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What are the industries that need to develop locally?

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Diriya Sri Lanka
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Local Industry

Industrialization is one of the key aspects of an economy when considering economic growth. According to research, the countries that have developed the industrial sector, have also achieved the highest rates of development in the world. Most developed countries also encourage industrial development on any scale in order to assist national economies. In Sri Lanka, during the past 10 years, the industrial sector has contributed an estimated 27% to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product), taking into account minor year-on-year fluctuations. At a time where the country is grappling with the biggest economic crisis since independence, the development of local industries is one of the best ways for the nation to maximize profits and minimize the amount of money bleeding out on imports. Here are some of the industries that need to develop locally.

Industries that need to develop locally:

Agriculture and Food

The world is about to face a food shortage and Sri Lanka, with its already increasing rates of inflation, is expected to be severely affected. The UN has already started calling out for life-saving assistance for about 5.2 million Sri Lankans who have now fallen under risk of malnutrition and the inability to source other basic needs for survival. Sri Lanka has been blessed with land that can be cultivated and can produce a multitude of food crops. Developing small scale agriculture and food industries with workarounds to navigate the shortage of chemical fertilizer, will help Sri Lanka overcome the food shortage.

Manufacturing Industries

Any form of manufacturing industries, mainly apparel, and raw material producing industries need to be developed locally. One of the ways in which Sri Lanka bleeds finances is by importing raw materials from the profit that is used to export finished products. This is very clearly visible in the apparel industry. Therefore, if SMEs and even cottage industries can be developed as a first line assistance to produce the raw materials required for second line industries such as apparel factories, tea factories and so on, we can save the money that we pay to foreign parties out of the profits that we accrue.

Hospitality and Tourism

Tourism and hospitality is an industry that brought in considerable foreign currency to Sri Lanka pre-COVID. However, with consecutive lockdowns and now the economic crisis, both these industries have taken a massive hit, further cutting off forex into the country. However, Sri Lanka is a country that has tremendous potential to attract foreigners who are enthusiastic to explore the beauty of the island. Developing both the tourism and the hospitality sectors locally, will help us bring the economy back up significantly.

There are many challenges that we face as a nation right now to develop industries. There is a lack of fuel and other essentials that restrict us in what we can do. However, as the nation progresses in discussions, if potential and prevailing entrepreneurs can be empowered to maintain their industries locally, these businesses and industries will become the very foundation upon which the country can rebuild once more.

Based on the Research paper : Role of Small Industries in Economic Development of Sri Lanka: A Quantitative Aspect

Don’t get caught in economic weeds

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Diriya Sri Lanka
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Caught in Weeds

Whether you are running a business or working for one, planning for a solid financial future is always important. It will help you avoid the economic pitfalls that you may otherwise fall into. Here are some of the easy ways in which you can do just that.

Spend less than your means

Just because you may be making significant profit, it does not necessarily mean that you should be increasing your expenditure as well. You are capable of making sure that the additional profit you make is either saved for a rainy season or re-invested into the growth of the business. If you keep spending more than what you absolutely should be, you are incurring losses in the long run and also leaving yourself exposed without contingencies. ‘

Get help

If you aren’t able to plan strategically by yourself or don’t have enough experience to do it effectively, there are resources available to help. You can create a board of directors or get involved in local business groups that help provide insight and guidance to each other. You can hire a consultant, or hire somebody in-house to help you with this.

Diversify and Collaborate

To solidify a business diversification is required during times of economic turmoil. This has been mentioned in some of our previous posts but it must be emphasized here as well. Look for different products so your business is not one-dimensional. In addition, look at collaboration and partnerships that can give variation and stabilize your business in a more wholesome manner.

Always look into the future

Running a business has a lot to do with being able to project and forecast. If you are not able to have a clear vision, spot opportunities that may open up and predict possible challenges that you need to be prepared for, you will get caught in trouble economically. Don’t wait for an economic crisis, train yourself to always look into the future and work with your financier to resolve any issues.

While these three steps may seem like obvious ones, a lot of entrepreneurs miss out on them and they don’t realize it until it is too late. So get started now and avoid disappointment.

Visit our blog for more helpful business tips and tricks to aid you through tough times.

Mindset hacks to help you through economic turbulence

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Diriya Sri Lanka
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Mindset Hacks

The situation in the country has really kept us all on our toes and we are all experiencing anxiety quite a bit regardless of who we are. That said, it is also important to be able to develop some mindset hacks that will help us swim through this wave. Here are some tips to help you do just that.

Reset expectations and ask questions

The shift in the economy provides a perfect excuse to reset your team’s expectations around giving and receiving constructive feedback. If you’re a team leader, try asking, “What three things would you try to change if you were in my role?” Modeling openness to feedback will make it easier for your colleagues to accept feedback themselves.

