Letter From the Director: July (EOFY)
30th June has ticked past, and we welcome a new financial year. And I have got to admit that the new financial year doesn’t look to have a lot to recommend it. The prices of essential commodities (ie food) are up, petrol is exorbitantly priced, interest rates have affected our mortgage repayments and the list goes on. While there is some relief from the new labour government with changes to the pharmaceutical benefits scheme and family benefits to name a few, these are not going to assist most businesses. And then of course in the background, we have the Ukraine War and more floods on the Eastern seaboard. There is not a lot to lighten our souls. And we did know that if we expended huge sums of money protecting ourselves against COVID we would eventually have to pay for it.
Some businesses, that have struggled through COVID may think they are not able to cope with much more.
But then I think of a conversation I had with my father when he was washing the dishes and I was drying them. It was about a man who set up a hot dog stall during the recession. Apparently, friends said to him, “Mate there is a recession on – not a good time to start a business. The man replied, “No I didn’t know, but my product is good, and I have a good location, and I am prepared to work hard. The business was still thriving some 30 years later. I don’t remember what the business was at the time of the story, but it had expanded beyond hot dogs. And importantly, I do remember the attitude of the man who had managed to thrive in challenging times.
So other than a positive attitude what things should we be doing to survive and thrive in these challenging times.
Businesses need to have a good handle on their finances. Know where money is being spent and analyse the worthiness of the expenditure. Know what is coming in and how much is required to cover fixed costs. Cash flow needs to be managed and projections made to manage any shortfalls. Managing credit control is also important. Letting a well-known client have extra time to pay their accounts because you know they are struggling may not serve you well.
Just because times are a bit challenging doesn’t mean this is a bad time to grow your business. As Winston Churchill quote, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”—Sir Winston Churchill.
When times appear to be challenging, there are always opportunities.
This is a time for you and your team to become more effective and efficient. Managing time is one of those efficiencies. Updating your technology may be one way to do this. You may also want to examine how you manage your emails and use labour-saving strategies like templates to increase efficiencies.
Cutting training budgets is usually the first thing that businesses do when times get challenging. In fact, it is the thing we need most ………but it needs to be relevant and contribute to our bottom line.
