Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) UK Crisis – Advice for Hospitality Employers and Employees

We all know by now that Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is going to make things tough for hospitality venues and the workers involved.

Considering this sudden and serious event, our dedicated team at LostinHospitality has come together to seek the best solution to minimize the impact of this episode on your company, daily life, and financial income. As such, we will provide information regarding health and finances during this period, which seems certain to be a difficult one for the hospitality industry.

This article will be in 3 Chapters – Advice for Everyone/ Employers / Employees.

Coronavirus Advice for everyone:

As you may have seen, the UK Government has announced that we are moving away from the ‘Containment Phase’ to the ‘Delay Phase’, and with this guidance and advice has naturally changed, we have outlined this in brief below but please do use the link here to see this in full and check in regularly for updates.

Main messages:

The most common symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are continuous cough and/or high temperature. For most people, coronavirus (COVID-19) will be a mild infection

If you have symptoms of the coronavirus infection (COVID-19) – even if mild – do not leave your home for 7 days from when your symptoms

started

This action will help protect others in your community while you are infectious

Plan and ask others for help to ensure that you can successfully stay at home

Ask your employer, friends, and family to help you get the things you need to stay at home

Stay at least 2 meters (about 3-4 steps) away from other people in your home if possible. “Social distancing”

Sleep alone, where possible

Wash your hands regularly for 20 seconds, each time using soap and water

Stay away from vulnerable individuals, such as the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, as much as possible

You do not need to call NHS 111 to go into self-isolation. If your symptoms worsen during home isolation or are no better after 7 days, contact NHS 111 online. If you have no internet access, call NHS 111. For a medical emergency, dial 999

Coronavirus Advice for Employers:

We are in unprecedented times and we know that a large number of operators will have had sleepless nights over the last week as revenue dropped day by day.

Even if your business drops or stops altogether, there are things you can do to help keep your venue alive.

We had experience running small businesses and whilst we never experienced anything quite like this, our advice to all operators is to try to retain as much cash in the business as possible.

Some of the things that you may want to consider are:

Complete a six-month cash flow forecasting 30%, 50% and 75% reduction in trade then model complete shutdown. What is your cash position with each of these scenarios? When do you run out of cash? When should you consider closing sites or reducing trading periods?
Don’t pay HMRC, contact them this week and arrange a time to pay scheme, they will ask you what you propose, I would suggest asking no payments for three months then ramp up payments over six months.
Review all central costs, cutting anything non-essential, renegotiate payment terms with suppliers. The worst they can do is say no!
You are very unlikely to get any additional borrowing but have discussions now with lenders to defer repayments.
Don’t pay business rates but do pay insurance, you may even have business interruption cover so, check.
Call landlords and move to monthly rent or ideally agree on a rent-free period. “Carluccios Restaurants” have written to all of their landlords requesting a three-month payment holiday.
Don’t spend Capex and pause any planned openings.
Look after your teams, they are our biggest asset in hospitality. Keep them updated with a team messaging group and whilst hours are undoubtedly going to have to be cut at this time, do it fairly and consult with your teams as they will have ideas to help.
Try to identify any new revenue streams, can you move onto Deliveroo for example? They are smashing it!
Set up a digital way to speak to your employees. Make sure all their contact details and emergency contacts are up to date asap. Look after your people.
If you don't have socials, set them up now and keep the channels of communication open. If you have a newsletter or blog, use it to diarise what's happening to you and your business.
If you can offer delivery in any other way, shout about it.
Find ways that loyal customers can keep you afloat without coming to your venue, e.g., gift vouchers, sponsorship/pledge pages.
If you have any digital assets, find ways to monetize them. You can sell PDFs of recipes or menus online; you can offer live stream cocktail masterclasses; online courses on how to create a home bar in a zombie apocalypse. It's a tough one, but people will still be gagging for professional guidance if they're on lockdown.
Keep tabs open but keep written records of stock in and outgoings. You may want or need to perform acts of kindness within your community, but digital data could get lost. If there's compensation available, you'll need to prove any losses. Write it down.
When all else fails, work on your brand. Your brand is your life source. Update your website, create a database, do the little tasks that will improve your business when things pick up again.
Make sure you keep abreast of any government announcements relating to your business: suspended rates, changes to benefits, etc.
Stay strong and let’s stick together!

