Tag: coronavirus

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our world with devastating speed and there is no doubt that small businesses will be the hardest hit. Although we are hoping for everything to get back to normal and finally get to put all the anxiety, fear, and tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic behind us, no one knows how severe the economy will get impacted or how long the recovery process will take.

The next few weeks (and beyond) will be a testing time particularly for smaller businesses. Best to see it as a stress test, a way to make your business stronger.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has made its presence felt in South African retail and consumer-focused businesses, especially in tourism and hospitality, but the full impact on earnings, cash flow and employment will last far longer than the initial lockdown.

On 9 April 2020, the Government issued Notice 43224, Regulation 459, effective as of 9 April 2020 which provides directions regarding the operation of Essential Service Call Centres during the Lockdown Period. 

There is promise after the storm, but good planning is needed by business owners in the restaurant, bar and events industry.

The Covid-19 crisis has brought much of the world economy to a sudden stop. Millions upon millions of people are in lockdown across the world, preventing them from working, buying, producing and selling goods and services. Global and local supply chains are interrupted, and small and large companies see a collapse in income. Households are under similar pressure.

South African business author and coach, Douglas Kruger, has written Virus-proof Your Small Business: 50 Ways to Survive the COVID-19 Crisis and the e-book is now available from Google Play and Snapplify. The book provides proactive tactics for small business owners to survive the challenges they might face during the current crisis and in the future.

Advocates of the lockdown ignore the most basic law of life, that benefits have costs, and that costs easily exceed benefits. People's most 'essential' need is income; the country's most 'essential' need is production. The government's decision to extend the lockdown might cause more premature deaths than far less extreme measures, or even lifting existing measures completely. The economic and human rights impact is more extreme than all but a few realise.

Whereas I am not a Corona Virus expert, I have been a hypochondriac for some years. I am also am a radio talk show host, author and a social commentator, which perhaps qualifies me in some way to speak of social impact of this illness,

Legally we have entered unchartered waters that government, perhaps understandably, appears unable to navigate. Practically, the coronavirus regulations cannot be adhered to in a society composed like South Africa’s. In whichever way one approaches the issue, the coronavirus regulations should in large part be set aside and replaced by less restrictive measures to control the pandemic.