Be patient

While it’s nice to talk about the benefits of a growth mindset, learning a new practice is challenging and the lack of immediate, measurable progress can be discouraging. Forgive yourself, and be generous with others. Try to focus on the effort being put in and the valuable insights you’re learning from that effort, rather than the lack of immediate results.

Understand psychology

Our mindset is critical to our productivity, inherently linking it to our economy’s performance. Psychologists identify psychological availability as a key driver of employee engagement and work performance. Psychological availability is our capacity to focus on our work, which is diminished when we experience worry and distraction. When someone is preoccupied with the roller coaster ride the economy is taking them on, they are less efficient when they work and, consequently, produce less.

Concentrate on Positivity

Try not to dwell on all that you read and are hearing. Sometimes it’s never as bad as it seems!! Continue to bring your mind to a positive frame of mind. Push this on your employees and at meetings etc. Concentrate on doing your jobs with focus, just for the day. When a number of tasks have been achieved for the day your sense of accomplishment gives you satisfaction and a load of positivity. Teach your team this.

Nobody is saying that this is easy, but just like everything else, an economic crisis will have a peak and then gradually come down. We are still at the beginning stages of this crisis and therefore everything seems bleak, but if we give up now, there certainly will not be hope for tomorrow.

So practice these mindset hacks that will help you navigate the tough times and economic turbulence with ease, to ensure you come out stronger!

Keep reading our blog for similar articles on how to win in business.

Networking; the bread and butter of business

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Diriya Sri Lanka
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Networking

Business owners rely heavily on networking to make the brand and themselves known to other people. The more you are able to network and develop your contacts, the more guaranteed you are that you will run into good opportunities, and even have the right support at the right time.

Networking also builds you a brand that can sell your product without any marketing in some instances.

Allows you to grow business leads

Using the contacts that you make when you meet people can open doors to new opportunities. Communicate professionally when you are following up on leads and understand that sometimes when people are not too keen, badgering them may not look good for your business. Always be sensitive to timing and use common courtesy when following up on leads.

Give rise to new ideas

New ideas can keep you growing professionally and trying new things. Hearing what other people are doing at their companies can also inspire you to bring new techniques or skills to your job. Whether you work for a small business or a large corporation, fresh ideas can help you stand out and succeed in your current role. Discussing your work with new connections offers a unique perspective. It also enhances motivation and creative thinking. Having an industry mentor or connection outside your company is a valuable asset.

Make you a more confident entrepreneur

Professional networking is an exercise in confidence, especially for people who are shy or introverted. That’s part of why so many people avoid it. However, once you find yourself discussing your shared interests with a new friend, you’ll see that networking isn’t so bad. Networking events are actually a great place to practice your confidence, even if you’re an introvert. Put yourself out there and speak about what matters to you. Developing new relationships helps you foster newfound confidence in your professional capabilities.

Bring in new partnerships and collaborations

Many businesses have been developed over social conversations and networking. Similar or parallel ideas, like-minded thinking and collaboration and partnerships towards a common goal can be put down as one of the most paramount factors of networking.

Networking has a lot of advantages on every level and these are just a handful of these. You need to put yourself out there and network now more than ever before, given how uncertain the climate of the country is. You never know when an opportunity will present itself.

If you have an instance where networking has helped you, share it in the ‘comments’ section below in order that it may benefit others in the business.

How to downsize your SME during a crisis?

By
Diriya Sri Lanka
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Small Business

Sri Lanka is going through an economic crisis at the moment. The world is going into recession. To downsize your SME may seem like the best way to keep the business afloat at times like this. However, doing this is not always an easy decision, especially if it generally means that you have to let go of people or cut down drastically on salaries or operational costs. But here are some ways in which you can downsize your SME, that might actually benefit the business.

Outsource work where possible

This might come as an epiphany to some of you very industrious small business owners, but you don’t have to do it all. If you’re worried about growing so large that you actually lose your small business status, outsourcing is a viable option. Support other small businesses in the process by contracting work to Internet marketers, accountants, designers, and others. That way you get professional results without expanding your business’s workforce.

Reduce your business hours

Retail businesses can effectively downsize their stores by cutting back how many days or hours they are open each week. If Monday isn’t particularly productive or profitable, why stay open? Or try closing Sunday and Monday. And if your mornings are slow, you might find that it’s more profitable and less stressful for personnel to open at 10:00 a.m. instead of 9:00 a.m.

Offer fewer products and services

One way to scale back is to limit the number of products and services your business offers. Through consolidation you can simplify your business. The approach you take would depend on your industry. Perhaps your business would benefit from offering fewer products, which would give your customer support team an opportunity to provide more specialized assistance to clients. Or, you might find that specialization leads to fewer clients who bring in more revenue.

