How to come through a crisis

Katrien runs an energy services company in Eupen. Heating installations. Maintenance contracts. A client base built over twelve years. When US and Israeli strikes on Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in late February 2026, she did not panic. She had been through the Ukraine shock in 2022. She knew how to wait.

What she had not prepared for was the combination. Her gas procurement costs jumped as wholesale TTF prices spiked. Her three technicians triggered Belgium's automatic wage indexation in March. Two clients renegotiated their maintenance contracts downward. Her bank raised the interest rate on her credit line.

Four separate shocks. All arriving within six weeks. None of them individually fatal. Together, they threatened to make a profitable business cashflow-negative by June.

Katrien had good accounting. She had no one watching all four dials at once.