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Presidential announcements are known as "family meetings" these days.
Tomorrow South Africa is expected to hear what our next lock down fate is going to be as something is brewing. We thought it would happen on Thursday evening and the Government has delayed the inevitable by a few days.
The truth is that if a level 4 is put in place then it will be catastrophic for many businesses. The damage the lockdowns caused last year has collapsed the economy and the country cannot afford another one. I have seen first hand how many businesses have just vanished and the ones that survived are not exactly healthy either. This will decimate the economy even more crippling the country. I just don't see anything positive coming out of another lockdown right now even if it is a necessity. Unemployment and poverty is everywhere as at many traffic lights the number of beggars has increased which hits home how bad things really are.
Over the last 3 months I have been under time pressure to land new clients as expected this to happen again at some point. There is nothing worse having the added pressure of time over your head as business is not exactly normal either. I have 4 new accounts that I have been working on over the last 3 months and still nothing concrete with 2 expected to order for the first time next week. These things take time and time is not something we have if we get locked down from next week. The one thing I have learned from the last lock downs is to actually do more and to stay busy as this is when business relationships are formed.
Last week we managed to source raw material to get through this week and have warned all of our clients to give us a 7 day heads up window if they require more stock. Fortunately financially our business is healthy and have no worries on that front but if you can't get hold of raw materials to manufacture it makes it doubly tough.
On the one side you need to grow and find new business and on the other you need to service the clients you already have. Kind of a catch 22 in some ways and we have decided to go with option 1 and grow solving issues as they appear. If we play our cards correctly then there is no reason why we can't double in size within the next year. Last year we bought extra machinery and built an extension to the factory so we can increase our capacity. I highly doubt whether any of our competitors were doing the same thing. The time to expand is when their is a recession or economic hardships as the idea is you come out bigger and stronger than everyone else around you.
I am for one not looking forward to tomorrow as I would have liked another month at least to secure the work I have already done. There is still so much opportunity out there and this has to be done with face time and not by phone or email. Here is hoping I have this all wrong and the "family meeting" will be about the roll out of vaccines instead. There is just too much media already talking about this so it is definitely leaked to prepare everyone for what is coming.