This guide is part of Capitec BizTalk, a business-focused platform designed to empower entrepreneurs and small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) to build sustainable businesses.
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Business is all about plugging constant leaks and attending to fixes. These fixes are annoying but are often quick and cheap.
Business storms are the real danger: a pandemic, global conflict, a supply shortage, a series of delayed invoices, an unexpected warehouse fire. These emergencies always come uninvited and are often expensive to remedy.
This guide includes real-world strategies and practical tools to help you build a more resilient business, ensuring you’re equipped to operate in even the most severe weather conditions.
The Stormproof Tool
The Stormproof Tool is a simple template designed to help you identify and evaluate potential business storms.
Start by identifying a risk or challenge facing your business, then assess it using these two questions:
- How likely is it to happen?
- How severe would the impact be if it did?
Based on your answers, place the risk into the appropriate storm category. This will help you prioritise your response, from immediate action and contingency planning to process improvements or simply monitoring low-priority issues.
Regardless of the category, the objective is always the same: minimise the impact of adverse weather — whether that’s financial loss, reputational damage, lost time or operational disruption.
Storm categories
Critical storms:
- These are the worst storms your business can face and can cause severe damage. Maybe it’s running completely out of cash. Maybe it’s a cyber security attack crippling all internal infrastructure.
- These storms are best dealt with immediately.
- Most importantly, strategies and response plans should already be in place before these events occur.
Contingent storms:
- These may hit — and if they do, it’s trouble. Think a labour dispute or a natural disaster.
- These risks can usually be managed through proactive planning, scenario analysis and insurance.
- The goal here is to minimise damage based on your exposure to the event. For example, if you have a high exposure to imports, it pays to hedge out your currency exposure (especially in current economic conditions).
Routine rain:
- These are low-impact but high-probability events. Think normal staff turnover or minor customer complaints.
- These won’t cripple your business, but they need to be handled effectively.
- The best approach is to develop systems and processes that automate consistent responses. Here’s a simple example of a process response chain: Customer complaint → Social media detection → Human review → Dispute resolution
Low-priority drizzles:
- These are tiny, often unnoticeable disruptions that occur in every business. Maybe it’s a brief internet outage or an employee who forgot their PC password.
- Ideally, you want to avoid spending too much time dealing with these.
The Stormproof Tool in action
The example below shows how the Stormproof Tool can be applied to a real business scenario. A blank template follows for you to download and complete for your own business.
For the best viewing experience, open the document in full-screen mode and zoom in as needed. Alternatively, you can download it for easier reading.
A 12-step guide to building a bulletproof business
1. Know your numbers
According to the Finfind SA SMME Covid-19 Impact Report, 92% of local businesses that closed during the pandemic either never produced financial statements or operated with outdated management accounts.
Understanding the financial health of your business puts you in a position of strength and control. Monitoring cash balances, debt repayments and working capital cycles is essential. Knowing your starting point, whether good or bad, is a powerful first step.
2. Develop a crisis playbook
Think of this as the business equivalent of knowing where the fire exits and assembly points are.
It’s important to “simulate” crisis scenarios at regular intervals to test processes. For example, if a key customer fails to pay on time, what happens next? Does the company have a facility to draw on? Is there enough cash? Can salaries be paid?
The most difficult crisis is one without a response plan.
3. Consider taking cover
There are so many expensive risks facing businesses every day. A warehouse fire, delivery vehicle accident or data breach doesn’t have to break the bank.
Insurance is an incredibly powerful tool to protect your business against major and unexpected losses. It’s important to read the fine print, weigh up the costs and make sure you have sufficient cover.
4. Cash is king
The Finfind SA SMME Covid-19 Impact Report found that just 34% of businesses had any cash reserves prior to the Covid-19 lockdown. Many companies quickly ran out of cash. Of those with cash reserves, 64% expected to survive one to three months.
The lesson? Build an emergency fund where possible. Stress-test different scenarios and their resultant impact on your cash flow. Ideally, you should be able to access cash quickly (liquidity) rather than have your emergency funds tied up in fixed assets.
