Tag: covid19

What does the update from Rishi mean for my business?

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Yesterday the chancellor delivered his Winter Economy Plan to the nation. And whatever the colour of your politics this was good news for small business owners. And many an accountant will be having a cheeky drink or 2 to celebrate the end of ‘Furlough’.

In this blog you will find the key headlines and how they impact your business:

If you want to read the full government documents:

Support for your cash flow

With the deferred VAT and tax payments shortly becoming due, the government has thrown businesses many lifelines. Or as we like to call it, cash flow support.

  • If you deferred your VAT which was due in March – June 2020, you can now choose to repay this in 11 equal instalments over the 2021/22 financial year.
  • The 2 loan schemes, CBILs and Bounce Back Loans now have the option to pay them back over a 10-year period. If you took out a Bounce Back Loan, this could reduce your payments by almost a half.
  • Businesses who took out a Bounce Back Loan also – once they have made 6 payments – have the option of pressing pause on their payments for up to 6 months. This can only be taken once.
  • If you haven’t taken out a CBIL or Bounce Back Loan these schemes have now been extended and will close to new entrants on 30th November 2020.

Extension of the temporary reduced VAT rate for hospitality and tourism businesses

This will now remain at 5% until 31st March 2021.

Help to retain jobs:

The Job Retention Scheme affectionately known as ‘Furloughing’ will still close in October. In its place on the 1st November comes The Job Support Scheme. This scheme will initially run for 6 months. It is very similar to long running schemes in Germany and France.

To qualify for the Job Support Scheme, your employee:

  • Must not be on a redundancy notice
  • Working at least 1/3rd of their normal working hours

And you as their employer must have a UK PAYE scheme in place, a UK bank account and is limited to SMEs or big businesses which can evidence they have been adversely impacted by COVID-19.

Here is how the scheme works… For every normal working hour, the employee doesn’t work, the government pays 1/3rd of their pay, and you the employer must also pay 1/3rd of their pay. The government contribution is capped at £697.92 per month. The employer will be reimbursed by the government in arrears. When we know how to apply to the scheme and submit your claims we will be in touch with further details.

More details of the scheme are here

Help for the self-employed

The self-employed grant scheme will be extended for another 6 months but limited to people already on the scheme. As the saying ‘every little helps’, but the pay outs have been vastly reduced for the extension. There will be 2 more grants. The 1st will be cover November to end of Jan and will cover 20% of average monthly profits. Up to a max. of £1875. We are assuming this will be paid out in Feb 2021. The second grant will cover the period from Feb to the end of April. Amount to be paid up is still to be determined by the government.

More details are here

How to adapt your marketing to turbulent times

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Every business is on a three-step journey: survive, adapt, and thrive. Before COVID-19 hit, many were adapting or had adapted and were thriving, only to be thrown backwards to tread water once it did. With the effects of the pandemic still causing havoc, business owners now need to adapt to move from ‘surviving’ to ‘thriving’ once more. So how do you do that? How does your marketing need to change in turbulent times?

Your clients want to feel supported

One thing is for sure: your clients (and potential clients) are struggling and they have no desire to be sold to.

So what does this mean for you?

While people may not be receptive to the usual marketing efforts and ways of winning business, if you can offer them value and support during this difficult time, you can win some very loyal clients.

Yes, they might not be interested in a pitch, but they’re struggling. Many may be realising that they have been receiving poor service and have been turning to Google and social media to research their needs.

Never before have they been so motivated to do something about these so this is a unique opportunity for you. If you market right, there has never been an easier time to win clients.

Key marketing activities to prioritise right now

  • Invest in ways to quickly update your client base on the changing realities
  • Give your website a COVID-19 refresh
  • Call all of your clients and find out how you can support them
  • Be “there” for them so that you become part of their ‘war cabinet’
  • Help your clients build their strategy to adapt and thrive
  • Reconnect with your old prospects and offer this help
  • Be active on social media and share useful content to boost your credibility
  • Collect the great testimonials that you are receiving throughout the pandemic
  • Plan your clients’ communication and content for the next 1-3 months

Adapt and thrive during the recession

We can all cut costs and budget and prioritise to increase our chances of survival during the recession, but if we want to do more than that, if we want to adapt to the changing times and thrive during the recession, we just need to tweak our marketing.

The recession is an opportunity. It’s a chance to stand out by being credible and being there to support existing clients; it’s a chance to win those clients who are finally realising that they are not getting the type of service that they want. So do that. Use this time to adapt your marketing and you’ll soon see that you start to move from ‘survive’ to ‘thrive’ very quickly.

