With the current outbreak of Corona (COVID-19), small and medium size businesses are starting to feel the pinch and we have many clients asking us… “but what can we do”?
Social distancing and quarantining does not necessarily mean the end of your business and can be an opportunity to come up with innovative ways to keep the lights on and carry on with business. The current COVID-19 outbreak highlights the importance of businesses running as efficiently as possible and to constantly assess the risks facing their business operations.
We recommend that in times like these businesses consider conducting business audits and risk analysis. During a business audit, you should identify ways to streamline your business operations by evaluating the efficiency of your business, identify various cost saving measures that can be implemented to reduce costs, identify the risks facing your business and implement mitigation steps against such risks. HR audits are also a great way to ensure that your workforce is working as efficiently as possible as your personnel are a key ingredient to your business’s overall success and competitiveness.
Whilst you as an employer have an obligation to protect your employees from infections and exposure to any associated risks, your employees also have an obligation to assist you in maintaining business continuity and sustainability by complying with their employment obligations unless and until the law says otherwise.
If you find that your business is in distress, there are a number of ways that you can proactively address the situation such as, inter alia, sale of assets, restructuring your business (includes restructuring your business’s management and staffing policies, operational strategies and practices, sales offerings and financial policies), business rescue and/or retrenchments.
Our professionals have extensive experience in assisting financially distressed businesses with business turnaround practices and strategies and are able to effectively assess your business operations to ensure that in troubled times like these, you can still keep the lights on.
