How to build business resilience amid adversity
5 min read
With geopolitical tensions reshaping global trade, supply chains under pressure, fuel and energy costs climbing and customers tightening their belts, input costs are heading in one direction.
For many South African business owners, the feeling is uncomfortably familiar. Not a repeat of COVID, but a reminder that volatility is never really off the table, and that the businesses which navigate it best are the ones that are already prepared.
Across our client base, we are seeing a split in confidence. Service-based businesses are trading steadily. Those reliant on imported stock or transport-heavy supply chains are watching costs rise and hedging their bets. Many are buying ahead of further price increases or investing in equipment or customer differentiators which will attract customers during consumer pressure. Many are waiting to see whether consumer confidence holds.
The small businesses that survived the pandemic were not the biggest, they were the ones who knew what to protect, what to cut and what to change. That same discipline applies now, whether the next wave hits hard or not.
Cash buys you time
When revenue comes under pressure, time is the thing you are really buying. A cash buffer is how you buy it.
During the pandemic, many businesses found out too late how little runway they had. Those with even a few months of breathing room could take stock and adjust. Those without it were forced into reactive calls – often too hard, too fast or not fast enough.
A three- to six-month buffer is a useful target. But more importantly, you need to know your number. How long can your business keep operating if revenue drops? If you cannot answer this clearly, that is the first thing to figure out.
Know what to cut – before you have to
Most owners only think hard about costs when the pressure is already on. By then, it is harder to think straight and easier to make bad calls.
The owners who come through tough periods well tend to know their cost base before it matters. They know which costs are fixed, which flex and which can be reduced quickly without damaging anything important. They know the small levers from the big ones.
There is a real difference between trimming fat and cutting muscle. Cutting non-essential spend can buy you time. Cutting into delivery, customer experience or revenue-generating activity causes damage that is hard to undo.
The discipline is not just knowing what to cut. It is knowing the order – before someone else forces your hand.
Where to invest
Resilience is not just about pulling back. It is about being deliberate: knowing where to hold back and where to lean in.
Right now, that often means tightening variable costs that do not directly drive revenue, while still investing in areas that make your business run better. For some, that is upgrading equipment or systems that pay back in efficiency. For others, it is building stock ahead of further price increases where demand is predictable.
The questions to ask are simple: What pays back quickly, what will attract customers when others are flailing, and what can wait? Not everything should be cut, and not everything should be delayed.
Be honest about whether your model still works
Economic shocks reveal cracks that are easy to ignore when things are going well. If input costs rise sharply or supply becomes unreliable, the question is not only how to manage the increase. It is whether your customers will absorb higher prices – or whether you need to rethink what you offer and how you offer it.
During the pandemic, the businesses that adapted fastest did best. Some switched suppliers. Some changed their product mix. Some reworked pricing. The ones that held on too long to a model that no longer worked found the eventual change far more painful.
The honest truth is that disruption is part of running a business. Resilience is not a switch you flip during a crisis. It is built into how you manage cash and costs day to day, how to invest ahead of the curves and how quickly you can move when you need to.
The businesses that get that right are better placed when opportunities show up. And in a volatile environment, those who respond early tend to come out stronger.
Nicole Swart
Managing Director
