1) Stay healthy and help others stay healthy has to be the first item on the agenda. We now all know the rules so lets help our NHS do their job by sticking to them. These guys are amazing and deserved all the applause they received last night.
2) Get your “business survival plan” drawn up. For some that might be a brief spreadsheet and a few words, for others it may be a more complex and detailed plan. The plan MUST have a cash flow for the next 6 months. This doesn’t matter if you are a small self employed business or a big company, everyone needs to know how the cash is going to flow.
3) We are putting together our own “Business Survival Delivery Team” within WD + Co. This will be made up of some of our most experienced Partners and Managers along with Emma Sloan our Client Relations & Development Manager. The aim of that team is to ensure that we cascade to our client managers and our clients all information relevant so that we can start to move forward. They will also be able to give input into live cases to ensure the client has a robust “business survival plan” that will provide them with the cash flow to see them through.
4) This week has been pretty chaotic for everyone as we try to understand the help that is about and the help that we think our businesses need. Next week we will move into the real actions of knowing what schemes we all need to access. This will be a blend of various pots for most businesses, and the trick will be to build all of this into your cash flow for the 6 month period. Never before has the Benjamin Franklin saying “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” been so true. For some there is no trade taking place, so take that time to plan.
5) Don’t assume that the “coronavirus business interruption loan scheme” is there to catch you with an easy to access soft loan. We are under no illusions that this loan will be tricky to fully access and will need to be fought for. What Government say on the television doesn’t quite match what will happen on the ground. We do feel however that for many businesses this will be a vital life line, not necessarily immediately but when we are beyond this pandemic. Don’t fail to access it and find yourself at the end of this with HMRC, HP, Trade Creditor and Other Debt that you can’t pay and find the scheme closed. You have until September 2020 to access it.
Once you have your “survival business plan” and “cash flow” in place you can then focus on getting through the next few months. You should also take that time to reflect on life, get fit and healthy and decide what you want your life and business to look like once we come through this. I suspect for many of us our lives and business models will change for the better.
