Given the importance of cash flow in times like this, companies should immediately develop a treasury plan for cash management as part of their overall business risk and continuity plans. In doing so, it is essential to take a full ecosystem and end-to-end supply chain perspective, as the approaches you take to manage cash will have implications for not only your business but also for your customers.
Borrowing from the lessons learned from the SARS outbreak in 2003, the 2008 recession and credit crunch, and the last black swan event to significantly impact global supply chains–the Japanese earthquake of 2011–we offer the following practices and strategies for consideration:
1.Ensure you have a robust framework for managing supply chain risk.
2.Ensure your own financing remains viable.
3.Focus on the cash-to-cash conversion cycle.
4.Think like a CFO, across the organisation.
5.Revisit your variable costs. 6.Revisit capital investment plans.
7.Focus on inventory management.
8.Extend payables, intelligently.
9.Manage and accelerate receivables.
10.Consider alternate supply chain financing options.
11.Audit payables and receivables transactions.
12.Understand your business interruption insurance.
13.Consider alternate or non-traditional revenue streams.
14.Convert fixed to variable costs, where possible.
15.Think beyond your four walls.
We appreciate time is precious –and for that reason we have simply listed the areas we believe could help support your business and cash flow through these testing times. Look out for our more detailed document on the SaveOurSME website where we expand on each area.
SaveOurSME campaign is brought to you from The SME Centre of Excellence and was created to provide practical and immediate support to business owners who are facing challenging time during COVID-19.
We would urge you to signup to receive support if you are a business in the North East of England. The sign-up form can be found here.
Alternatively, if you wish to volunteer your professional skills and experience –we would love to hear from you too.The sign-up form can be found here.