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BOB DYLAN WAS RIGHT -
“TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING”
By Paul White,
Managing Director of APH Accountants
Well it’s been a full 5 months now since we all went into lockdown
and just over a month and a half since retailers and certain businesses
were allowed to re-open again. News has just broken that we are
officially in a recession and things aren’t getting as “back to normal”
as we would like just yet.
To say it has been “strange times” would be an understatement, we have
seen businesses both soar and unfortunately collapse during the last few
months and many people remain on furlough with an uncertain future
for their employers and employees.
The governments packages of financial measures won’t be enough to save
everyone’s job or business unfortunately and for those that it doesn’t,
hope is not lost just yet.
Having been through 2 redundancies myself and a business failure, I
know from personal experience that as one door closed another opened.
But it didn’t just open by chance, I had to be standing by those doors
waiting for them to open and looking for that next opportunity.
If it hadn’t been for that first redundancy then I suppose I would still
be working as a Management Accountant at a certain pharmaceutical
company, back in the days when we believed in jobs for life!
Redundancy or business failure is just the end of one chapter and the
start of the next, it wasn’t the end for me, it was just the beginning. After
my second redundancy I decided to become a master of my own destiny
and started creating and building my own business. After a couple of
years, due to circumstances beyond my control (Just like Covid!) we had
to close the business down. That wasn’t the end either, I brushed myself
off and started again.
A favourite quote of mine is by Nelson Mandela, “Do not judge me by
my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up
again.”
If you have been made redundant or had a business failure because of
Covid-19 then you too need to get back up again and look for the next
opportunity. Over the years now I have owned and run several businesses.
Since the first failure all have gone successfully. The experiences of
redundancy and a business failure, and owning and running successful
businesses outside of the accountancy profession has placed me in a
unique position of being able to support and advise business owners in
an exceptional way. Any accountant can usually provide accountancy &
tax advice (some even claim business advice without ever having run
one!) – However, our advice comes from hard bitten experience and
knowledge from being there and having done it.
One thing that has become evident during Covid-19 crisis is that a large
number of businesses failed to get the support they needed from their
Accountant – literally furloughing themselves at a time when clients
needed them the most. We put ourselves out there and put ourselves
out as the go to people on everything related to the Covid-19 financial
support packages. We have not charged a single penny to any client for
any Covid-19 related work and all furlough claims have been done for
them free of charge.
So if you are interested in changing to Accountants that back up words
with actions, don’t go AWOL in a crisis, help you grow your business
by improving systems and processes, or you’re one of those people or
businesses who have been knocked down and wish to get back up again,
then please do call us.
We are an incredibly friendly, reliable, trustworthy and knowledgeable
team who will have your best interests at heart, and will do everything
we can to help your business succeed. For those of you who continue the
struggle for the foreseeable then please do remember:
1. Use the flexible furlough scheme as much as possible (Furlough
claims are free to our clients)
2. For those of you that are self-employed the 2nd grant application
for up to 70% opens on the 17th August.
3. If you haven’t applied for a bounce back loan yet, then do consider
it – at the moment applications remain open at some banks until
November
4. Think about taking on people aged 16-24 through the government’s
kickstart scheme and have their wages paid for by the government
for the first 6 months
5. Think about taking on an apprentice and receiving a cash incentive
to do so
6. Look at the grant from Wirral Council to employ someone aged
16-29 and have their wages paid by the council for 6 months.
Most of all don’t wait for opportunities to come to you, go kick the doors
down and grab them. More information on all of the above can be found
at https://www.aphaccountants.co.uk/blog/ or by emailing paulwhite@
aphaccountants.co.uk or calling me on 0151 630 4542.
20 wirrallife.com