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Bring your small business online to survive coronavirus – Itzik Levy Q&A
by Partner Content • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
Managing a small business is challenging, and the global Covid-19 pandemic is making it far harder. Moving your business online can be the best way to keep it alive.
Why is moving online the best advice for small business owners?
Right now, with hundreds of millions of people worldwide under lockdown or self-isolating, everything is taking place online. It’s the only way to learn, chat with friends, or shop right now. The coronavirus pandemic was caused in part by our hyper-connected society, which enabled the virus to zip around the world on planes within a couple of weeks, but our hyper-connected society can also be the solution, at least for small business owners.
We are already used to carrying out regular daily activities online, like chatting, making transactions, and researching purchases, so moving your interactions with customers online won’t feel like a radical change for them. Covid-19 has just given people who resisted an extra push to sign up to virtual experiences.
What’s more, you have a whole wealth of online tools to choose from to support your business. Zoom video is a great resource. Google Hangouts Meet, the enterprise version of Google Hangouts, is free till
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Don’t count on small business customers returning post lockdown
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Many Britons say they will feel uncomfortable going to newly reopened small business once lockdown is lifted.
Gyms, pubs and bars and beauty salons can expect customers to keep staying away, with over 60 per cent of customers saying they would still avoid them.
There is better news for garden centres with 70 per cent of Britons saying they would be happy to return once they are reopened, according to a YouGov survey for BBC Newsnight.
>See also: Half a million small businesses in financial distress
Clothing stores and hairdressers will also bounce back fairly strongly, with 48 per cent of people saying they would feel comfortable returning.
Public anxiety about going back into gyms, bars and restaurants will deflate small business owners hoping that the easing of lockdown restrictions will help kickstart the economy.
How comfortable would you feel visiting these businesses post-lockdown?
Comfortable (%)Uncomfortable (%)Don’t know (%)
Garden centres70256
Hairdressers/barbers48466
Clothing stores48466
Restaurants 37576
Coffee shops36586
Pubs and bars32635
Beauty and nail salons32608
Gyms30627
Source: YouGov
“For some businesses, particularly those which involve closer contact, or those whose clientele lean towards women or the old, simply reopening the doors again may not be enough to see customers flood back,” said Chris Curtis, political research manager at YouGov.
Women stay
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The 5:30 A.M. Warrior Call: Does the U.S. Need 20 Million Tests Per Day to Reopen? (4/21/2020)
by Joe De Sena • • 0 Comments
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Rishi Sunak rejects 100 per cent guarantee for business interruption loans
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has poured cold water on calls for the Treasury to provide a 100 per cent guarantee for coronavirus business interruption loans.
The government is currently underwriting 80 per cent of loans to small businesses that are struggling for survival.
However, there have been a chorus of voices – including three former Conservative chancellors – calling for that guarantee to be lifted to 100 per cent, as is the case in Switzerland.
>See also: How do I apply for a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan?
Speaking at the Downing Street press conference, Mr Sunak said he was “not persuaded” that a total state guarantee was the right thing to do, despite pleas from small businesses being rejected through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).
Mr Sunak argued that when the plethora of government coronavirus emergency business funding was looked at in total, with grants for small businesses, as well has the furlough scheme which launched yesterday, the British help package was generous.
More significant
Speaking at yesterday’s Downing Street press conference, Mr Sunak said: “Some people have made comparison with what’s going on in other countries. When you look at the totality, what we’re doing is more significant
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Revealed – 6 worst councils for handing out coronavirus business grants
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The government has released figures for the worst- and best-performing local authorities in England when it comes to handing out coronavirus business grants.
Birmingham, Luton, Sandwell in the West Midlands, Slough, South Oxfordshire and Tunbridge Wells are the worst performing local authorities, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).
Each of the six local authorities have only managed to pay out 11 per cent of their emergency coronavirus business grants allocation, totalling £408m between them.
>See also: How to get the government’s £10,000 cash grant for small businesses
Mike Cherry, national chairman of the FSB, said that some local authorities have only managed to get out between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of their total £12.3bn business support package. Any delay was “inexcusable”, he said.
The top three best-performing local authorities for getting the small business grants out are Winchester City Council, which has completely deployed its £29.2m funding allocation, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council (98 per cent) and the London borough of Southwark (93 per cent).
Cherry added: “For many small businesses, access to these grants will decide the fate of their futures, and it’s excellent to see so many local authorities across England getting
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Half a million small businesses in financial distress
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Half a million small businesses were in significant financial distress in the first of three months of the year, according to Begbies Traynor.
And this could only be “the tip of the iceberg” for the second quarter as the coronavirus lockdown comes into effect, cratering the UK economy and pushing small businesses into closing their doors.
One in four businesses in Britain has already been forced to close down temporarily because of the government’s coronavirus containment measures, according to the Office for National Statistics.
>See also: Coronavirus emergency business loans may be changed yet again
In a survey of 5,316 businesses, the statistics agency found that 25 per cent had closed between March 23 and April 5.
Insolvency specialist Begbie Traynor’s latest quarterly Red Flag Alert survey found that small- and medium-sized businesses have been hit hardest, with 504,000 businesses saying they are in financial distress – just 5,000 short of the 509,000 total.
Almost 2,300 of these businesses were in “critical distress”, which is usually a precursor to insolvency, the firm said.
Ric Traynor, executive chairman of Begbies Traynor, said: “We expect these numbers to be the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and as the year progresses, we expect to
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Small business minister trying to help owner-directors hit by coronavirus
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Small business minister Paul Scully is trying to help the 1.6m owner-directors shut out of coronavirus government business support schemes.
Although Treasury has said that owner-directors of small businesses could furlough themselves through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, as a company director you can only pay yourself up to £800 through PAYE – which means you have to take the balance of salary as dividends.
For somebody earning £800 per month through PAYE, this would equate to a monthly income of £640.
Mr Scully, speaking during a webinar hosted by accountancy software firm Intuit on Wednesday, he wanted to get money “asap” to owner-directors who “are falling between the cracks” of government coronavirus schemes.
However, the problem is, according to Mr Scully, that the tax system doesn’t differentiate between dividends as part of pay and dividends earned as passive investment income from shares.
There is also a public perception issue as government would not want to be seen to be rewarding company directors who already pay less tax than those paying in through PAYE. Basic tax on dividends is 7.5 per cent; the basic income tax rate is 20 per cent on top of national insurance contributions.
Wants to
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Ebury launches £40m small business coronavirus lending package
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Ebury, one of the largest fintech companies in Europe, has launched a £40m funding package for UK and European small businesses.
The Santander-backed firm has raised the initial £40m help SMEs manage their working capital during the coronavirus crisis. Ebury is hoping to expand this programme into the hundreds of millions in collaboration with governments in the UK and Europe.
This initiative is geared towards SMEs who cannot access the government’s controversial Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).
>See also: How do I apply for a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan?
At the moment the firm is approaching government bodies so that it can distribute financial packages in the coming months. The firm is in talks with the British Business Bank to become an accredited CBILS lender, according to Sky News.
Juan Lobato, co-founder of Ebury, said: “Getting finance to UK companies is essential in helping manage the cash flow pressures they are currently experiencing and Ebury is delighted to be offering this financing initiative. Ebury was founded to fill a gap left by the 2008 financial crisis and in this latest crisis it is ideally placed to help the government’s distribution of its financial aid packages to large