Helping Your Clients Through Economic Downturn

An objective review of a business will be useful to identify the areas which may need help and to formulate strategies for dealing with the difficulties that the economic downturn will present. Using a "fresh eye" approach could identify any early warning signals.

As all businesses are unique, early warning signals will vary from business to business.  Issues or symptoms affecting businesses on a large scale can be categorised into six main categories: 

• Industry factors: lifecycle of the industry (emerging, mature or declining), competitive forces, new entrants, obsolescence from substitutes, domino effect (eg property managed investment schemes are currently going through rationalization) and tax consequences