Businesses are being advised to adopt a survival mode during and after the lockdown to be able to remain afloat. Dr. Levi Kabagambe a business consultant and a senior faculty at Makerere University Business School notes that this is the time for business owners to rethink growth and spending.
Many businesses, if not all, hadn’t recovered from the impact of the first lockdown before the new 42 two days lockdown was announced.
Currently, many business owners are confused with no idea of how they can revive their only source of income during and after the lockdown. But while many are not certain about how they get out of the difficult situation, some are thinking of borrowing from financial institutions to recapitalize their businesses.
Dr. Levi Kabagambe, a business consultant and a senior faculty at Makerere University Business School, notes that the management of operating costs is going to be key for business survival.
“I would like to see such firm keeping the cost of human resource, they have to carefully managing their procurement efficiently, Travels should also be put on hold,” he said
Dr. Kabagamba adds that this is time for businesses to keep running with manageable stock to avoid any cases of spoilage, which kills capital.
“This is the time to understand your customers and the consumption behaviors, but also keep a good relationship with your suppliers to be able to get stocks on credit.”
But withmost business owners hoping for relaxation of the COVID-19 measures after the 42 days lockdown, the eagerness to restart and rebuild is understandably large but Dr. Kabagambe cautions people to distance themselves from commercial loans and work within their limit.
“A commercial loan is someone else’ products which you will have to pay yet we are talking about survival, if you had expansion plans, put them on hold”
But while the short-term outlook for small businesses vary greatly by industry, experts say that it’s important to consider what recovery plan will work for each business once the economy begins to return to normalcy.
