Life regularly throws us a curveball, and by Jove, the UK is having a few this year; Brexit, floods and The Covid-19 Coronavirus ...
The trees and hedgerows are bursting into leaf, the birds are singing and the frogs are getting up to all manner of unmentionables in the ponds. This phrase that I read in the Saturday paper sums it up well: "there is always hope in the ancient rhythms of the world that keeps turning".
There seems to be a lot of hysteria about Coronavirus and I'm reading contrasting information on the internet and social media. So, how do you know what you are reading is right? My advice is to stick to trustworthy, known sources such as the Government's own site, the NHS’s site or that of the Federation of Small Business (“FSB”):
- https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public
- https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
- https://www.fsb.org.uk/resources-page/advice-to-small-businesses-and-fsb-members-about-the-novel-coronavirus-covid-19.html
We had the budget last week and Rishi Sunak included the following to help businesses:
- Refunds for businesses and employers required to access Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
- A 100 per cent Business Rates retail discount for one year and expanded to include leisure and hospitality sectors
- Additional £2.2 billion funding support for those small businesses that pay little or no Business Rates because of Small Business Rate Relief (SBBR)
- A new temporary Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme
- All businesses and self-employed people in financial distress, and with outstanding tax liabilities, may be eligible to receive support with their tax affairs through HMRC’s Time To Pay service
Essendon Accounts is well prepared! We've had a business continuity plan in place for a while now and know that our IT systems are hugely resilient and allow our team to work from home securely if needs be.
We've added extra regular cleaning of our offices if clients want to come and visit us, and of course, we're always available to speak to our clients out of hours. In fact, I had conversations with some over the weekend so we always try to make it as easy as possible for them whenever they need to interact with us.
And I just want to add as a final note that if a member of the team tests positive for Coronavirus, we will endeavour to contact everyone that that person was in close contact with within the last 7 days.
If you feel inspired to find out more about anything I've said here, do call me on 01908 774320 or leave a comment below and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.