Do you have a scalable business model?

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Nobody starts a business to see it crashing after a couple of years. No one wants their business to stay small forever or to have to throw in the towel when a recession hits. Every business owner wants their business to generate sustainable revenue, one that funds the lifestyle that they want and creates a comfortable future for them. So how do you do this? And how do you know if your business is scalable?

What is a scalable business?

Firstly, to know whether your business is scalable, you need to understand exactly what that means.

To quote Investopedia, scalability is defined by “a company’s ability to grow without being hampered by its structure or available resources when faced with increased production.”

To put it simply, a scalable business is one that can handle and perform well under mounting workload or scope; it is one that can grow through new geographies and markets without falling apart.

Man thinking
measuring tape

How to check you have a scalable business model

With the current Covid-19 recession, if they haven’t already, businesses need to be checking that they have a scalable business model. If they haven’t, then they need to be implementing one.

Here are a few questions that you need to be asking yourself:

1. Is your bottom line growing faster than your top line?

2. If you went on holiday for a month, would your business still grow?

3. Can your current systems/processes/ways of working support your business being twice or 3 times as big?

4. Can your current ways of working produce predictable new client wins?

5. Can your business win work without you being involved?

6. Is there enough of a market place for your firm’s services to scale to the level you want?

If you answered yes to all of these questions, you have a scalable model in place. If you answered no to some or all of these questions then you have a bottleneck that is limiting the growth of your business and you need to address those areas.

Build a scalable business

The difference to surviving the recession and thriving in it is whether you have a scalable business model. There are plenty of fast-growing, cash-burning companies that are going to be vulnerable during this time, but if you have a flexible model in place, then you can not only adapt to the turning tide, but you can also grow comfortably when the economy is on the upturn again.

Here are a few tips on creating a business that can sustain the level of profitability as sales volume grows:

  • Refine the company’s growth trajectory
  • Communicate and enforce a growth culture
  • Define specialist jobs clearly & set and monitor goals
  • Set and monitor goals
  • Hire strategically and invest in technology
  • Streamline processes to boost efficiency
  • Build trusted partnerships
  • Give significant importance to marketing
  • Tactically outsource

5 easy ways to cut overheads during a recession

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So many businesses are in the position where they need to cut overheads but how do you do this without having to make anyone redundant or reducing their hours? How can you do this without having to trawl your financial reports? If you’re looking for easy ways to cut your overheads during a recession, here are 5 steps that you can take.

Number 1

What processes can you automate or eliminate? What tasks can be passed down the hierarchy or outsourced to reduce wage costs and free up staff for work of a higher value? How can you streamline your workflow? What do you do for clients that doesn’t really add value?

While the answers to some of these questions may take an initial investment, such as automating your processes, the increase in efficiency and productivity will save you in the long run.

number 2
team walking down street

Your employees are the ones on the ground, they are doing the tasks and are experiencing the potential problems and inefficiencies first hand so involve them. Ask them all the questions above that you’ve been thinking about yourself. They may come up with some great ideas that you haven’t even thought of.

number 3
Lady on phone

Make the first two steps a continuous process. For example, in every weekly team meeting, ask your team members to identify one thing which can be improved or made more efficient. If something hasn’t worked or hasn’t been delivered on time, analyse the process and see what changes can be made. If you give your team members new objectives that aim to improve the efficiency of the business, you’ll soon see that you will all start improving the way you do things naturally.


You can’t afford underperformance normally, never mind during a recession, so now is the time to address this. While setting individual targets and having regular check ins will work for some employees, others will need a bit more support. Maybe they need more training in the areas where they are struggling or for a particular software. Maybe they need to be put onto a formal performance management procedure.

number 5
Two men high five.

It’s all well and good talking about positive changes and implementing them, but you need to know if they are indeed making you more efficient and productive as a business. To do this, you’ll need to decide on your KPIs and you need to measure and monitor them. Once you have these figures, review them regularly, and you’ll be able to see if the changes you are making have been worth it.

You can reduce your overheads AND increase efficiency

The best changes, especially during a recession, are those that increase productivity as well as reducing your costs. That way, you don’t have to let anybody go and you don’t have to reduce hours. It’s all about working smarter.

Business meeting

New Grants To Boost Recovery Of Small Businesses

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Thousands of smaller businesses in England are set to benefit from £20 million of new government funding to help them recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government has announced.

Small and medium sized businesses will have access to grants of between £1,000 – £5,000 to help them access new technology and other equipment as well as professional, legal, financial or other advice to help them get back on track.

