How are you guys coping over there?

[pw66]

Minimise your expenses and outgoings. Keep your heads down, hope for the best, but put your self in the best position you can if the worst happens. Care homes and other essential services will be crying out for temporary staff - get your name down with an agency.

If you can, put any equipment and supplies into someone elses name. Distance any personal and business assets away from the ownership of the business. That includes website URL's and email addresses.

Hopefully not too many people have got their homes attatched to the business.

Give things a couple of weeks, both to see if trade bounces back and to see exactly what help you can get from the Govt.
Remeber that what help the govt. is currently offering is in the form of loans that need to be paid back. The loans are interest free at the moment - check the small print to see if that will continue for the life of the loan.
Do you want to be borrowing money to pay staff that may conceivably decide to leave soon after the crisis is over? You may like your staff, but when things go wrong they won't care about you.

Unless your home is attatched to the business never be afraid of insolvency. Don't hold out for too long. If your equipment is not owned by the business then it might be better to walk away and start again in someone elses name. Write off some debt, tax and vat. The money is far more use to you than to the taxman or the bank.
Unless you owe them rent most landlords are surprisingly amenable to leases being assigned to a new venture. It is better than losing a tenant.

[Andrew]

Times ahead are grim for many businesses. I have 17 staff on the sublimation side and our main trade customer base is has either already shut or about to do so. Being on the gift and merchandise side, the stock they already have they will have to sit on so even when things start to open up in a few months I don't expect it to start getting back to normal for at least 6 months. Cutting costs is the first stage, after that then who knows. It is a whole different world in business to what it was a month ago. No Government grants or rates relief coming our way either even though they have shut our customer base down.

[pw66]

Have to wonder what is going to happen at Easter. Population of most tourist area more than doubles ( when you aggregate holiday beds and day trippers). Will the govt. impose a travel lockdown?
I serve several hotels and holiday parks with workwear.

[Earl Smith]

Have to wonder what is going to happen at Easter. Population of most tourist area more than doubles ( when you aggregate holiday beds and day trippers). Will the govt. impose a travel lockdown?
I serve several hotels and holiday parks with workwear.

Both Spain and Italy are banning tourists from hotels, or so Ive heard. Germany has closed its skiing area in the north of Germany and sent its tourists home. I think Tirol has done the same thing.
I do some uniforms for three holiday parks which are due to open at end of this month. German versions of Alton Towers. So far Ive lost a 3,000€ order from one of them. They are saying they need the order but will wait til the crisis is over as they cannot open to public.
This virus will not go away until an antidote is found. So keep your fingers cross that they find one soon.

[pw66]

Both Spain and Italy are banning tourists from hotels, or so Ive heard. Germany has closed its skiing area in the north of Germany and sent its tourists home. I think Tirol has done the same thing.
I do some uniforms for three holiday parks which are due to open at end of this month. German versions of Alton Towers. So far Ive lost a 3,000€ order from one of them. They are saying they need the order but will wait til the crisis is over as they cannot open to public.
This virus will not go away until an antidote is found. So keep your fingers cross that they find one soon.

No outright ban yet in UK, but then there is no 'official' ban on anything - just 'recommendations'.
I live in a tourism area. It probably accounts for 10% of the local economy, plus spin-offs for other businesses. Common sense says it needs to be closed, but it will be devastating.
We have a Cruise Ship port locally, that is still taking ships from around the world.

[webtrekker]

This virus will not go away until an antidote is found. So keep your fingers cross that they find one soon.

I wouldn't hold your breath on that one Earl. Best estimates seem to be a year to 18 months. Even if a vaccinne is discovered today it will take that long before all the tests have been done and they are allowed to release it on the general public.

[Earl Smith]

I wouldn't hold your breath on that one Earl. Best estimates seem to be a year to 18 months. Even if a vaccinne is discovered today it will take that long before all the tests have been done and they are allowed to release it on the general public.

I know, its a bit worrying isnt it. My girlfriend works in medical research as a project manager and quality control. The hoops that have to be jumped through just to get the research done is incredible. Nothing is released to the public for at least a year because there can be so many side effects.

[Earl Smith]

Just been told by a customer/friend who works for the town. The local town officials are driving around and making sure that shops are closed and not having customers in. How they expect us to pay our bills I have no idea. I got a reminder today that I haven't paid the rates on my house. They still want my money but wont let me work for it.
Oh well lights out and work behind closed curtains. And strictly appointments only.

And Ive just read that the Eurovision song contest has been cancelled. Its gone too far now, life is not worth living.

[Quinsfan]

.

And Ive just read that the Eurovision song contest has been cancelled. Its gone too far now, life is not worth living.

Every cloud has a silver lining [emoji12]


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[pisquee]

I wish the gov grant for small businesses was a sliding scale as our premises are rated at £14K, so we only get the £10K grant, rather than the £25K we would have got if it was rated at £15K