Managing High Demand but Slow Cash Flow Post-Melissa

Question: Since the hurricane, you would expect that business is booming for us but it’s not. We have a lot of inquiries, we are bogged down with evaluating repair jobs and providing estimates for customers to repair Hurricane Melissa damage, but most customers don’t have the money to start the repairs. Some customers are even asking for multiple estimates. So let us say we gave an estimate to reconstruct an entire section of a building then when the customer gets the original estimate they turn around and ask us to take off some things, or phase the work. We are spending a lot of time doing unpaid work and the actual paid jobs are very slow. Collections for work already started or completed is also lagging. What’s your advice please?

– Reader

Businesswise: What you are now experiencing is the reality of a post-disaster economy. After Hurricane Melissa, demand for repairs has exploded but money has not. Unfortunately, because the need and liquidity are not moving together, it has created a cash flow trap that you cannot afford to be cornered into as a small business.

The timing has also made it worse. Melissa hit within weeks of the Christmas holiday season, a period when work traditionally slows to a crawl, even in average years. Now with families trying to salvage even a small sense of normalcy, they are forced to prioritise health, school expenses, basic food, utilities, transportation, and potentially a little bit of enjoyment after months of stress, even urgent repairs are being postponed because households are exhausted and financially stretched. To compound the issue, in the last few weeks, the country has been dealing with serious operational disruptions, such as banking delays, unreliable communications and intermittent Internet, and generally slower processing across institutions. Payments are taking longer and follow-ups are even harder.

Jamaica is operating in a somewhat distorted market right now. Demand is not a sham, it is distressed. Over 90 per cent of residential properties are uninsured or underinsured, leaving households completely dependent on limited savings, remittances, donations, informal borrowing, and the expectation of government assistance that has not reached them yet. While Jamaica has catastrophe bond coverage and donor funds, those resources take time to filter into households and communities. Disbursement will be slow and timelines may remain uncertain into 2026. Therefore, until money actually starts flowing, interest will remain just curiosity in your services. However, as you already know, interest or estimates cannot pay your bills, and the realities you described are similar for many enterprises right now: people want repairs done but lack immediate access to cash.

Charging for Estimates

In this environment, unpaid estimates are quietly bleeding businesses. Let’s tabulate it – every site visit requires upfront spending on petrol, staff time, and administrative expenses. There is also opportunity lost. When customers request multiple estimates, multiple revisions, and repeated site visits with no parameters, that is not normal market behaviour. That is crisis behaviour without consideration for the financial constraints facing your small business. You need to consider recovery for these costs, and firm boundaries. That could mean you introduce terms such as one formal estimate per property, one defined scope per estimate, a clear validity period, and revisions only after a deposit. This is the management discipline our current high-risk environment necessitates.

Next, you need to offload some of the work by introducing technological solutions. For instance, a structured electronic intake system such as a simple Google Form is a necessity. This will filter seriousness, improve efficiency, and educate customers without confrontation or argument. Potential clients who are willing to complete a detailed intake form are typically further along in their decision-making than most. Meanwhile casual inquiries tend to fall away naturally. In operationalising this, make sure your form captures location, damage type, photos, insurance status, urgency, and budget range before a site visit is scheduled. This will significantly reduce the time wasted and improve pricing accuracy. A huge bonus here is that well-designed questions also quietly explain why evaluations cost money. Time, petrol, physical labour, and professional judgement are not free. The process itself communicates value and introduces the justification for charging without contention.

The hard fact is that not all demand is bankable demand, so early qualification is essential and must be done respectfully but firmly. I will repeat this ad nauseam – many great businesses close because they run out of cash. They confuse activity with realised income. Effective cash flow management is now more important than backlog.

Your cash flow discipline extends to the treatment of deposits and written contractual conditions that work does not continue when payments stall. That means jobs are broken into clear stages with defined payment milestones. Your post-Melissa pricing must reflect delays, inflation, and risk. If collections now take 60 days instead of 30, then pricing must account for that reality. Otherwise, the business ends up financing the job out of its own pocket, which is unsustainable.

Lastly, this may also be a time to reconsider what services you are packaging and to whom you are selling. Businesses may make more viable customers than households. Also, while most households cannot afford full rebuilds right now, they can afford emergency stabilisation, safety-related repairs, or phased work packages. Therefore, smaller, defined scopes, while not as lucrative, may allow for faster approvals, smaller deposits, quicker completion, and healthier cash cycles. Strategise around disaster-recovery timing. Full rebuilds will come later when insurance claims or public funds eventually mobilise but, right now, the priority is survival.

One love,

Yaneek Page is the programme lead for Market Entry USA and a certified trainer in entrepreneurship.