You have probably heard from everyone on television that we are going through an unprecedented situation. What does this mean? For your business, for yourself and for your loved ones, what does it mean?
Regardless of the nature of the crisis, the first group that feels the impact is usually the small and micro business owners and their employees. This is exactly what has happened in Australia in the last two months.
There are two separate effects of the crisis. First, the monetary loss, and secondly your mental health.
There is always an answer to the questions about the problems in financial capacity. Best case scenarios tell us to keep in contact with your accountant and follow the updates for government stimulus packages, such as Jobkeeper payments, cash boosting measures, early access to super, government grants, etc. State and Federal Governments have different benefits for different groups of people. You must try to apply for everything possible.
However, business owners should also keep in mind that problems in business make them more vulnerable to the crisis situation. Cash flow issues, being in debt, lack of business plan, lack of strategy, wrong advice, all these things are almost impossible to fix with stimulus packages. That takes us to the worst-case scenario. This is what we need to avoid when there is no crisis around.
On the other hand, we all know that it is not easy to be prepared and plan when there is no danger around. I am not talking about risk. I am using the word danger because the current situation is dangerous, and it works like a breeding ground for all the risks that you face for your business and for your own self too.
In contrast, it very easy to lose your mental balance in a crisis situation that takes away almost everything from you. The business may collapse, the property may be in danger, employees sent home, social welfare is only a name; and on top of it, you are supposed to sit at home and watch television. Even if governments offer world class benefits to save you, sometimes it is never enough to help pay the mortgage, to keep paying the kid's school fees and to buy food. And then you look around and notice you are out of toilet paper.
There is always a very thin line between sanity and insanity. It is in fact tinier than the letters i and n.
In this situation, there are still some things you can do:
First of all, collaborate with your friends, accountant, doctor, lawyer, etc. Keep talking to them. Never sit home and let the black clouds take all the motivation away from you. Learn about all the benefits that you can use and put them into action.
Secondly, use this time to think about what you should have done throughout the years, to avoid this situation or to minimize the damage after the impact.
Start planning now. Even if you had plans in the past, do it again.
Prepare a new business plan, from scratch. Get professional help for that.
Consider again whether you are in the right field of work, living in the right city, driving the right car. Even if the word "right" was never defined in one way, throughout history it has meant "the one that would be more useful" in my opinion.
Crisis always brings opportunities. It is always like that. Some of them come in the form of direct business opportunities. Another opportunity is simply the extra time to think about all of these. Time is as priceless as money for most of us, since we cannot avoid living on a hamster wheel without even thinking about it, in other days.
It is time to recover now. This is an important word: recover. We wouldn't be able to recover everything in our lives even if we were given all the time in the world. Government benefits are not the solution for everything. They are band-aids. Recovery is only possible with collaboration.
We can help you to get those band-aids and get you up on your feet again to keep travelling along your journey.
Contact us.
