SMEs should continue still brace up as uncertainty reboots

The election-induced uncertainties are not over yet. For Nigerian entrepreneurs, especially those in the SME sector, the fall-outs of the existential threat that was the 2019 elections in Nigeria may have abated but is not yet over. If anything, it is time to brace up even the more but not necessarily for security reasons. It is more for economic reasons. And I hope the SMEs have not exhausted their survival strategies or lost staying powers as the elections come to a close. The real need for staying power and creativity is actually about to become more urgent as businesses try to get back on track. The elections may have come and gone (though not quite. The reruns are still out there) but the crisis has just rebooted. The days of uncertainty; the kind that is truly typical of the Nigerian business environment, are about to really and truly break. Adherents of positivism and those passionate about faith and the art of calling into being those things, which be not, may not feel this way but passion and reality have their places. The reality is that meaningful business patronage is still far down the pipeline.

Clearly, the uncertainty ahead of SMEs and indeed, the small business community in the country, is of a different kind from the one that preceded the elections. Prior to the elections, the main concern of everyone was the survival of the nation – a shameful situation arising from the lust for power and the unremitted opportunity for corrupt enrichment offered by Nigerian politics. People feared that there could be crisis whatever the result of the elections. And there was a lot of crisis. With power hungry politicians ready to kill in order to win elections, and a largely ignorant and illiterate followers; victims of poverty weaponization, deliberately pauperised by the operators of the system, equally ready to die for their principals, the concern was for the survival of the country. The coalescence of these forces left investors with a heightened sense of cautious optimism and a wait-and-see attitude. SMEs were the primary victims as they suffered all manner of negative consequences from delayed payments, botched orders and inventory pile up.

Now the elections have come and practically gone but the uncertainty remains. It is important for SMEs to realize that things are not going to be normalized in a jiffy. There is still some more waiting and adjustment time before it all comes back to normal. This implies that SMEs must still guard their loins, nourish and protect their few surviving revenue streams and create new markets. The idea of cost containment, as a strategy of revenue management, must be emphasized, even much more. There is med for efficiency. The reason for continued focus on efficiency and cost control is simple – even those who have won their elections will need time to take office. And when they do, they will discover and learn things they never knew ever existed. Even those they knew existed will take new forms and shapes, as reality replaces speculation and bravado. This makes a case for caution. Business opportunities will to return but they will do so very slowly. There is probably going to be an even longer waiting period of time than the one preceding the elections, depending on the preparedness and capacity of the new men in power, especially in places where power has changed hands.SMEs need to learn to be patient.

Small business operators need to continue to practice the management strategies we had recommended elsewhere in this column, as part of the key success factors for surviving hard times like these. Without doubt, cost containment, beginning with realistic cost-cutting devices, must remain in vogue. Indeed, the cut must be targeted and with more precision. By all accounts, and since the worst is no longer likely to happen, operators must be careful what cost to cut and how deep to cut it. They must be careful also not to kill the business through cuts that are unnecessarily too deep. Some deep cuts take too much flesh off the business. Scarecrow enterprises have no place in the impending race to recovery. Cost-containment must leave needed flesh in the business. The business must have enough flesh, especially in the key driving units (the legs of the business) to carry it forward. On the other hand, too much flesh at a time of speed and precision has its own punishment. Shallow cuts in places where deep cuts are inevitable paper over problems. Therefore, cost containment must be properly thought through and implemented. If not so, they do not make the impact they ought to make. This is why precision is very important in cost control at a time like this.

SMEs should use this low time to increase their capacity through training. This does not have to take them away from work or cost so much. Some important ways to reduce the cost of training and operations is the use of technology. Online business training can save travel time and costs while availing us the benefits of quality training, which others attend physically. It is now possible for us to attend some of the best training programmes in the world while sitting comfortably in our offices. SMEs should explore the opportunity. Even software can be obtained and used without having to pay so much. There are Open Source Softwares that allow users to modify the source codes and manipulate the software to suit their needs. We also have free software that can transform small businesses, at little or no cost.