Corona, Shutdown-Exit & Co: Prospects for companies are now in demand!

Shutdown

In the next days and weeks decisions will be made in this country. Decisions on the question that currently plagues every human being: What's next? Since the imposed initial restrictions and the economic shutdown to stem the spread of Covid-19 in Germany, nothing is the same as before. However, the consequences are directly felt by everyone - both interpersonal and economic. However, it is not really foreseeable when the expected and urgently needed decisions will be taken. And it is just as unclear how many self-employed people with small and medium-sized businesses can cope with this situation.

Uncertainty - where do we go from here?

It may well be that many companies are (still) very successful during the Corona pandemic, that circumstances may even have developed in their favour or that they have been able to adapt their business model to the current situation. This is what we get to see every day as Fulfillment service provider, who among other things is in charge of several online shops. E-commerce has grown strongly in some areas, lost strongly in others, or it has to be rethought in organisational terms, e.g. in terms of Shipping with Amazon-FBA

However, the fact is that an enormous number of companies in Germany are in difficulties. The German economy is in trouble. For a great many of them, the question is no longer whether they can cope with this shutdown, but how long they will be financially able to do so. It is uncertain.

Uncertainty is running through all areas of life right now. "Is my job still safe?" employees ask. "What about my children's care?" and "When will school resume normally?", parents ask. Not knowing what to do next is a big burden for many people in this country. But uncertainty also prevails in the economy. It is certainly something that speaks volumes to countless entrepreneurs from all imaginable industries when it is said that what is lacking at the moment is above all planning security. Planning security, which is so important for every company if it wants to survive.

Perspective and an exit with a sense of proportion

Some companies are still able to work halfway through short-time work and restructuring. Not an ideal situation, but at the moment it is probably the best they can make of the situation. And this urge to do something is in all of us who are self-employed, who create jobs in this country, who finally want to do something (again). What might then be the fate of those in the industries most affected by the Corona crisis, where the business has simply been reduced to zero? Where there is simply no way to "turn the business inside out" and instead do something else to keep the business going?

It is, of course, right to take measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as effectively as possible - but it also needs prospects for entrepreneurs as to how an exit could take place. After all, how are they supposed to prepare for the next few weeks when they will soon be allowed to restart their business - albeit with restrictions? Will the lockdown remain for weeks and months? Can the supply chains be maintained? Will I still be able to pay my employees? Does my company still have a future? Or will the measures be gradually relaxed so that public life can move from a standstill to a literally healthy level of normality?

All these questions and many more are currently preoccupying us self-employed people of all sizes. One thing is certain at the moment: The next few weeks will decide about a lot of livelihoods in this country. Whether you call it shutdown or lockdown: an exit with a sense of proportion and a perspective for the self-employed and their employees are the order of the day. Otherwise we will have to watch how - as it is aptly put The Family Entrepreneurs in their video - the German economy is strangled by the shutdown.

Mike Schubert und Raimund Bergler

Request a free offer

We look forward to learning more about you and your project.