesses starting to re-open, people going back to work, and in general things are feeling more positive.
While your attention for the past six weeks or so may have been focussed on your response to the immediate crisis, you must now start to look to the future and turn your mind to recovery strategies. There are clearly two horizons to consider:
1. Survival
2. Rebuild and Recover
The Government Stimulus packages all signal a period of disruption for at least six months to the end of September 2020. Whether or not this timeframe is correct, only time will tell, but it’s an indication to business owners that you should expect the economy and your business may be significantly impacted by this crisis for at least six months. You need to be planning to survive this time period. Survival will require focus on:
· Cashflow – do you have access to sufficient cash reserves, government stimulus and/or funding to keep the business operating for the next six months or so under the current trading conditions? Have you prepared revised Cashflow/Budget projections for the rest of this year and into the next financial year?
· Improve Margins/Cost Reductions – what steps can you take to ensure your business is a lean, mean fighting machine? Review your margins, review your costs and take action to make improvements where you can.
However, you want to do more than just survive this crisis, you want to be able to rebuild and recover, so you also need to be putting plans, projects and actions in place now, for your “New Normal”. Changing strategy can take time but changing tactics can be done immediately. Disruption to usual business operations exposes weaknesses, but it also highlights opportunities.
· What are the opportunities in your business?
· What do your customers need or want from you?
· What do you need to do differently to operate more efficiently?
You need to create a vision of what your business will look like in the future and build a plan to rebuild and recover NOW. Get ahead of the game, be prepared.
If you need help with preparing financial projections, or building a new business plan, call the professional advisors at UHY Haines Norton today on 4972 1300.
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