Rigid ways of working and formal corporate structures have fallen down in recent months, leading to longevity concerns even among historic companies. If anything, Covid 19 has shown us we could all be a little more flexible. If you’re interested in making your business more resilient, here are some quick changes you can make that might help.
Have a business continuity plan
Get your senior leaders together and dream up every worst-case scenario from pandemics to IT failures to supplier bankruptcy. Think of how you’d handle each situation and create a business continuity plan. Then conduct regular test runs of the plan so that if the worst should happen, everyone has experienced the following procedure.
Don’t put your eggs in one basket
Develop divergent streams of income. Don’t target all your products or services towards one customer type or industry. That way, if there are economic factors impacting one of your client pools, the others will remain unaffected.
Invest in good quality suppliers
You never want to be your supplier’s largest client. (They’ve put all their eggs in your basket.) Try to find suppliers who can scale with you, are financially stable and have robust growth plans of their own
Give yourself a buffer
Build in financial backstops to cover at least six months to a year of operational and production expenses. This will ensure you can keep the lights on and the presses running through tough times. Don’t forget to apply for any government programmes that can support you should market conditions deteriorate.
Limit fixed costs
Try to sign flexible contracts that allow you to scale up and down as your business responds to changes. That way if you need a bigger warehouse or virtual working, you can quickly pivot. Try not to tie yourself into fixed-term deals that could see you paying over the odds if your business needs change.
Worlds end studios
Resilience is also about having a dedicated team behind you. At Worlds End Studios, our reception and management team are very much apart of the package. We are here to support your business in any way possible. For maximum flexibility our private offices operate on 3 month rolling contracts, which means you aren’t tied down. To name a few, our in house telephone, internet, printing, franking services ensure you do not have to think about remembering to pay extra bills as your services are all billd to you at the end of the each month.
Worlds End Studios is home to over 120 businesses, contact us today on 020 7349 7001 or by emailing info@worldsendstudios.com to let us know how we can help you get started.