Half a million small and medium-sized businesses are at risk of closure. Three million families in potential difficulty. How to get out? Like chameleons do. All tips in "You are a hero"
“Doctors, of course. But not only them. The pandemic also has other heroes and, among them, certainly the small and medium-sized Italian entrepreneurs ”. Speaking is Francesco Cardone, a business consultant who during the Covid emergency studied at length the effects on Italian companies: “SMEs - he says - have always represented the productive fabric of our country. They have always generated income and employment, forming several generations. However, half a million (10% of the total) are now at risk of closure, and this would potentially put three million families in difficulty ". A tsunami that would certainly represent a severe blow to the social fabric: “But there is hope - says Cardone - and it is all in the courage of our entrepreneurs. We often read that they are exploiters, evaders, scoundrels. Able only to look at their own interests. Sure, there are. But true entrepreneurs are more, much more. They are people who are able to adapt to changes, even the hardest ones. Chameleons who think for the good of their company and therefore of the production system to which they are part ".
Cardone wrote a book on the subject, entitled “You are a hero”: “In thirty years of work - he explains - I have known and helped many entrepreneurs and, in them, I have always seen heroes. All the more so in this historical period. So, I wanted to speak to those who often find themselves faced with problems and decisions to make alone. People don't know what it means to give up the security of a permanent job and, consequently, a 'normal' life in order to chase a dream. They don't know what it means to invest everything you have (time, money, energy and soul) in order to carry out projects ".
Heroes, then. But how do you get it? “There are three pillars - says Cardone - on which the success of an entrepreneur is based. Three terms that I consider essential: educate, grow and protect. Educates because the constant and continuous training of both the entrepreneur and his collaborators is fundamental. Grow because you need to focus on company profitability, and then combine it with the concept of contribution margin. Protect because the company and its assets must be protected. But for all of this to be really possible, you need to be ready to make a change, a switch. When the entrepreneur realizes that his product / service does not reflect the needs of the customers, he must be ready to question everything. Without flexibility, on the other hand, one risks only to harm oneself ”.
But flexibility cannot rhyme with pessimism: "The entrepreneur - concludes Cardone - must enjoy moments of calm sea and wind in the stern, but must never deny the evidence, namely that a sudden and unexpected storm could surprise him in every moment. It is precisely when you are not in the throes of a crisis, just when you do not have your hands full, that you need to work to monitor and prevent potential risks. Monitoring business risk, for an entrepreneur, therefore means understanding that it is not important to make a sale, but to collect a sale. What matters is not the turnover, but the profitability of a company. Often entrepreneurs just talk to me about the increase in turnover obtained, but when I ask them how much their EBITDA has increased or what their contribution margin is, they suddenly fall silent. We need to learn how to do business ".