Multi-tasking employees

You can explain the situation to your employee. Offer them new areas to take on in order to keep the company profitable and stay in their jobs. This could be seen as career growth and incentive which can lead to promotions in better times. The additional responsibility can be presented as a noting of the employees potential and career path incentive in the future. They tend to thrive in such situations.

While not ideal, you may at some point need to downsize your SME and we hope these strategies come in handy!

Keep reading on our blog for more business-related articles.

Blueprint for communication during the current crisis

By
Diriya Sri Lanka
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Communication Blueprint

The country has fallen into an economic crisis and every single person on the island is being impacted in one way or the other. Businesses are increasingly at risk of getting hit and running out of profit or even not being able to carry simple operational costs. But here are some ways in which you can ramp up communication during the crisis to help you survive and stay ahead.

Plan Ahead

Create a detailed contingency/scenario plan that outlines every conceivable crisis and appropriate response. Contingency plans are time-consuming and painstaking, which is why many organizations don’t create them. However, when faced with a crisis, these plans actually save critical time and resources. It’s smart business to have an action plan on hand that can be quickly implemented by every member of the executive, communications, and operations teams in the event of a crisis.

Put your customer first

Crisis usually brings up strong negative emotions. If your company makes mistakes, your unhappy customers may write negative comments on review sites like Yelp or on social media. When this happens, don’t play the blame game. Try to foster a supportive and collaborative rather than defensive communication climate on your social media, including your company blog. Some possible responses would be;

  • Offer discounts for a future purchase of your products or services.
  • Contact the customer directly to apologize.
  • Change the policy that caused the issue.
  • Offer a refund.

Understanding the need for better communication during crisis times is the first step to getting ahead of your marketing game.

Visit diriya.lk for more helpful tips designed to support SMEs.

Learning from failure to become a better marketer

By
Diriya Sri Lanka
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Learning from Failure

Failure is the catalyst to learning. Or as the catch phrase goes – Failure’s are the pillars of success. Failure is perceived as ‘opportunity’ by the more learned persons. So don’t allow yourself or your team to be discouraged by it. In marketing there is never a fool-proof strategy. What works for one project will fail miserably at the next, so learning from failure is all one can do.

While the more common points are well-known by many of us, we have unearthed some gems for you here.

Address failures with confidence and experiment

First, embracing failure encourages you to experiment. When you aren’t afraid of the end results, you’re much more willing to break out of your comfort zone and try something novel that you hadn’t considered in the past. You’re also much more likely to take risks because you’re more comfortable with the worst-case scenario.

Make failure an opportunity to get more creative, and push this agenda to your team, ask them to be fearless, to open their brains, pull out the stops and think differently.

Start small and fail fast

As a marketer, you’re probably well aware that when you’re testing a new channel, you need to start with the smallest possible budget. As soon as you see results you can scale your program. If you aren’t seeing progress, you need to cut the cord immediately. Every day that you spend dwelling over a failed marketing campaign is a day you should be spending doing something else.

Share your failures with the team

As teams start to grow, failures tend to be forgotten. Mistakes will repeat themselves and very quickly become a financial drain on your company’s bottom line. When your marketing campaigns fail, make sure that your entire team knows why. Also keep a record of your learnings on an internal wiki or other team documentation. Every marketing experiment should be an investment back into your business with learning milestones as the ultimate asset.

As you can see, embracing failure not only rids of your fear that may be holding you back, but it will also help you move on to the next level. So if you want to grow, just let go!

Tell us what you think, share your knowledge in the ‘comments’ space below.

Success strategies for SMEs to overcome the economic crisis and maintain consistency

By
Diriya Sri Lanka
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0
Economic Crisis

The current economic crisis in Sri Lanka is unprecedented and has brought businesses including SMEs to a screeching halt, but the idea is not to give up and instead, think and work smart. If you want to overcome economic obstacles and maintain consistency, here are a few things to get you started.

Embrace the Freedom Mentality

Businesses need to move towards a debt-free model. It’s a large undertaking that includes saying “no” to requests and opportunities that may seem to be a good fit at that time, but may actually be a drain on your resources. Saying “no” is an important step in making the move toward being debt-free and thus fostering a freedom mentality for your company.

Always have a vision

Leaders need to have a vision for the future. It’s easy to get caught up in the weeds in the midst of a crisis, but as the CEO, you must have the wherewithal to continue to push toward your goals in order to give your company a fighting chance at taking business to the next level. By being a strong leader for your team, with a vision for the future, you and your company can also overcome a difficult economy.