5. Build multiple revenue streams
Having a few customers or a single key client is a risky situation to be in. Diversification softens the impact of any unexpected changes to contracts. Most importantly, having multiple options shifts bargaining power in your favour.
6. Keep capital channels open
Of all the businesses that later closed during the pandemic, the Finfind SA SMME Covid-19 Impact Report revealed that nearly 100% had their credit applications denied. The top reason? A poor consumer credit score or credit history.
Having access to credit facilities, revolving credit and overdrafts can provide a vital financial lifeline when you need it most. This is especially important when your business doesn’t have sufficient cash reserves to withstand a major emergency.
7. Understand your funding options
Financial institutions and banking partners offer a suite of funding solutions. Many products are designed to help guard against emergencies. These include overdrafts, revolving facilities and insurance products.
Take the time to understand how each solution works before you need it. Which option is best suited to your business? Making important financial decisions is far easier before a crisis than during one.
8. Break the cycle
Many small businesses are cyclical in nature. There’s a flurry of busy periods and then extended quiet periods, making income unpredictable. It can be difficult to match regular cash outflows with erratic cash inflows.
One helpful strategy is to reduce your business’s dependency on a few key customers (concentration risk). Where appropriate, consider offering monthly payment options instead of relying on large lump-sum settlements to help smooth cash flow cycles.
Building greater certainty into your business improves the odds of surviving a crisis.
9. Invest in relationships and promote teamwork
Running a business can be a lonely exercise. It’s easy to become isolated and face challenges without support. Building a trusted team of mentors, advisers and partners is incredibly important.
Having a strong network also creates opportunities to learn new strategies for navigating change.
Attending Capitec BizTalk events offers you the chance to network with like-minded entrepreneurs, industry leaders and financial experts. Visit the Capitec BizTalk hub to learn more, stay up to date with upcoming events, and discover how to join the BizTalk community on WhatsApp.
10. Consider ‘buying the dip’
There’s a popular quote: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
Remember: adversity also creates opportunities. For instance, you may find high-quality assets trading at attractive discounts during periods of instability. Having dry powder (cash) on hand means you’re able to capitalise on these opportunities.
11. Study failures
Successful business case studies are everywhere. There’s an endless list of resources on “what works”. Often it’s more valuable to learn from businesses that may not have been so lucky.
Study companies in your sector and global trends to help forecast challenges. Learning from others’ expensive mistakes is much better than making them yourself.
12. Become the disruptor
Consider a traditional retailer facing growing competition from e-commerce. Investing in digital capabilities early on can help future-proof the business.
Knowing your “kryptonite” will help you design systems that enable your business to stay ahead of the disruptions reshaping your industry — and even become a disruptor itself.
Start small by incubating disruptive technologies (AI, automation and data analytics), then work towards integration and scale.
Being caught off guard by competitors puts your business in a reactive rather than proactive position.
The Kryptonite Quiz
Having the luxury of time and foresight to proactively address potential weaknesses in your business before they become major risks is a significant advantage.
The Kryptonite Quiz is a quick self-assessment that uses a series of simple “yes” or “no” questions to evaluate how well prepared your business is to withstand disruption and respond to unexpected challenges.
Take it now:
Make a note of the questions where you answered “no”. These represent gaps that require attention and provide a starting point for developing practical strategies to strengthen your business.
If you answered “no” to more than three questions, it may be time to prioritise a comprehensive risk management plan.
Want to continue the conversation? Visit the Capitec BizTalk hub to join the dedicated WhatsApp community, where you can share your feedback on this guide and connect with other entrepreneurs.
This article was sponsored by Capitec.
This guide is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, legal, tax, or investment advice.
The information contained in this guide is general in nature and may not be appropriate for your specific business circumstances. Before making any financial or business decisions, you should consider seeking advice from a qualified financial adviser, accountant, or legal professional.
Nothing in this guide should be interpreted as an invitation, recommendation, or solicitation to purchase, apply for, or use any specific financial, credit, or banking product.
BankerX does not receive any fees, commissions, or compensation from the sale of any credit products or from any products referenced or discussed in this guide.
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information presented, the financial landscape evolves and some information may change over time. If you believe any information requires correction or revision, email contact@bankerx.co.za.
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