The support will be fully funded by the Government with no obligation for businesses to contribute financially and the support will be fully funded by the government from the England European Regional Development Fund and distributed through local enterprise partnerships (LEP) Growth Hubs, embedded in local areas across England.

LEPs are voluntary partnerships between local authorities and businesses, set up in 2011 by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to help determine local economic priorities and lead economic growth and job creation within the local area.

Activities supported through the £20 million can include:

  • One-to-many events providing guidance to respond to coronavirus,
  • Grants (£1,000 – £5,000) to help businesses access specialist professional advice such as HR, accountants, legal, financial, IT and digital, and to purchase minor equipment to adapt or adopt new technology in order to continue to deliver business activity or diversify.

We will provide further details on how to apply for these grants in due course.

Watch this space!

Please see:  https://www.gov.uk/government/news/20-million-in-new-grants-to-boost-recovery-of-small-businesses?utm_source=d73de287-c359-4e20-b0ee-3f50952053fd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

pregnant lady with heart

Did your pregnancy affect your claim?

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Ask HMRC to verify you had a new child which affected your eligibility for the self-employed income support scheme. 

If you are self-employed or a member of a partnership, and having a new child affected the trading profits or total income you reported for the tax year 2018 to 2019, use the HMRC form to ask them to verify that you had a new child.

If you are already eligible for the grant based on your 2016 to 2017, 2017 to 2018 and 2018 to 2019 Self-Assessment tax returns, how HMRC will work out your grant amount will not be affected.

If you are not already eligible you can ask HMRC to check if you had a new child which either:

  • affected your trading profits or total income you reported for the tax year 2018 to 2019
  • meant you did not submit a Self-Assessment tax return for the tax year 2018 to 2019

For this scheme having a new child is any of the following:

  • being pregnant
  • giving birth (including a stillbirth after more than 24 weeks of pregnancy) and the 26 weeks after giving birth
  • caring for a child within 12 months of birth if you have parental responsibility
  • caring for a child within 12 months of adoption placement

You must have been self-employed in the tax year 2017 to 2018 and have submitted your Self-Assessment tax return on or before 23 April 2020.

You must also meet all other eligibility criteria.

Hand with iPhone

What is the job retention scheme bonus?

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Employers will be able to claim a one-off payment of £1,000 for every employee they have previously received a grant for under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), and who remains continuously employed through to the end of January 2021.

To be eligible, the employee must have received earnings in November, December and January, and must have been paid an average of at least £520 per month, and a total of at least £1,560 across the three months.

As the employer, you will be able to claim the bonus after you have filed PAYE information for January 2021, and the bonus will be paid from February 2021. More detailed guidance, including how you can claim the bonus online, will be available by the end of September.

What you need to do now 

If you intend to claim the Job Retention Bonus you must:

  • ensure all your employee records are up to date
  • accurately report employees’ details and wages on the Full Payment Submission (FPS) through the Real Time Information (RTI) reporting system
  • make sure all of your CJRS claims have been accurately submitted and you have told HMRC about any changes needed (for example if you have received too much or too little).

Reminder of changes to CJRS

From 1 August 2020 CJRS continues to provide grants for furloughed employees but no longer funds employers’ National Insurance (NI) and pension contributions. You now have to make these payments from your own resources for all employees, whether furloughed or not. HMRC guidance has been updated to reflect these changes.

Making sure your data is right

It is important that you provide the data HMRC need to process your claim. Payment of your grant may be at risk or delayed if you submit a claim that is incomplete or incorrect. HMRC may be in touch to request employee data if it’s missing from your previous claims.

National Insurance numbers

You need to provide a National Insurance number (NINO) for all employees as part of your CJRS claim. The only exception is in the very limited circumstances where an employee genuinely does not have a NINO, for example if they are under 16 years old.

If you are claiming for an employee whose NINO you do not currently know, you can check their number by searching GOV.UK for ‘Check a National Insurance Number using basic PAYE Tools’.

HMRC can no longer accept claims for fewer than 100 employees by phone where you do not have all employee NINO’s unless the employees you are claiming for genuinely do not have these.

Claimed too much in error?

If you have claimed too much for a CJRS grant and have not repaid it, you must notify HMRC and repay the money by the latest of whichever date applies below:

  • 90 days after receiving the CJRS money you’re not entitled to
  • 90 days from when circumstances changed so that you were no longer entitled to keep the CJRS grant
  • 20 October 2020 if you received CJRS money you are not entitled to or if your circumstances changed on or before 22 July.

