Business tycoon Leston Mulli, Managing Director of Mulli Brothers Limited, says the contract he was awarded to supply maize to National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) is genuine and not fake.

The Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) has donated 43 million kwacha worth of Covid-19 preventive items to fuel transporters, Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzimba north District Health Offices.

COVID-19 has come either to live among humans like HIV/Aids or just to pass by. In either situation, the impact of COVID-19 is real not only on personal finances but also at corporate level.  Living under COVID-19 restrictions is a new experience for Malawi and other countries across the world struggling to contain Covid-19. As we adapt to this new reality, it is important to actively manage some of the financial stresses that the COVID-19 restrictions present.

Global Finance has named Ecobank (www.Ecobank.com) as the most innovative bank in Africa. The announcement was made at the eighth Global Finance annual awards, the Innovators 2020, honoring entities that regularly identify new paths and design new tools in finance.

Investments in supporting successful transitions from school and university directly to entrepreneurship could unlock significant employment gains in Africa, this is according to a new research paper from the Anzisha Prize (www.AnzishaPrize.org) which has worked with very young African entrepreneurs for over a decade.

^{Alternative ways in which to generate revenue income}

Global Revenue at a glance

During 2019, all service lines showed a strong growth in revenue along with geographies and key industries which contributed significantly to the past nine consecutive years’ worth of strong growth after the world economy dipped greatly between 2009 and 2010.

This strong growth has henceforth been deterred greatly with the emergence and spread of Covid-19 with several industries and the economies of a multitude of countries suffering a significant amount of strain, especially during the first three months of 2020.

A vast majority of major (and thousands of minor) companies have reported revenues that are at an all-time, record-breaking low during the first quarter of 2020, which ended in March, due to the widespread impact of the virus on various economies.

While a lot of companies are benefitting from the virus, others have had to develop strategic and alternative plans to counter the financial impacts until such a time that business can resume as normal.

Alternative ways to generate revenue income

1. Stock Buybacks

By buying back shares from shareholders, these stocks can be purchased on the open market from shareholders directly to minimize the cost of equity and in turn the cost of capital.

By buying back shares, companies are able to preserve the stock price and buybacks are often favoured over dividends as they may be cut by banks to preserve cash, resulting in a sell-off of shares.

This is especially done when the stock of some companies have become undervalued and allows them to buy their shares back at a reduced price, only to be able to re-issue them as soon as the markets are in a better condition.

Buying back shares not only makes businesses look more attractive to investors, it also increases the earnings per share, or EPS, of the company as the annual earnings are automatically divided by a significant lower amount of outstanding shares. Many generation Z’s has invested in shares like Facebook, Google and Amazon.

 2. Raise or Lower prices

Prices on products are constantly changing and in times like now, companies are expected to adjust their prices to meet their objectives or the market situation.

Price increases in products and services may very well bring in additional revenues and profits to a company as long as the price increase does not have a negative impact on sales.

The same will apply in price reductions on certain products and sales, as it removes the market share away from other suppliers. Companies need to remain up to date on how their products compare with similar products from a buyers’ viewpoint.

In addition, companies need to stay informed on their competitors’ products to allow them to position themselves better in an uncertain, volatile market.

3. Take inventory of expected Revenue

The first quarter of 2020 already presented a lot of companies with uncertainty pertaining to the rest of 2020 and it is necessary for companies to take inventory of revenue income that they expect by doing the following:

• Look at products that are higher in demand
• Secure solid revenue through the use of contractual subscriptions from loyal, long-time customers
• At-risk evaluations pertaining to commitment and consistency where no contracts are applied
• Prepare for the unknown

This analysis should be done on all levels not only for customers, but product and service lines along with geographical markets.

4. Re-inspect and adjust the pipeline

Companies will have to work the math backwards in order to not only inspect their product and services pipelines but to in turn run scenarios with more divergent outcomes which allows the company to separate the most critical deals with strategic customers.

Companies have to look at more speculative opportunities as buyers of products and users of services are looking to minimize risks above all else, so they will favour trusted partners along with suppliers.

Companies can look at mobilizing all available resources should there be any blockages that may present themselves when running scenarios to keep these critical deals from moving swiftly and undeterred through the pipelines.

5. Affiliate Marketing and Marketing Strategies

By making use especially of third-party publishers with the purpose of generating traffic and leads pertaining to the company’s products and services, companies are in a better position to increase their market spread and expand on geographic markets.

These third parties are affiliates who work according to a commission fee which incentivizes them to find new innovative ways to promote the company.

This can be done in numerous ways, but with conditions as they are, internet presence and increasing such is imperative at the current moment. In addition, companies can look at a variety of marketing strategies which include, but is not limited to:

• Web development
• Pay-per-click advertising
• Social media marketing
• Search engine optimization
• Content marketing, and more

6. Drop Shipping

Through using this, companies often do not keep the products that it sells in stock and sales on products are done through utilizing a drop shipping model which involves the purchasing of items from third parties and having it shipped directly to the customer.

This removes the seller from the equation as it does not have to handle the product directly as the company does not stock its own inventory and uses wholesalers or manufactures in order to fulfil orders.

7. Create a central command centre

The purpose behind this is to create a versatile command centre that allows executives to take actions that are rapid and decisive, especially in times of uncertainty and the pace of decision making that increases significantly as a result.

By creating this, analysis can be absorbed, and critical and key personnel can be deployed to critical areas of focus in addition to allowing for real-time tracking to see where shortcomings are, allowing for refocus on such areas.

A lot of leading companies make use of this strategy to substantially boost renewals, cross-selling, for the launching of new products, to test new offers and to increase not only the speed but agility of revenue operations.

Making use of such a central command centre in time of crisis may very well ensure the smooth flow of operations and sales, but it is a good initiative to keep despite times of uncertainty to increase day-to-day business.

Final Thoughts

Companies have been forced to react in different ways to not only ensure business continuity, but also to improve the resilience of supply chains in addition to pivoting innovative ways through which to generate revenue income.

There are numerous ways in which companies can ensure that there is a steady flow of revenue income during uncertain times, strategies that can also be adopted and apply in normal day-to-day business to improve and ensure business efficiency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cotton Council of Malawi (CCM) has indicated that two companies are ready to start buying cotton.

Old Mutual is celebrating 175 years of existence with a K2 million donation to children in Neno district through Save the Children.

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) has approved grants worth €40.94 million for the construction of a bridge to connect Cameroon and Chad across the Logone river.