The special circumstances make it necessary to establish a protocol that is not limited only to raising the shutter. Pay attention to these tips for successfully reopening a business after COVID-19:
Reopening a business after COVID-19: Key steps
1. Review of business accounts
The analysis of the financial plan is a fundamental previous step to face the reopening of a business after the COVID-19 de-escalation.
What is the current state of your finances?
You should review the liquidity you have to determine how long the business can be without activity. Analyze aspects such as pending payment invoices, borrowing capacity, and money in bank accounts from which it will come, for example, the salary of the workers you have hired and who return after completing an ERTE.
Once you have the answer to all this, you should know if public aid for the self-employed and SMEs , such as the benefit for cessation of activity or the flexibility of ERTEs, are compatible with the reopening of your business.
We anticipate that at least during May the self-employed who have received the cessation of activity benefit and return to work will continue to receive this benefit. In addition, this week, the Government will approve the extension of the ERTEs due to force majeure until June 30.
2. Plan upcoming tax obligations by listening to professional advice
It is essential that you communicate any intention to change your activity to your tax advisor, who knows best the status of your income and expenses so that they can determine the advisability of doing so.
This point is closely related to the previous one. You have to work with foresight and that means putting your medium-term tax obligations first. The time will come when you will resume the payment of the self-employed quota, of the dependent workers and you will face the tax deferrals that you requested or the result of your 2019 Income Tax Return.
These are very important issues that require the experience and knowledge provided by a tax advisory service. Don’t worry about all this while you dedicate yourself to reopening your business and increasing its sales.
3. Renegotiation with your suppliers
You are considering reopening your business in the COVID-19 de-escalation, which is a fairly uncertain scenario and you do not know to what extent consumption is going to be reactivated. You need to bet on it but you don’t want to get your fingers caught and generate stocks. It is time to analyze your supplier expenses and control them by renegotiating the terms of contracts with suppliers.
4. Retake the prevention of occupational hazards to ensure health and hygiene
This is a basic issue. The self-employed and SMEs provide themselves with disinfectant gels, gloves and masks to the best of their ability to ensure hygienic conditions in the business in front of customers and workers. Although it is true that there are general prevention guidelines, each sector of economic activity needs to apply specific regulations that the Ministry of Health has been dictating these days.
Although the law of prevention of labor risks is of obligatory fulfillment only for self-employed employers or companies with workers, all the self-employed workers are obliged to the fulfillment of the established measures of prevention reason why it is convenient to restart contact with your service of prevention of labor risks to be updated and to cover necessities.
5. Rethinking the marketing plan to reopen your business during the COVID-19 de-escalation
If consumption patterns change, your business must also adapt to market trends and the nature of your economic activity. The COVID-19 health crisis requires a turn of the screw to the marketing and sales strategies you were implementing until the arrival of the coronavirus. You must offer another shopping experience taking into account the success of online media in this situation and that the permanence in physical establishments can be clearly reduced. It is time to reinvent yourself in a timely manner.
In need of help with your business taxes or accounting?
In Entre Trámites we offer various services of management, advice, and support in bureaucratic processes, including benefits and grants for the self-employed, SMEs, and other companies.
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