Covids Been a Roller Coaster of a Journey
What a roller coaster of a journey. I remember the 16th March as a day when, for me, the world went upside down. I was in the French mountains enjoying a forest walk when I received an urgent call to return immediately to my place and meet the Manager of the complex. We were told that we had 6 hours to leave France because everything was closing down and that Macron was going to put France into a total lockdown the next day. And that was the moment I realised things were not going to be the same for a while.
Coming off the back of a record month in February, we were in the process of rolling out a strong budget for 2020/21 and a very exciting order book. It’s like the delete has been pushed, go back to the previous screen and start again! Only teams and companies that adapt, will survive.
From negotiating terms with suppliers, cancelling non-essential purchases, applying for a Small Firm Business Loan, discussing payment holidays with lenders, to getting our February accounts Certified by external auditors and applying to the bank for a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), it has been one hell of a roller coaster.
Since returning on 17th March it’s been an absolute roller coaster of news around the world, listening in to the Government daily updates, working through the new business landscape and preparing our company to survive. If we all play our part, we will ride the roller coaster and come out a bit dizzy but alive and well.