A short thread by a small business owner who should be grateful for what he's got in the face of real adversity elsewhere... (1)

The government's online portal for businesses to register their furloughed workers does not open until the end of April. This means that we will have to fund two payroll runs (Mar/Apr) before the furlough subsidy is paid, at a time when income is negligible. (2)

At the same time, I am waiting for govt small biz grants to come through. We operate in three different local authorities so OF COURSE three completely different ways of administering these: (3)

1.Apply to the council online. Straightforward.
2.Automatic payment, you need do nothing. Great – but when?
3.Dodgy/amateur looking portal administered by third party. Took three days to register… (4)

Landlords I’ve contacted are unforgiving on rents, and deferring them means storing up trouble for later anyway. If I cancel direct debits on utilities in order to gain some control over payment times an immediate surcharge is slapped on, so that’s not a good idea either. (5)

I don’t want to take out unnecessary additional loans, which will be mired in their own red tape and ultimately only serve to enrich the banks. Also have to worry about other mandated deferrals – eg Q1 VAT – which will come bouncing back at some point. (6)

We're running an online business from home with stock whipped out of the stores before the lockdown, but obviously no funds for promotion, so dependent on word of mouth. There are thousands of businesses in a similar position. Stay safe, stay solvent! (7/ends)