Although we are approaching the proverbial “calm after the storm” of the Covid-19 pandemic, the global economy is still a long way from being restored to the state it was in early 2020. Most businesses the world over have been forced to adjust to significantly altered business playing field that none of us had prepared for.
While some well-positioned businesses thrived during this period, many smaller businesses did not. As the world emerges from this exceptionally long “storm,” business owners need to prepare for both growth and resilience in 2021.
With how suddenly setbacks and changes tend to occur, businesses, particularly those within the SME space, need to have clear strategies and resilience plans in place. Let’s look at a few ways you can create a more resilient business.
Tip #1 - Key Person Risk: Don’t Be the Only Person Who Can Do Your Job
Although the priority for business owners is often first to delegate low-value admin tasks that take up too much time, and then high-value tasks that you are not an expert in, the importance of training a designated member(s) of your team to perform in the same areas that you are an expert in is often overlooked.
When you own a business, you are constantly exposed to risk: falling ill and being unable to work, your family requiring you to spend more time with them, or someone suddenly becoming more reliant on you, just to name a few. If you do not have a designated person who is qualified to take over your tasks in your absence, either a member of your existing team who has been trained up, or an external individual who has acquired the same special skills as you have, you are constructing a business that will not be strong enough to withstand a major shift in your capacity to execute, or a reduction in your availability.
Tip #2 - Build Strong Relationships
Trust and goodwill are key to business resiliency. Good relationships with your clients, partners, and employees can get you through difficult times. When your clients and partners trust your business, they are more forgiving when mistakes are made, and are more willing to help carry your business when the going gets tough. Likewise, when it comes to employees: trust in management hugely benefits business resilience.
"Business, after all, is nothing more than a bunch of human relationships." – Lee Iacocca
Tip #3 - Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
Business continuity (BC) refers to maintaining business functions or quickly resuming them in the event of a major disruption. A business continuity plan outlines procedures and instructions that your business must follow in the face of disaster; it covers business processes, assets, human resources, business partners and more.
Without a plan in place, you run the risk of being unable to continue distributing your products and/or providing your services during unplanned disruptions. Your ability to recover from these unplanned disruptions will be much slower and less effective — potentially impacting both your revenue and your brand reputation.
Tip #4 - Adaptability is Key
Your business being tough enough to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions is a key factor to it being resilient, but simply being ‘tough’ is short term. You might have survived the disruption, but where do you go from there? To us, real resilience needs to be teamed up with adaptability and agility.
In terms of survival, those best able to absorb disruption are the ones who have been able (and willing) to pivot and parry when the game changes. Having the confidence to advance into new areas where possible, the good sense to retreat where they must, and the freedom to adapt where needed. This is how we define “adaptability”.
The entrepreneurs and businesses who understand that change is the defining characteristic of the modern business landscape -- and embrace rather than ignore or run from it -- will ultimately decide where transformation leads. Look for opportunities to apply our simple tips as you progress through your own journey toward greater resiliency, and see how simple application can result in significant change.
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