Small businesses bear the brunt of flooding, high fuel prices and load shedding
|Published
Johannesburg - It's a tough time to be doing business in South Africa at the present moment, as factors varying from adverse weather conditions, power outages and fuel increases continue to affect productivity and operations across the board.
Floods in various parts of the country have wreaked havoc and caused substantial damage to residential and commercial properties.
Thato Sejake (23), who manages a family-owned bottle store in Protea South, Soweto, is counting the cost of the damage that has been done to their business premises which is also their home. In addition, the equipment has also been damaged by the flood waters.
“The fridges are damaged. This one goes on, but it doesn't get cold. Plus, there’s load shedding, so we haven't been able to properly test the rest. We have another fridge that just does not go on at all.”
“We struggled to get any business done this past weekend. As we speak, we will not be able to pay the brewery for stock. We are 50% short. We’ll have to make a plan to get the money together. At least they give us two weeks to pay,” said Thato.
According to Thato, out of sheer desperation, her neighbours resorted to breaking their boundary walls to relieve the pressure and get water flowing out of their yards. This led to overwhelming amounts of water engulfing her home and business.
Mpho Setjeo, owner of Dailybread, who sells sandwiches at intersections in Johannesburg with his son, has suffered losses as a result of the inclement weather.
“It was not raining last night, so woke up and prepared as per normal. But as as I was about to drop off my son at his spot, it started to drizzle. I suggested to him that we try and make some sales as we were already out in the street, so I dropped him off in the hopes that the rain would abate”
“As I was setting up, it began to rain, and unfortunately, within 10 minutes, I had to call it off and then I went ahead to go pick up my son as we were not going win.”
“So because we don’t sell day-old food to our customers, we’ll just repackage today’s sandwiches and give them to the needy on the streets. The bottom line, though, is that we’ve incurred another loss today,” said Setjeo.
Having a plan in place to cope with floods and flood damage can help reduce the impact on your business and help you to recover quickly.
Depending on your business's location, you can be impacted by different types of floods, such as river or creek flooding and overland flow, when water travels over land during heavy rainfall events.
According to Business Queensland, small businesses need to take the following steps to ensure they are sufficiently prepared for potential flooding events.
– Before storm season, check that your business's insurance policy is up to date and adequately covers your business, assets and any rebuilds or repairs that may be required.
– Photograph equipment or assets to show pre-event condition.
– Review and document how you will manage orders and cancellations.
– Check you have financial reserves and emergency cash on hand.
– Use the small business disaster resources made available by municipal and governmental services.
Rapula Kobane runs a construction company and is as frustrated by the less-than-ideal weather conditions and feels stage 5 load shedding exacerbates his problems.
The inability of Eskom to maintain a consistent and reliable power supply continues to affect SMEs negatively, as it has a direct effect on the productivity of these small businesses.
“There is nothing we can do regarding the weather, but we could at least be doing other things on the site while it is raining. We cannot do so because of Eskom and the constant load shedding. It can go on for up to 4 hours at a time, and that is the whole workday lost.
“I can run a generator, but have you seen the price of fuel lately? We are just bleeding money every which way,” said Kobane.
Retail Capital managing director Miguel Da Silva believes that Eskom needs to resolve its woes soon or that businesses need to develop independence from the grid if SMEs have any hope to thrive.
He said: “Small business owners have come to realise that government talk seldom translates into anything meaningful for them. The best advice now, just like before, would be to tighten the belt, lean on peers for advice and networks, try new and innovative ways to reach new customers, approach alternative lenders to fund growth, close cash crunches, and develop independence from the grid.”
vusi.adonis@inl.co.za
IOL Business