The economy of Brisbane has experienced a huge number of challenges over the course of the covid-19 pandemic. The possibility of the city going into lockdown at any time and the loss of revenue caused by businesses being forced to close unexpectedly whenever an outbreak of the virus occurs has caused business owners across the city huge amounts of stress both financially and emotionally thus this affected the economy of Brisbane.

Craig Dangar from Vault Business Advisors says that “uncertainty is the killer and for business the longer there is a delay to re-open the harder it gets for businesses to plan for their future. Equally this should be viewed in a contrasting light that their challenge can be an opportunity to reinvent their business model,” says Mr. Dangar.

The covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on the trends of consumer behavior around the world and in the economy of Brisbane, businesses should definitely make an effort to update their business model to remain financially viable going into the future.

“Since the covid-19 pandemic began, the move to online has continued to become more common and for businesses that are relying on foot traffic there is a higher risk of a vacant neighbour dragging down a location. Using Portside as an example, the cruise ships damaged the location but the continual closing of shops has turned a vibrant area into a struggling premium retail location,” says Craig Dangar.

Furthermore, Mr. Dangar notes that “businesses that are not location tied have had the opportunity to expand their reach through sensible digital strategies. These types of businesses are likely to have a better chance at flourishing in this market during the age of covid-19,” says Craig Dangar.

In most cases, whenever there is a lockdown business operating in the industries of retail, events and hospitality, are the ones that find it the most difficult to plan for a shutdown. Hospitality is especially impacted in regards to the purchases of stock. As plenty of stock goes to waste and is never used whenever an unexpected shutdown occurs. 

“Covid 19 has changed things, and adaption is the key. For businesses that have not adapted time is going to be a problem as their competitors are already ahead of them and waiting for the next impact.,” says Craig Dangar.

For businesses who are wanting to succeed during uncertain times it is important to keep in mind what factors are the reasons for so many businesses failing. Craig Dangar says that many of the reasons a business fails is because they apply poor budgeting skills and they fail to regularly re-assess and update their business plan as times change and the trends of their consumers continue to evolve.

“It is always the lack of budget and business plan that makes it difficult for many businesses to succeed. We recently assisted a future business owner with their budgets and once we finished it we knocked 25 percent off the revenue and added 25 percent to the costs, but why? Weather, changing conditions, competition and covid,” reveals Craig Dangar.

One of the major positives of the covid-19 pandemic is that international borders closures, Queensland residents have had to travel around other parts of Queensland as opposed to having an opportunity to travel interstate or overseas.

“People are starting to understand that Australia is pretty amazing. There are so many places to explore. We need to lift our game in attracting domestic tourism. The last few weeks I have been exploring the Dalby region with road trips from Brisbane, in two hours there is a completely different world out there.,” says Craig Dangar.

When it comes to businesses operating in the accommodation sector who are currently preparing for the re-commencement of interstate and international travel it is important to “making your offering attractive, read the TripAdvisor reviews your premises has had written about them, and take any criticism on board so that way you can improve the way your business operates and deals with its customers,” says Craig Dangar.   

Mr. Dangar contends that when it comes to preparing for lockdowns “remarkably most businesses within the accommodation sector have been prepared and often times accommodation has continued as there is a need for ongoing accommodation outside of tourism,” says Craig Dangar.

With most accommodation venues not having significant food offerings, to remain productive business owners who are seeing success at the present moment mostly used lockdown as an opportunity to improve their property by re-painting and redesigning their premises. They also used lockdown as a chance to update their marketing strategy and rethink the way they engage with their customers online to keep them in the loop about how their business was planning to re-open once restrictions were eased.