This week
Coronavirus has us thrown all of our businesses into a spin, but as we clasp our dizzy heads and struggle to focus on the swirling mess that surrounds us, there are opportunities to be had: cheap money via Bounce Back Loans, free labour via the Kickstart Scheme, and the ever-present opportunity to pick up other businesses.
Here, I discuss all of this in turn.
Check out the video right here, or play the audio just below:
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References and where to find up to date advice
We are maintaining an always-up-to-date guide to help amid COVID-19 here, complete with all the references alluded to in this podcast.
More To Follow
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Coronavirus
Until now we’ve been in a state of a crisis unfurling, with restrictions and support requiring material changes to business. Counterparty risks have matured into full blown issues, and a lack of childcare has seriously hit parents.
Now, there’s ‘a new normal’, a tapering of support even before the tapering of social distancing requirements, and counterparty risks continue to mature. A recession has been confirmed but it feels different to any in recent memory – consumer confidence feels positively bouyant by comparison.
What of the future? Cheap money via CIBLS and Bounce Back Loans is still available for now, but the short memory of the manipulable public is already bringing a negative spin on businesses receiving support. Counterparty risks are far from going away, too. Perhaps most importantly, burdened businesses are currently biased to forget to concentrate on other material risks such as Brexit and Climate Change…
Marketing
I’ve discovered James Sinclair’s wonderful podcast – in it he repeatedly urges that business owners spend 80% of their time on sales and marketing and only 20% on day-to-day operations. Therefore it might be prudent to hire for operations over sales/marketing…
Which brings us on to…
Opportunities
The Kickstart Scheme could be a route to free labour for any business, hiring 16-24 year olds who are on Universal Credit and at risk of never entering the work force, but small business will have to overcome the extra administrative hurdle of partnering with other businesses to get over the threshold of a minimum of 30 placements.
Other opportunities include currently cheap online advertising, the potential of other business owners giving up on their otherwise viable businesses, and (of course) you might be able to help with new needs amid COVID-19. Right now, there are a wealth of opportunities to truly grow your business out of coronavirus.
For links referenced regarding an explanatory video on WTO rules, see the excellent TLDR News video here: https://youtu.be/CRJev8bWRU8
For James Sinclair’s fantastic podcast, try the links here: https://jamessinclair.net/podcasts/
Gary Vaynerchuk’s great (but rare) Daily Digital Deep Dives, see: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLYbRPKuSpQn95F7ulauwm53W9_N36DVi
And, of course, for more details on the Kickstart Scheme, see the online guidance at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/kickstart-scheme