For many Businesses this has been a time of uncertainty. Where is the economy going? What does this mean for my business? How will we get through this period? Will the government support us?

I had doubts, worries and concerns on how my business would float and continue on an upward trajectory. The first few weeks were definitely the busiest time for me, finding out how things were changing with Covid19, business entitlements, comparing countries and the steps and measures they took to try ensure business continuation, how we should progress through this terrible epidemic. Whilst, my work picked up, this isn’t how I like to conduct business, I don’t want a panic state and be providing worst case scenarios that could lead to inevitable closure of my clients businesses. I wanted to outline my findings and facts from multiple sources, this won’t lead to how to save your business but the critical data and information that could support businesses like yours and mine.

First steps that were released by the UK government included:

– £330 billion of reserve for commercial loan guarantees, allowing up to £5 mil loan to small firms with 6 months interest free. Sounds promising however with this scale of reserve, what is the interest following this uncertain period. I know of a few businesses that have applied and told the loan wouldn’t be injected into their companies until June/July 2020, some even further into 2020. These loans were initially set up to support businesses but if you don’t have a steady and positive cashflow, this could be detrimental to your organisation and also mean you now have a loan that your business no longer needs due to closure and leaving you with a hefty early repayment fee or interest fees or dismissal fees.

– Moratorium on business rates in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. This allowed grants of up to £25k dependant on qualifying and meeting requirements for the retail discount. ALL small businesses that qualify for small business rates relief could access grants of up to £10k.

– To work with business groups developing an employment support package, mitigating employment costs for small firms and resulting in reduction or prevention of lay-offs. The Government were able to offer furlough for many businesses and sectors to the value of 80% salary (obviously subject to stipulations).

All of these seem positive on paper but if we do a little digging what can we find? Lots of businesses that don’t look viable on paper (negative cash, equity) won’t be receiving these grants or loans which leaves business heavily invested in staff, future projects or with cash injections (internal or external investment) at a standstill and fighting to continue. If cashflow looks an issue and you need that grant to support your business you may not receive it. According to Close Brothers Asset Finance research – 59% of small business owners raised cashflow as an ongoing issue, 50% of which said it causes sleepless nights (but that’s going into different realms and mental health, to which I am really mindful of and try my best to manage stress levels and work/life balance).

Other areas of support and stats comes from a letter sent to small businesses regarding ICO warning about data protection fee, FCA Brexit implementation period update and also FCA data breach.

We’ve Major issues with Security concerns for small businesses, such as cyber protection, data management and lack of tech savvy workers. Recent studies by OGL Computer suggest four in five small businesses are worried about cyber attacks, this research also showed the same number had data breaches or cyber attacks. Looking at these results suggest 80% of small businesses are worried about cyber security however 17% admit they have no cyber security strategy. With constant advancement in technology and majority of our information/data held within the cloud, this is something we all should be looking into.

Some other stats I looked into come from Hitachi Capital Business Finance stating 39% of small businesses expect to grow in the first quarter of 2020. The question is, where are we now and how has this changed?