Moving forward during these times can be a struggle but luckily there's plenty of help out there for SMEs to avail of. As part of our Boost my Business initiative, Fionas Alston looks at what help is available.
Kieran Comerford, Head of Enterprise, LEO Carlow has outlined a few of the aids available and small businesses, Velvet Cloud and Lorimat Jewellers, proved how to make good from a bad situation.
"The Trading Online Voucher Scheme is an online voucher scheme funded by the Department of Communications. It offers €2,500 to SMEs with less than ten staff [and less than €2m turnover] to get online -the rate of branch aid is now 90% as opposed to 50% which was pre-Covid," explains Kieran Comerford.
"First you must attend a two-and-a-half-hour seminar which goes through what your strategy online is, how to avail of the scheme and what types of things are eligible. It doesn’t just cover websites, but also covers digital advertising and marketing. Eligible companies will have a very strong plan about how this will result in their trading online.
"The team at LEO will support you through your application - once you have your form filled in and you're associated paperwork it’s evaluated locally - we try to make it as painless as possible but obviously we work with public money, so it is important there are processes around these schemes," he explains.
Businesses are urged to check with their Local Enterprise Office for further eligibility, terms and conditions.
One small business in the west of Ireland who availed of the TOV is Co Mayo producer Velvet Cloud. The family-run business of husband and wife team Michael and Aisling Flanagan, produces sheep’s milk products on their farm in Claremorris.
50% of their sales were to restaurants including several Michelin star eateries and the other half were sales in 100 retail stores throughout the country.
"When Covid hit and the restaurants were forced to close and we lost 50% of our turnover overnight and a lot of our customers who would have been buying us in retail were cocooning," explains Aisling Flanagan.
"Very quickly, we decided we better setup online and test the waters. We put on an online shop with the help of the online voucher and have been developing and improving it each week.
"While, it hasn't recovered all of our lost sales yet, it has opened up new markets to us. We primarily sold in the Dublin area where we’ve distribution - now, because we're online, customers in Donegal, Dingle, Cork or Kerry, no matter where they are, can buy from us.
"This year's 2020 batch of cheese is coming on stream at the end of June, early July so we're definitely going to give it its debut online given what we have learned and we're quite excited about the opportunities for that.
"The TOV also allows you to choose a certain amount of the grant for online advertising - Google and Facebook and Instagram paid advertising - which is important when you're starting out - just because you set up an ecommerce site doesn't mean anybody knows you're there. It's really helpful to have a fund there to put it into some advertising to drive traffic to your site."
Another grant available to SMEs is the Re-Start Grant, which is aimed at micro and small businesses to aid them with the costs of reopening and employing workers post COVID closures.
Those eligible have less than €5m turnover with 50 or less employees and have suffered a projected 25%+ loss in revenue from April 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020. They must commit to remaining open or to reopen. Grants are calculated by your rates bill so non-rateable businesses are not eligible.
"It's an incentive for companies to get up and running. The way this scheme works is the grant ranges from a minimum of €2,000 to a maximum of €10,000. The good thing about it is the minimum is €2,000 so if your rates bill was €900 you'll still get €2,000 as the minimum grant.
"It's a really great incentive for those smaller companies with much smaller premises because we know companies have costs around signage and the costs around sanitisation equipment. If you go to your Local Authority website there's a link to apply online and it generally takes ten days to process and seven days for payment," explains Comerford
Another financial service available to micro-enterprises post Covid is the Covid-19 Business Loan from Microfinance Ireland.
"We're partners with Microfinance Ireland who are an entity supported by the European Union," says Comerford.
"If you apply through your local enterprise office, the percentage rate is 1% less (4.5% APR). Your loan can be between €5,000 and €50,000. Obviously, it is for companies who have been negatively affected and the first six months are 0% interest with zero repayments.
"We help businesses to get the paperwork together and support them with that process. We do a local evaluation and then send it to Microfinance for full evaluation. Generally, in our experience in five to ten days people are getting their full decision."
Kilkenny business Lorimat Jewellers, who specialise in engagement, wedding and eternity rings, have been supported by LEO through many of their changes in the last few years. They’ve moved location, rethought their offering, gone digital and, due to Covid, launched a new 'try at home service’ – the first in Ireland.
"I received a lot of help from LEO Kilkenny with the first round of Trading Online Vouchers about two years ago. I set up my website and really that allowed me to move from the retail shop to the upstairs unit," says owner Rita Shanahan.
"You don’t really sell engagement rings online, people don’t ‘Add To Cart’ for a diamond engagement ring but we got up there in the Google rankings, it’s very competitive in terms of jewellery and diamond rings, but we were receiving the contact forms and people’s interest and that allowed us to move off the ground floor and to the first floor level so we weren't relying on footfall."
Shanahan had to shut up shop on March 16 but quickly found by changing around her 'book appointments' section she could offer virtual appointments vis Zoom or Whatsapp.
"It’s like they're in the shop with me, I can show them all the stock and put the rings on my hand - it's really good for people to have that face to face contact for an initial consultation."
Another idea had been playing on Shanahan’s mind and she was able to get some business mentoring from her local LEO. "They got me in touch with retail consultant James Burke and he was brilliant because he was just able to go on inside my head, sort it out and give me a bit of a direction. I was able to bounce an idea off him for a ‘try on at home service’, whereby we would send out three samples to our customers who are looking for an engagement ring and they'd be able to try them on in the comfort of their own home.
"I would send out all the details and offer a video or phone consultation if they had any questions. Straightaway he thought that’s an absolutely brilliant idea – he said ‘you've got a window of opportunity here, you've got maybe ten days, we're in the throes of lockdown, you have to get this rolled out straight away’.
"LEO also put me in touch with PR mentoring and that really pushed me to the front in terms of the media coverage - we've been getting a great reaction ever since, thankfully. It's been working out really well and I’d say it's something we'll continue on with regardless of being open or not open."
The Local Enterprise Office is now offering their Mentoring service free in response to the COVID crisis.
