The Journey to a Post-Covid World: Is Your Business Ready?

The Coronavirus has impacted how business is conducted. Particularly in Africa, COVID-19 has left an indelible impact on all Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMMEs).
SMMEs in South Africa are the essence of economic growth and development and play a vital role in job creation, however, the South African economy already has limited market access. SMMEs need to be aware of the implications COVID-19 has had on their business and solutions on how to overcome such challenges.

Shocks and Pressures of the Lockdown measures

Many businesses have seen their end during COVID-19 in South Africa, the businesses that are surviving are left facing numerous issues:

• • Increased employee absenteeism because of the hysteria and stigmatisation around COVID-19 and contracting it. Employers have to grant more leeway on sick leave to avoid risking the health of other employees.
  • Cash flow issues affecting SMMEs, the lack of business during covid means that a lot of businesses don’t have the financial freedom to pay their way out of everyday operating expenses.
  • Encouraging greater participation from staff to increase understanding of the digital and information age. This also relates to a skills gap being created because of the digital migration that was accelerated during the first initial hard lockdown.
  • Businesses relying on foot traffic such as retail and hospitality sectors were severely hindered by the lack of movement due to COVID-19 compliance regulations.

Digitisation

A lot of SMMEs were forced to digitise to keep functioning, to function in a contactless world where the majority of interactions between customers and employees had to take place virtually. The struggle there was, how do SMMEs implement this, and with what resources and funding? During this period of economic turbulence that the country is facing, SMMEs need to develop innovative strategies to execute now more than ever. On the other hand, COVID-19 has provided an opportunity in the South African market to transform into a digital economy. A paradigm shift towards digitisation is crucial for local SMMEs to implement. This can be highly stressful especially for those SMMEs that do not have access to funding and resources to move digitally and on the other hand having to deal with health-compromised employees and the sudden drop in the economy.

Many companies have adopted digital strategies for their portfolios. This is the new reality for us here at Retrolex Consultancy. We have identified the importance of content marketing for not only our business but for those of our clients as well. Amongst our service offerings, we develop high-quality content marketing for our clients to increase their visibility and position them as an expert in their relevant field, and ultimately, to switch up innovation.

Interested? See more about, or connect with Retrolex Consultancy here:
www.retrolex.co.za