No Limits

When Offlimit Communications faced its first downturn after ten profitable years in business, its leadership team didn’t even question that they would turn things around and make them better. With resilience and determination, they analysed the business, made some tough choices and took action. Within six months they took the business from massive losses back to profitability, and a year later doubled their pre-losses turnover — all in the middle of a recession.

Here’s how Lisa Cohen, Jerome Cohen and Garon Bloom took lemons and made lemonade, building a R130-million sustainable business in the process.

- Nadine Todd

ALWAYS LOOK for the next opportunity. Never take for granted that what you have today will be there tomorrow. This is the mantra that Off limit Communications’ (OLC) owners live by, and it’s one they’ve earned the hard way.

In February 2015, Jerome Cohen, Garon Bloom and Lisa Cohen called their 40-strong employees into the boardroom to have the toughest conversation of their lives. The business was losing R500 000 a month, and it was time for serious and radical changes, beginning with salary cuts.

“We’d gone from a R500 000 profit in December 2014 to hemorrhaging money in January,” says Jerome. “70% of our business came from one big client, and their strategy had changed. The result was a major dip in cash flow while they restructured and a new team took over, but we still had overheads and salaries to pay. It was a huge wake up call. The business was in trouble, and we had allowed it to get to that point because we’d become reliant on one big client.”

Jerome, Lisa and Garon hadn’t been blind to the dangers of so much of their business resting with one client. They’d seen what could happen, and had started strategising around it, but not quickly enough. Suddenly the realities were there, and they needed to be adressed.

“There was no time for over thinking it,” recalls Lisa. “We needed to make decisions and run with them; it was time for action. We had to address our situation.”

And so, the partners scrutinised every aspect of the business, evaluating where they were losing money, where they could make money, and where they could save money. With a ten-point profitability plan in hand, they called the entire company in to share what was happening in the business, and what it would take to turn things around.