Virus-Proof Your Business -19 Crisis
‘The greatest threat to your business right now is your sense of hopelessness. You have to make a conscious choice to fight for your baby,’ says Douglas Kruger, a professional speaker and business author.
As SA moves to ease lockdown rules and reopen limited sectors of the economy, there is growing evidence that many businesses won’t survive a post-Covid-19 world (if there’s even one).
Over the past week, big names in business have struggled to keep their doors open: Edcon, the owner of Edgars and Jet stores, has voluntarily submitted itself for business rescue, state-owned SA Express was placed under provisional liquidation, Associated Magazines has closed its doors, and Phumelela Gaming and Leisure, SA’s largest horse-racing group, is considering business rescue.
On Tuesday 5 May, Caxton and CTP Publishers and Printers withdrew from the magazine publishing industry. And on the same day, Comair, the operator of low-cost carrier kulula.com and British Airways under licence in Southern Africa, submitted itself for business rescue.
But these are big businesses grabbing headlines, while many small businesses are either folding or fighting for their survival. Underscoring this is that a recent survey of 707 formal sector businesses, which was conducted by Statistics South Africa,…