As 800,000 small businesses in the UK are predicted to fail this year as a result of the impact of Covid-19 on the economy, Dartmouth-based management consultant, Tim Dewing has created a vital 10 point action plan to help them survive.
“Owners and managers of Small and Medium sized enterprises must act now if they want their business to survive,” says Tim Dewing of Azimuth Management Consultancy. “In my 27 years’ helping small businesses survive difficult situations, I often find that people become overwhelmed by the stress of keeping their business afloat. They are almost paralysed with worry in times of severe financial crisis like we are experiencing now and simply don’t know what to do first.”
Tim has created his simple 10 point action plan from all his years’ experience to help anxious business people work out what they need to do immediately to keep themselves afloat. He stresses the important thing is to make sure they are healthy themselves, so that they are strong enough to keep going, and he urges them to “get on and do it now!”
In summary, the 10 stages Tim recommends are:
- Apply oxygen to yourself first (eat, sleep, exercise, stay healthy)
- Forecast cash-flow
- Implement a single point of control for expenditure
- Delay payments
- Cut costs ruthlessly
- Collect debt
- Generate income
- Dispose of assets
- Communicate with stakeholders
- Maintain and support your brand
Tim is offering a free chat with any business owner to help them remain calm, see the wood from the trees and work out how to make sure their business survives the current crisis. To date his plan has been read by over 1000 people and he is helping many local businesses focus, take swift action and, most importantly, survive this crisis.
Totnes-based PR consultancy, Marvellous PR worked with Tim following the loss of its major clients overnight as a result of the ‘lockdown’, and its owner, Lucy Matthews, comments:
“I was desperate. I had staff salaries and overheads to pay and couldn’t see how we were going to survive. By quickly working with Tim and following his 10 step plan, we are now not only still afloat and able to pay our immediate bills, but have a plan to emerge much stronger when the economy improves.”
If you would like to take advantage of Tim’s offer of a free chat about your current financial situation, please get in touch with him either by email tim@azimuthmc.co.uk or call 07813 153055.
