With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1254353
( the informer ) ON THE RADAR SICK BUSINESS ADAM BLASBERG E mad Yacoub has survived downturns before. It was very rough during the 2008 world meltdown triggered by the collapse of the U.S. housing market. But even in the worst of times, his Glowbal dining empire, which today consists of nine mostly high-end restaurants in down- town Vancouver, still had some revenue. "People who had ordered steak ordered pasta," Yacoub says. "People who used to or- der a $200 bottle of wine would have a glass." He's always prepared himself for disaster, working to maintain a two- month cushion of money for when it's needed. It's all about the cash flow. But the near-shutdown of many parts of the economy that accelerated through late February and March as the global COVID-19 pandemic tide reached B.C., with govern- ments ordering businesses closed and people to stay home as much as possible, is something neither Yacoub nor anyone else has experienced before. In spite of that, he did the smart things that those who have survived or watched downturns and near-failures in business say are necessary. At the beginning of March, after he lost $400,000 worth of reservations in the last four days of February, Yacoub start- ed negotiating with his many landlords, to whom he pays a collective $350,000 a month in normal times. Most agreed to let him pay only half rent for three months and defer the rest until July. "So then we cut the damage in half." Then Yacoub told his suppliers he would be extending his invoice payments to 45 days, again, to control cash flow. That was before March 20, when the provincial health offi- cer ordered all restaurants and bars closed except for takeout and delivery. Yacoub looked at what to do for his 900 staff, to whom he pays $1 million a month in wages and benefits. He paid out all of their vaca- tion time owing to give them as much money as he could, then laid off almost all so they could collect employment insurance. For some, Yacoub tried to find work within the busi- nesses. He's renovating two restaurants, so he convinced his contractors to hire a few staff as general labourers. Glow- bal shifted to providing meals for hospitals and care homes, A Business Plan for the End of the World Two entrepreneurs who have pulled through tough times share their strategies for riding out the coronavirus pandemic by Frances Bula C OV I D -1 9 JUNE 2020 BCBUSINESS 9 TALL ORDER During the crisis, restaurateur Emad Yacoub has focused on supporting staff and controlling cash flow In April, with help from Mustel Group, the BC Chamber of Commerce, the Business Council of British Columbia and the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade polled almost 1,300 busi- nesses about the COVID-19 crisis 4 out of 10 respondents said they could only keep operating for three months under current workplace restrictions Just 1/2 were confident about reopening once those rules loosened Asked by the Business Council of B.C. in March and April what kind of post-COVID economic re- bound they expected, 57% of large employers leaned toward a slow one B.C. business owners' top three COVID-related worries, according to an April survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business: 1. Cash flow 2. Economic repercussions 3. Shrunken consumer spending, even after the crisis Numbers may not add up to 100 due to rounding 53% EXPECT TO REOPEN 38% UNSURE 8% WON'T REOPEN 1/8/20 1:18 PM