Make tough decisions

When you and your company are looking to overcome a difficult economy, you may have to make tough decisions. This can range from tightening your proverbial belt regarding the number of people you employ, or opting not to launch that new product at this time. It might be hard to let a few people go or to hold off on R&D for that next exciting new thing, but you have to keep the company as a whole top of mind. Remember, it’s not just your livelihood; it’s also a livelihood for your family, your future, and your employees.

Cutting cost

This is such a common factor it feels like it’s not worth mentioning but we add it here as a reminder that all costs must be narrowed down and your employees must understand the urgency and be invested in the policy. You have to reiterate that it will prevent job loss and hold the company together till the better times arrive.

None of these will come easy, but if you truly want to create a business that can overcome this current economic crisis, these steps will get you there. Stay positive and watch this space for more business tips and tricks to help you get through this time.

How to motivate employees during a crisis

By
Diriya Sri Lanka
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0
Keep Employees Going

As we are all currently facing a very challenging time, you may feel that your employees seem to lose focus more than usual. They may get tired fast and appear even to be frustrated at times. As an employer, while this can be difficult for you, there are some things you can say and do to help motivate employees.

Encouragement and engagement

What employees need most at a time like this, is encouragement and engagement. One can feel isolated in one’s troubles and may feel you are not doing enough or not living up to expectations. As a superior, it’s important to show them that they are not alone, discuss their pain points and find solutions where possible. You could also involve them in other interactive areas to take their minds off the gloom. Make team meetings lively and refer to the issues in a lighter vein so the situation doesn’t look as dreadful.

Recognize and appreciate

Creating a culture of recognition and appreciation is important, and during a crisis this is doubly important. It’s imperative to keep them going and most vital to overall company success as well. Right now, Sri Lanka is going through a turbulent economic climate and because of that, many employees may feel a lack of financial and job security. When you recognize them for their efforts and appreciate the hard work that they have put in, it helps them work better, because they know that the employer is noticing their contribution. This will go on to motivate employees and appease their fears and work with confidence even under the circumstances.

Give them trust by giving them responsibility

Show your employees you trust them by giving them responsibilities that allow them to grow. Encourage them to gain new skills. Provide if possible education opportunities and online tutorials etc. Hire from within wherever possible, a promotion or two will not hurt and encourage others as well. Employees may have an idea now, that the country is experiencing an economic recession. Therefore, when they come up with these ideas, help them and support them better, so that they can be implemented, rather than shutting them down.

Discuss benefits and rewards

The rewards you give your employees should speak to their emotional needs and should go beyond their monetary compensation. Right now, while the salary that you offer your employees may not be pegged to the dollar, see how you can help relieve them of their daily burdens. Perhaps you could move into a flexible work from home situation so that they can save on travel. If not, you can see how you could help them thrive financially better under these circumstances, keeping the wellbeing of the organization in mind.

These simple actions can help you and your employees stay motivated, ensuring more productivity for your business. For more information that can help you with your business during this time visit diriya.lk

Diversifying a business if it is not surviving the pandemic

By
Diriya Sri Lanka
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Surviving a Pandemic

The pandemic has brought with it many challenges, and even now, after so long, most countries around the world are struggling with its many implications. Diversifying a business has proven to be one of the best strategies to combat the challenges brought on by hard times such as this. If you own a business and want to know how to diversify it, the tips below are great general rules to follow.

Always adapt

Instead of feeling disheartened about the current situation, try to see the opportunities available to you for diversifying your business. With everything going online, there may no longer be the same geographical barriers (imagined or otherwise) limiting your customer base. With the changing working environment and use of clever technology, your team may start to think more creatively and create new solutions. You may find that remote working works for your business, giving you the opportunity long term to reduce your running costs (office rent, utility bills, mileage allowances). You may even identify a new market for your product or service in an industry you had not yet explored.

Adjusting the service or product

Some changes may be required to suit the new format. For example, an hour long class may be fine face-to-face, but online it may work better if it’s shorter. Or, your most popular restaurant dish may not travel well for takeaway or home delivery so the recipe or packaging may need to be amended, or video instructions on how to present it might be needed.

Reach out

Develop a communication plan to reach out to your clients, partners, suppliers, investors, and other stakeholders. Keep them abreast of your business policies at this time, any changes to operations, or new ways you can serve or collaborate with them.

Challenge your employees

Innovation is born out of crisis. Ask your employees to explore, challenge them to bring out their best. Make the challenge a competition as all of us are natural competitors. Show them reward in innovation and standing up to the challenge.

Main thing is to not give up and have a positive mindset and spread this among your staff as well. If you keep looking for the silver lining you are bound to spot it.

As you keep growing your business follow diriya.lk for the support you need!

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