Defer your payment on account

Defer Your Self-assessment Payment On Account

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Choose how and when you can delay making your second payment on account for the 2019 to 2020 tax year.

You have the option to defer your second payment on account if you are:

  • registered in the UK for Self-Assessment and
  • finding it difficult to make your second payment on account by 31 July 2020 due to the impact of coronavirus

You can still make the payment by 31 July 2020 as normal if you are able to do so.

The June 2020 Self-Assessment statements showed 31 January 2021 as the due date for paying the July 2020 Payment on Account. This is because HMRC updated their IT systems to prevent customers incurring late payment interest on any July 2020 Payment on Account paid between 1st August 2020 and 31 January 2021. The deferment has not been applied for all customers by HMRC and it remains optional.

HMRC will not charge interest or penalties on any amount of the deferred payment on account, provided it’s paid on or before 31 January 2021.

See: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/defer-your-self-assessment-payment-on-account-due-to-coronavirus-covid-19?utm_source=5d97ee4d-9a24-4553-9a8e-56287f4de9f3&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

Baseball

COMPANIES HOUSE TO RESTART THE VOLUNTARY STRIKE OFF PROCESS

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In March 2020, CH introduced temporary easement measures to suspend voluntary strike off action in response to coronavirus (COVID-19) and they have reviewed these measures each month.

Following the July review, this temporary measure will be lifted from 10 September 2020. From this date, CH restart the process to dissolve companies that have applied for voluntary dissolution.

If you’ve filed an application to strike off your company (DS01)

On 10 September 2020 CH restart the process of removing your company from the register.

You may have received a letter from Companies House stating that your company will be struck off within 2 months if no objections are received, but your company is still listed on the Companies House register.

CH may have suspended strike off action because they have received an objection to your application for strike off, or this could be due to the temporary measures to suspend voluntary strike off action during the coronavirus outbreak.

When voluntary strike off action restarts from 10 September – if there are no objections to dissolution and the 2-month period from the publication of the Gazette notice has expired, your company will be struck off shortly afterwards.

Objections to a strike off application

Any person with an interest in a company which is nearing strike off should register an objection to dissolution at Companies House. If you’ve already registered an objection, but the time period for that objection is due to expire – you’ll need to register your objection again if it’s still required.

When CH receive an objection to strike off, they will respond to advise whether the objection has been accepted or rejected. Every response will give a deadline and if they receive no further evidence that action is progressing by that date, they will resume the process to remove the company from the register.

It’s important to send any objection to CH as early as possible after publication of the Gazette notice and at least 2 weeks before the notice expiry date.

Applications from 10 July 2020

If you’re going to file an application to strike off your company from today onwards, these changes will not affect your company. The easements for voluntary dissolution apply to applications for strike off registered at Companies House before 10 July 2020.

If your application is acceptable, it will be registered, and a notice published in the Gazette. If there are no objections to the dissolution, your company will be struck off in around 2 months’ time.

Compulsory strike off

The compulsory strike off process is still paused. CH continue to review this measure on a monthly basis and publish any changes on our website.

See: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/companies-house-to-restart-the-voluntary-strike-off-process?utm_source=f1abe436-0adb-4789-aca7-3ff51e3f0fe5&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

Eat out to help out logo

Eat Out to Help Out

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Restaurants and other establishments serving food for on-premises consumption can now sign up to a new government initiative aimed at protecting jobs in the hospitality industry and encouraging people to safely return to dining out.

The Eat Out to Help Out registration service went live on the 13th of July on GOV.UK, allowing businesses to join the scheme.

Restaurants, bars, cafes and other establishments who use the scheme will offer a 50% reduction, up to a maximum of £10 per person, to all diners who eat and/or drink-in throughout August.

Customers do not need a voucher as participating establishments will just remove the discount from their bill. Businesses simply reclaim the discounted amount through an online service, supported by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Claims can be made on a weekly basis and will be paid into bank accounts within five working days.

The scheme is open to eligible establishments across the UK and can be used all day, every Monday to Wednesday, between 3 and 31 August 2020.

For details on how the scheme works see: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/register-your-establishment-for-the-eat-out-to-help-out-scheme?utm_source=4783ef6b-1939-4072-8311-f58a0a39e451&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

The Government has provided marketing resources for the Eat Out to Help Out scheme. There are posters, images and other promotional materials for use by establishments who are taking part in the Scheme.

See: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eat-out-to-help-out-scheme-promotional-materials?utm_source=eca9b856-2878-4866-8cd8-8cca1cba1c39&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediat