How businesses can turn downtime to their advantage

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, U.K. - April 6, 2020 - PRLog -- Many otherwise busy companies are going to be experiencing an unexpected and unwanted slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you own or run such a business then you may find that you've more time on your hands than you'd need or want. Shortly the media will be full of stories about businesses giving their staff reduced hours, unpaid sabbaticals and some even considering redundancies or even closures.

While this may be unavoidable for some, there are still practical steps that any SME can do to improve their overall situation right now and set them up and ready to resume profitable activity when regular activity begins again.

Review outstanding debts

If you've played fair and given your debtors sufficient time to pay then you should start making calls. Even collecting a small proportion of any outstanding amount owed to you is cash in the bank – where it's always better to be than on a balance sheet.

Stock audit

A lot of businesses keep stock and assets either on the premises or in other storage facilities, sometimes at increasing cost.

What began as a prudent and sensible measure could eventually become an expensive habit and eventually even a liability if the stock is just sitting there or even building up.

Could some of it be sold or freed up to bring in more funds for the business right now? More stock can be acquired but only if there is a functioning business there to acquire it.

Financial fitness report

When was the last time you went through your business's balance sheets from top to bottom? When did an expert review it to see what efficiencies could be made swiftly to get some quick wins and quicker cash flow coming in with some changes?

Are there any savings or surplus that could be put to good use supporting the company now? Are there any investments that could be realised for the benefit of the business? If there are any leaves to overturn then now is the time to turn them.

Conversations with creditors
Reasonable precaution is beneficial for any business even if there aren't any visible clouds on the horizon – any experienced business owner or director knows that the weather can change in an instance. Especially when we've all seen the damage done in these early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whether your business is experiencing the first collateral effects of the coronavirus outbreak or has so far been fortunate enough to escape any serious damage, you should get in touch with a company administration (https://www.businessrescueexpert.co.uk/our-solutions/admi...) expert to discuss your concerns and ambitions and help you plan an efficient and effective way of overcoming the former and working towards the latter.