{"id":11254,"date":"2020-03-28T09:22:45","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T09:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kasibiz.co.za\/?p=11254"},"modified":"2020-05-25T13:40:32","modified_gmt":"2020-05-25T13:40:32","slug":"small-business-covid-19-survival-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kasibiz.co.za\/?p=11254","title":{"rendered":"Small Business Survival Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Marnus Broodryk, the infamous Shark Tank investor and entrepreneur who changed an entire accounting industry has released a free eBook for business owners: The Small Business COVID-19 Survival Guide. It contains 90 ideas to help SMEs and entrepreneurs survive the current pandemic and is available for download <a href=\"http:\/\/marnusbroodryk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/The-Small-Business-COVID-19-Survival-Guide.pdf\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Below is a summary of the ideas mentioned in his reading with the intention to help you think smarter as an smme and how to work through this difficult period.<\/p>\n<p>SECTION 1: POWER YOUR PEOPLE<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pay for your staff to get tested for COVID-19. Be more sympathetic to your workers during this time and consider working from home as a viable option.<\/li>\n<li>Assist staff with advanced payments.<\/li>\n<li>If you absolutely have to retrench, first consult with your staff to see if they are prepared to work for lower salaries or are willing to take unpaid leave.<\/li>\n<li>Employees might need emotional help. Reach out for support services like LifeLine 0861 322 322.<\/li>\n<li>Share as much information around the pandemic as possible.<\/li>\n<li>Provide educational material and resources to staff that might be taking care of kids whilst home.<\/li>\n<li>If business is quite, use this time to upskill staff through online learning.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>SECTION 2: SOFTWARE FOR HARD TIMES<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Typeform-Survey and conversational templates to help gather information.<\/li>\n<li>Xero-Cloud accounting software.<\/li>\n<li>Trello-Admin and team task-sharing.<\/li>\n<li>Loom-Free screen and video recording software.<\/li>\n<li>Microsoft Teams-Central hub for Office 365 teamwork, chats, meeting files and apps.<\/li>\n<li>Zoom or Skype-Free video conferencing solutions.<\/li>\n<li>Monday.com-Cloud project management and workflow.<\/li>\n<li>G-Suite and Drive-Cloud storage for documents, emails etc.<\/li>\n<li>Slack-Team communication that also handles individual threads of communication.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>SECTION 3: MINDSET FOR SUCCESS<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>People win battles through innovation and unity.<\/li>\n<li>Stick to your cultural values and remember who you are.<\/li>\n<li>In chaos there are always opportunities.<\/li>\n<li>Things are changing and you need to adapt.<\/li>\n<li>Capitalise on existing relationships.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t get married to the chaos. Have a plan and stick to it.<\/li>\n<li>Confront the realities.<\/li>\n<li>Be there for the poor and vulnerable.<\/li>\n<li>Follow advice from the NICD and WHO.<\/li>\n<li>Support an NGO.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>SECTION 4: SELL LIKE HELL<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Offer discounted vouchers that can be bought now and redeemed later.<\/li>\n<li>Option free delivery to boost online sales.<\/li>\n<li>Now is the time to start selling online.<\/li>\n<li>People are losing jobs. See if you can employ talent on a commission basis.<\/li>\n<li>Advertise more on social media.<\/li>\n<li>Look to local markets for your products and services.<\/li>\n<li>Contact your clients and understand their current needs. Create opportunities.<\/li>\n<li>Use this time to develop a PR approach and become a thought leader in your industry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>SECTION 5: HELP MANAGE THE EPIDEMIC<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Provide hand sanitizer for all employees\/visitors.<\/li>\n<li>Stop travelling.<\/li>\n<li>Communicate well to your staff and customers.<\/li>\n<li>Minimize out-of-office movements and use the phone and video call.<\/li>\n<li>Work outside where possible and get some fresh air.<\/li>\n<li>Wear gloves and masks whenever you are out of the house.<\/li>\n<li>Do temperature checks on your employees.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>SECTION 6: WORK BETTER WITH WHAT YOU HAVE<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Remember that cash is king for any small business.<\/li>\n<li>Negotiate with your landlord for discounted rent or holding off on increases.<\/li>\n<li>Offer settlement discounts to your clients.<\/li>\n<li>Offer customers option of paying through installments.<\/li>\n<li>Check with the bank to see what additional facilities you qualify for.<\/li>\n<li>Ask clients to advance fee payments where you have fixed fee engagements.<\/li>\n<li>Be extra diligent on procurement.<\/li>\n<li>Consider incentivising staff to help save money.<\/li>\n<li>Delay salary increases and bonus payouts and secure your business financially.<\/li>\n<li>Review current processes and procedures for efficiency.<\/li>\n<li>Review your data and other operating costs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>SECTION 7: ORDER IN-HOUSE<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you have to retrench, follow the right procedures. CCMA is very expensive.<\/li>\n<li>Explore different ways of using your staff.<\/li>\n<li>Consider enforcing the Force Majeure clause within contracts that are hard to deliver on.<\/li>\n<li>Keep accurate financial information about your business.<\/li>\n<li>Send employees on forced leave especially those with high leave balances.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure that you pay your tax as a small business.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure that you claim Employment Tax Incentives where you employ young people and see what other grants and tax breaks are available.<\/li>\n<li>Get client agreements in place quickly.<\/li>\n<li>Consider an outsourced accountant.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>LAST BUT NOT LEAST &#8211; SOME LEARNING DURING LOCKDOWN<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/learndigital.withgoogle.com\/digitalskills\" data-kmt=\"1\">Digital Skills for Africa \u2013 Google Digital Garage<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/learning\/me\" data-kmt=\"1\">LinkedIn Learning<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/yali.state.gov\/courses\/\" data-kmt=\"1\">Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Network<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/yali.state.gov\/courses\/\" data-kmt=\"1\">Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Network<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coursera.org\/recommendations\" data-kmt=\"1\">Coursera<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.udemy.com\/\" data-kmt=\"1\">Udemy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skillshare.com\/\" data-kmt=\"1\">Skillshare<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marnus Broodryk, the infamous Shark Tank investor and entrepreneur who changed an entire accounting industry has released a free eBook&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kasibiz.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kasibiz.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kasibiz.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kasibiz.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kasibiz.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11254"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/kasibiz.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11782,"href":"https:\/\/kasibiz.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11254\/revisions\/11782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kasibiz.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kasibiz.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kasibiz.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kasibiz.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}