With the growing uncertainty of the current global events, your organisation needs you to be competent, efficient and knowledgeable when it comes to managing risk. You need to ensure you are up-to-date on the best practice required to effectively mitigate risks and capitalise on opportunities to save your organisation time and money.
At the Risk Dashboard our aim is to help ensure that the UK’s SME’s are in a position to come out of the COVID-19 crisis in a fit state to carry on business. That requires that the SME’s still exist, that they have the proper resources and that the wider economic ecosystem is healthy.
Though lockdown is beginning to ease (or at least we thought it was..!), the business landscape will not return to normality in an instant. On top of the pressure dealt by public restrictions and supply chain disruptions, SMEs are suffering severe blows to their revenue as customers became accustomed to a new way of living.
With revenue up in the air, the best way for SME’s to increase their business resilience is to improve their spending habits and minimise their costs. Securing stable cash flow will be vital for business survival in the post-lockdown period, and having cash on demand will insure SME’s against any further hiccups in the road ahead.
More importantly, as government support and the job retention scheme approach their end, businesses already struggling with cash flow will need additional support to keep afloat.
Failing to spot overspending could hinder an SME’s ability to survive and grow.
It is therefore essential that SME’s conduct a ‘stress test’ post COVID-19 to evaluate their business resilience, and to evaluate urgently their need to reduce non-core business costs post COVID-19 lockdown
If you’re an SME, you could well have taken advantage of the generous support provided by the taxpayer during the crisis, however the time is fast approaching where this support will cease, and SME’s need to develop robust financial planning to repay what has been loaned, with many businesses facing a wall of debt early in 2021
- Income tax payments on account deferred from July 2020 are due on 31 January 2021
- VAT deferred from June 2020 is due by March 2021
- Bounce-back loans and CBILS have 12-month repayment holidays, and so payment will start in spring 2021.
In the absence of solid cash-flow forecasts, this is a worry!
The debts of course can be repaid if there is cash. If there is no cash, the debts will collapse the businesses. Ability to repay this debt is dependent on positive cashflow – that is, profit!
Every SME should now be integrating risk management strategies, no matter its type and size. Everyone, regardless of role and seniority, needs to be able to manage and take risk.
One certainty that I have witnessed through the Risk Dashboard has been the adoption of risk management strategies, by companies and organisations such as; Accountants, Chambers of Commerce and the Insurance sector, who have recognised the need to provide risk management and mitigation to enhance relationships and to offer a service differentiator.
Risk Dashboard is now extending it’s free COVID-19 secure technology to SME’s across the UK, to ‘stress-test’ your business to determine its post COVID-19 preparedness.
The Risk Dashboard’s 6 steps to risk management, allows you to complete a COVID-19 secure audit/‘stress test’, using it’s unique compliance technology;
- You undertake a business audit of your organisation
- The audit interface identifies vulnerabilities, gaps and growth opportunities
- The task management function allows you to work through quantifiable risks
- Our weighted algorithm prioritises the actions that need your attention first
- Our partner programme connects you to subject matter experts for support
- Together, we create a risk-based framework to reduce COVID-19 threats and costs
Our latest FREE to deploy solution entitled – ‘ Survival, Resilience and Growth’, has proven to be a great success for SME’s and the management of their businesses throughout the pandemic.
This latest FREE edition is the latest ‘stress test’ measure in a series of support solutions rolled out by Risk Dashboard to support SMEs during the pandemic.
Risk Dashboard is easy to use, agile and dynamic, meaning that it is able to grow and develop with your post COVID-19 secure business needs.
You need to ask yourself this simple question – can I afford NOT to undertake a FREE ‘STRESS TEST’ of my business?
If you would like to download your FREE edition to assist you in your grant application, whilst developing your post COVID-19 resilience strategy for survival, please see your local Growth Hub, Accountant of Business Advisor for a FREE to use licence, or contact the Risk Dashboard using: https://www.riskdashboard.co.uk/SRG/ using voucher code: NCBS1 or contact Neil Campbell, Commercial Director at Risk Dashboard on info@riskdashboard.co.uk.
We look forward to hearing from you.