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BUSINESS NEWS - Before the Covid-19 outbreak, most businesses were set in their ways and conformed to their day-to-day operations. The ship sailed smoothly, the captain gave the go-ahead, and most of the time all went as planned. However, it all soon came to a halt when an unprecedented time catapulted business owners into a new way of running their business.

New challenges and better ways of thinking 

If your team conducted face-to-face meetings or hosted in-person site evaluations, you may feel that lockdown has turned a valuable aspect of your business on its head —especially if these were conducive to making sales. With one announcement from President Cyril Ramaphosa, lockdown possibly changed the entire way your business operated. So, what now? How do you take your current challenges and turn them into better ways of doing business?

Protect your assets

Your business is not your only asset, your employees are too. Without them, could you still be running your business? Protect your business and employees by ensuring that you have the funds needed to stay afloat. This could mean that you may need to consider business loans to cover any short-fall expenses. Once you’ve bridged that hurdle, you can look at opportunities to adapt to a new landscape.

Adaption = profits 

For many SME owners, Covid-19 has been an eye-opener for the way in which their businesses are run. Suddenly, digitisation is no longer a nice-to-have but now considered to be a must-have. Many business owners didn’t count on the presence of an e-commerce site, but now it’s the only form of sales that they can count on.

Create a streamlined approach for your business. Consider the way you operated before versus what you can do right now to outperform your competitors. The restaurant industry has been thriving in this regard. Small restaurateurs may not be able to seat many customers, but they are offering meal kits to prepare at home or redirecting customers to order online. Retail owners can create exclusive promotions or weekly emails to share their latest offerings. Carefully review your options, then formulate ideas on how to monetise from digital mediums.

For some, adapting to a new way of doing business may be challenging, but is crucial in keeping your profit margins up. Therefore, a small business loan may be what you need to invest in the changes you need to make and keep your business going. The arrival of COVID-19 has become a defining moment for many SMEs, let it define your business as triumphant and perhaps what you need to accelerate your business.

To find out more about small business funding in South Africa, visit https://www.lulalend.co.za/

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