Businessmen find ways to survive the crisis

CEBU, Philippines - Amidst the gloomy financial ambiance in the global market, businessmen believe getting back to basics, staying positive, multi-tasking and being hands-on in the business are some of the few ways to thrive during these tough times.

CIBI Information Inc., Vismin manager Ed Limtingco said that the services industry right now is one of the most affected by the crisis and most players from the industry are suffering from a huge slowdown as more and more companies cut on their costs.

“Everything about the crisis is already reported. The service sector has really been badly hit lately. If companies are not expanding their operations, then how can the sector serve more and how can these companies utilize their service?” he said.

He added that there are several segments in the service sector which is suffering badly because of the crisis and an example of that would be the manpower sector because most companies now are laying off workers.

Limtingco advised the sector that instead of anticipating for the worst to come, he urged them to strengthen their exiting relationship with their clientele.

“It’s about time you start visiting clients. Nothing beats a good old-fashioned client visit. Ask what they are doing and what you can do to serve them better. Go out to talk to as many clients as possible so you will also know how they are doing and what plans they have so you will know how to position yourself,” said Limtingco.

He said that if before an individual businessman only used to focus on the operations and on the marketing collaterals of the company, now is the time to also give extra focus on the collections and the cash flow of the company.

“Manage your cash flow. If you used to rely this process to your credit and collection people, it’s about time for you to be hands on. To survive the crisis you have to manage and take over the collections and you should do delinquency meeting, review your board to know if there are systems that needs to be upgraded,” he said.

Limtingco said that being hands on at this time of economic uncertainty is a very important step for businessmen to do to offset the negative impacts of the surging crisis.

For the wellness industry on the other hand, Spa and Wellness Association of Cebu (SWAC) president Johnnie Lim advised his rank to continue giving quality service to their clientele.

He said that giving of promotions is a good strategy to attract more clients and tapping into new market segments will also help increase declining client traffic.

Lim said that even if there is a crisis at hand, businessmen should continue to remain optimistic so as not to upset the movement of Cebu’s thriving business environment which continue to attract businesses in different segments especially the business process outsourcings sector.

Robert Go, a former Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president said that there are still enough reasons for businessmen to remain upbeat amidst the slowdown in the market.

He said that the crisis will no longer take very long because major international economies are doing something to offset its impacts especially the US.

“We are dependent on the movements of these economies. If their situations get better and so would we. Here in the Philippines, there are still more reasons for us to continue our optimism because for one the demand for our overseas Filipino workers abroad still continue, BPO companies still come over to put up their operations and even if there is a decline of our major tourists like Japanese ad Koreans, our tourism industry still manage to capture other markets,” he said.

“The important thing for businesses to do now is to be careful with their inventories, watch out for their finances and check on the expense level of their businesses to stay afloat,” Go added..— Rhia de Pablo