Please remember that these are just our suggestions. We are not lawyers or accountants, only operators trying to take a pragmatic approach.

Useful links

https://ko-fi.com (people pay for content)

https://www.practicalecommerce.com/12-platforms-to-sell-dig… (selling digital download sites)

https://teachable.com/ (create an online course)

https://founderu.selz.com/how-to-livestream-part-1/ (how to live stream)

Additional reading:

How can restaurants & bars survive the COVID-19 pandemic? (Link)

Coronavirus: Cafe and bar jobs ‘gone by May' if laws do not change – trade body (Link)

UKHospitality calls for business rates suspension for businesses threatened by Coronavirus (Link)

Coronavirus: 5 things restaurant owners should do now (Link)

Coronavirus: Impact on the Hospitality Industry (Daily Updates / hospitalitynet)

From a friend who is living in China:

“Here in China, Restaurants and Bars came up with a lot of useful stuff in complete lockdown. Cocktail delivery with alcohol, cocktail delivery without alcohol (you add your booze, depending on legislation) vacuum-packed garnishes with it, sterilized bottles. To push the sales they did a live streaming event out of the bar. Online cocktail classes. Vouchers, bottle delivery, mixtapes on music streaming services. Now they are reopening, giving massive discounts. Up to 50%. Even with the lockdown lifted yesterday, my city was dead tonight. Ask the landlord for reduced rent. Ask the authorities for tax or social security discounts. Ask the staff to go half pay or less. Ask your suppliers for free booze and make a tasting event giving out free drinks, limit the number of people though. Don't know what the regulations in London are right now. But unfortunately, you should prepare for a complete lockdown of the city with only supermarkets and pharmacies staying open.”

Coronavirus Advice for employees:

We urge any staff in the hospitality sector who find themself unemployed during this time try their hand at care work home visitors and nursing homes have been plunged into chaos in the past few days we need to look after the elderly the best we can.

There are plenty of delivery platforms are in high demand. If you have a scooter or bicycle you can make a good income right now.

Plus grocery stores looking for staff, but this is obvious now. Amazon is scaling up its hiring process, too.

It’s a bit tough to give individual advice, everyone is struggling now for different reasons.

Have a look at our previous articles for more guidance on how to start an online business without big investment:

5 realistic ways how to work from home and make money online (Link)

From waiter to millionaire mindset (+ my tactic in progress) (Link)

…to be updated.

Additional Read:

Petition: Include self-employed in statutory sick pay during Coronavirus (460k and growing Link)

Coronavirus: Will I get sick pay? (Link)

Petition: Call to the Government to support UK's hospitality industry through the Coronavirus crisis (Change.org Link)

THE 57 BEST SMALL BUSINESS IDEAS YOU CAN START BUILDING TODAY (Link)

If you have any ideas or suggestions, then please do not hesitate to contact us directly at admin@lostinhospitality.com Rest assured, we will read and respond to these messages personally, with the greatest of attention, so do not be afraid to share with us the difficulties that you are facing at the moment. We will do all we can to help you. Your health and well-being are our number one priority at LostinHospitality.

Stay safe!

Yours,

Dan Draper

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1. Intermittent Fasting – triggers DNA repair molecules and eliminates pathogens via autophagy 2. Cold Exposure – increases glutathione and antioxidant defence systems 3. Heat Exposure – flushes out toxins and heavy metals 4. Exercise – gets the lymph fluid moving and improves metabolic health 5. Wash Your Hands – don't touch dirty spaces, doorknobs, staircases, public restrooms 6. Increase Heart Rate Variability – sleeping and stress management increase your resilience 7. Vitamin D – not enough sunlight and insufficient vitamin D weaken immunity 8. Positive Mindset – in one study, participants who had heightened activity in a region of the brain associated with a positive attitude produced greater amounts of flu antibodies 9. Avoid Toxins – smoking, alcohol, air pollution, dirty water etc weaken immunity 10. Take Adaptogens – medicinal mushrooms, ashwagandha, ginger, turmeric, ginseng are great for balancing the nervous system and strengthening the immune system www.lostinhospitality.com @lostinhospitality

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P.S. True Words: “if you are on a zero-hour contract, as a cleaner or a bartender, in which case government advises to default on your rent and use the f***ing foodbank….”