Covid-19 - What to do if the sh*t hits the fan

Government Cash and Grants

We don’t know. There you go, cutting to the chase, we said it. Right now, we don’t know how to get your hands on the grants, loans etc. that the government have announced. As soon as we do, we’ll let you know as a top priority.

Right now, the discussions we’re having with small businesses are to put these at the back of your mind, and focus your attention on other things. It would be great to get the assistance from the government offered in recent updates, but until we know the finer details, and how we get hold of it, we can’t count on it, so don’t.

To find out more about the government cash on offer, see here.

What to do if the sh*t hits the fan

Bang your head against the wall, smash stuff up and run around the street naked.

It goes without saying, to try to keep calm and talk to people, talk to your support groups, talk to us.

We’ve spent most of the last few days on the phone to our clients. Many of whom have had planned work cancelled, appointments cancelled, or having to close completely, affecting their income. All of this leads to the same issues, “what if I can’t pay the rent due at the end of this month?”, “what if I can’t pay my staff the end of this week?”.

We can help. A client called yesterday who runs a beauty therapy business. All their appointments for the foreseeable future have now cancelled. She had been approached by her bank, who offered to extend her overdraft.

This sounds great, but they wanted a fee to do so, and wanted a 12-month projection, which would most probably put a few weeks delay on getting the cash.

Instead, we recommended an Iwoca funding facility. As we’re partnered with them, for our clients we can make the application in minutes, it links to the clients Xero which makes the decision making process easy.

The client had £15k in her bank within 26 minutes from the time I put in the application.

If you’re struggling, there is cash available for small businesses and we can help you access it, now, not in 6 weeks’ time.

Our Tips for Small Businesses Right now

Keep going, and support other local businesses and your community as much as you can

The economy is a big circle and if one chunk goes down, it won’t be long before the rest does.

We’re not saying this to instil fear; quite the opposite. As much as possible, keep going as you are. People still need to buy your products and services, and whilst some industries for now will be hit much, much harder than others, some have the potential to flourish.

If you need cash, speak to us. We can get this for you in a matter of minutes (subject to criteria)

As mentioned above, high street banks have not supported small businesses for years. If you’re in desperate need of cash, speak to us, and we can point you in the right direction.

Be as versatile as you can with your offering and don’t be afraid to ‘switch it up’

For many, your main business activity might be no longer possible given the advice we’ve received on social distancing. This doesn’t mean you need to stop trading completely. We’ve seen pubs and cafe’s move to delivery or take-away only, event companies switch to online platforms and even some business capitalise on the outbreak. There are still opportunities out there, and as small businesses, we’re agile enough to change quickly if we need to.

Ask for help.

We’re here for you. Even if it’s just a chat about the state of your business finances, whether you should be paying your tax bill, letting staff go, offering a different service, whatever. Call us, we don’t ever charge for a chat.

Keep well and stay safe,

The Diverso Team