It has been a really long road for many small businesses during the last 12 months, the Coronavirus has ravaged our industry and i have found a lot of our former competitors have sadly fell by the wayside. It is a horrid situation to be in, and i feel for everyone of them, as the decision to close would not have been taken lightly.
Money being king at the moment, and the need for small business to have quick access to the funds either by customers paying their bills on time or the Government and or the council giving out the very welcome grants in a timely manner is key.
I thought i would take this opportunity to thank the government and Birmingham city council for the help we have received over the course of the pandemic and hope this can continue for just a little longer, at least until everyone is back in there offices and the economy can reopen.
The furlough scheme life line has keep my staff on hold but still employed, which really has been the business saving grace as i would hate to lose good staff for no good reason.
If you are a caterer or a small business in Birmingham, and need support but have not had a grant from Birmingham city council, then i implore you to apply for the local restriction support grant, it just takes 10 minutes to fill out the form and the grants are the automatically allocated, this is a real lifeline and i would encourage everyone in the hospitality industry to apply asap as there seems to be a time frame for applications.
You can find a link to apply here.
We have also came across a wonderful new service called Newspage which has given us a voice in the local and national media. Newspage has managed to get Trenchers valuable news and media coverage in the Birmingham mail, Birminghamlive, Free radio, The Daily mail as well as having offers to appear on tv, (this had to be canceled due to other events occuring). We would recommend any small business to use this service as any publicity is good publicity, and will also help your website as you get good backlinks.
There is going to be much more help available that i have not thought of, however, if this can help any other business then this will have been worth the time to wright.
I wish all businesses a speedy recovery. Keep Well, and stay safe.