Crucial time for our town
STORE OWNER, FINBARR FILAN GIVES HIS VIEWS ON WHAT’S NEEDED IN ORDER THAT LOCAL BUSINESSES CAN RE-OPEN SUCCESSFULLY IN THE COMING WEEKS
ASacounty,Slig oh asd one extremely well in the fight against Covid-19. That said, we are, as a community acutely conscious of the toll that this global pandemic has take non our society in Ireland and our community herein Sligo. We have new words and concepts to get used to and as Sligonians; we are now getting ready to move through the next phase of returning to a semblance of life as it was before March 14. Thankfully, Sligo has gone over three weeks without a single new case of Covid-19..
I believe one of the contributing factors to this statistic was the way our shops and businesses behaved in the first days of the pandemic.
In the days leading up to the formal announcement of the national lockdown by the Government, most of the shops, pubs, restaurants and business in Sligo town had taken the decision themselves to close their doors for the greater good.
All these business owners realised that it was not possible for them to continue trading and protect the health of both customers and staff under the guidelines set down by the new social distancing rules.
Many of those business owners closed their doors burdened under the weight of two competing fears.
Firstly, was the fear of the unknown - what was going to happen to the health of their loved ones, as the projections in the early days of the pandemic were frightening and this fear was felt by all members of our community.
The second fear was for their business, closing the doors and not knowing when (and if ) they could reopen, what would reopening look like? Would the business be sustainable? Could they re-hire employees? Would their customers come back? And how bills that mounted up during the closure would be paid.
Small and medium business owners are firstly in business to earn a living for themselves and their employees and secondly to provide a service for their customers and community. Providing that service, whatever it is, means so much to those business owners. That is why many of them were distraught and stressed as they put up those closed signs, locked their doors and went home to face that unknown uncertainty that lay ahead.
Now thankfully we are moving out of lock down. Thanks to the efforts of every one we have avoided the surge we all feared. The numbers of deaths, each one, a terrible loss to families and friends is much lower than what had been projected those many weeks ago in March.
There is general agreement that the government has done a good job in managing the crisis. They have ensured the HSE and our hospitals were able to deal with everything they faced, they have increased the testing capability of the country, they ensured everyone had money in their account via the Pandemic Payment and the wage support subsidy.
Yes, mistakes were made; yes all the systems put in place were not perfect. However with the time pressures, worldwide demand for PPE, testing reagents, hospital equipment, dealing with a brand new virus and so many other variables, I think they did a great job.
The focus has now moved to reopening the economy. Business owners are now trying to figure out how they can reopen their doors.
Firstly – all businesses that I have talked with are working on putting in place the new safety protocol requirements published by the government so that they can meet the return to work safely standard for both employees and customers.
They will have to implement new work practices, review the internal layout of their business and install new fixtures and screens to ensure the safety of all. Secondly, they are looking at the costs that have accumulated while closed and the additional cost associated with reopening.
They are now turning to the government to see what supports are there for them. In this instance I believe the government has let the small and medium business owners of the country down. The current supports offered by the government are based on loans and rates rebates. The loans from the various incentives are from the bank that the business deals with in the first instance and SBCI (Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland) thereafter.
Businesses can apply for a deferral of their VAT and Tax obligations until next year. If a business opts to defer – there is a 3% interest on the balance - A loan in other words.
Like many other business owners who had come through the financial crisis, had a period of stabilisation and then a measure of growth and optimism we invested in our business three years ago. We took out a loan for the refurbishment of our shop. We, like so many more, are not in a position to take on any more debt.
Much has been said about the Re Start grant scheme which was opened last week. This allows qualifying business to get a grant of between two and ten thousand Euros based on their rates for last year.
Most politicians think that rates are one of the biggest costs to a business. In my case my weekly rates bill is €153, my weekly insurance is €269, my weekly energy is €800 and my weekly wage bill is over €7,000.
For most labour intensive business rates are only a fraction of our overheads. Businesses that don’t operate from a building don’t pay rates. Think of your driving instructor, your plumber, carpenter, and electrician many of who have no requirement to pay rates and therefore will not
qualify for the re-start grant. The small and medium business of this country, employ over 1.5 million people. It is critical we get as many of those businesses up and trading as soon as possible.
Many of my friends in small and medium business feel the government has forgotten about us – and I agree. I also believe there is a lack of understanding that for many businesses that abruptly closed – the bills didn’t stop coming in and that there are costs to reopening. We need a better type of dialogue with our government.
So many different sectors make up the entire small and medium business community and includes pubs, restaurants, motor trade, retail, convenience stores, hairdressers and barbers, butchers and opticians… the list is endless. Some sectors have their own national membership organisations and all are making a case to the government for their sectors interests.
While this is the right thing to do – it can make it a noisy place at times with so many voices and might explain why the immediate needs of small businesses have gotten drowned out. Over the last weeks I have been helping a group Chaired by John Moran ex secretary general in the Dept of Finance. The group has produced the National Small Business Recovery Plan. This plan was developed by thinking outside the box and looking at the best examples of recovery all over the world. This plan demonstrates a new model for business recovery and is designed to address the immediate challenges that are facing the small business NOW – not at some point down the line.
In three stages it shows how we can get cash to small business now, so that they can pay their bills and keep their staff employed. This plan also helps a small business deal with the costs accumulated while closed and ultimately to ensure as many as possible survive so that they and continue to employ the 1.5 million people that were employed back in March. We need these small businesses as they are the beating heart of our towns and villages.
Our small businesses in Sligo add to the flavour and distinct experience offered to both residents and visitors to our town.
I would ask you to review the plan at SMErecovery.ie, sign up to support and lobby our politicians to ensure it is part of the next government’s program for national recovery. So many things have changed so fast for all of us over the last two months.
For our small businesses, now is the time to think and act differently if we want our small businesses to re-open, re-hire and re-establish themselves.
SO MANY THINGS HAVE CHANGED SO F AST FOR ALL OF US OVERTHE LAST TWO MONTHS. FOR OUR SMALL BUSINESSES NOW ISTHE TIME TO THINK AND ACT DIFFERENTLY IF WE WANT OUR SMALL BUSINESSES TO RE-OPEN, RE-HIRE AND RE-ESTABLISH THEMSELVES
- CENTRA OWNER AND SLIGO BID CHAIRMAN