Welcome Back to The Freelance Informer Coffee Break Video Series.
In this session, we go to this week’s FT Business Clinic. The Q&A session focuses on how business leaders and smaller outfits must now adapt to operate within the confines of new tiered restrictions, the impact these will have on trading, and whether the level of compensation is enough for businesses to survive the winter.
Presenter Claer Barrett spoke to Andy Bounds, the FT’s Enterprise Editor, about the challenges that lie ahead.
“Leaders in the hospitality industry have warned that tens of thousands of pubs are at risk of closure, predicting that new curbs will result in billions of pounds of lost pub and restaurant sales in December,” said the FT.
Some pub owners may even have to think outside the box to create new revenue streams. For example, from Friday, pubs in Wales will no longer be permitted to sell alcohol or open after 6 pm in an attempt to control infections following the end of the “firebreak lockdown” in November.
Even click and collect has had some glitches for some small independent retailers, whereby customers make orders, but fail to collect, leaving retailers with shop floors coverage in uncollected packages. It is a learning curve, to say the least.
Despite the doom and gloom, the retail and hospitality sectors have had to face with each lockdown and the subsequent tiered restrictions, Andy Bounds, the FT’s Enterprise Editor, offers some encouragement at the end of the Q&A session as to why it is still a good time to start a business.
We could also see a call for lower business rates to incentivize more companies to re-open or launch on the UK’s High Streets to compete with the online phenomenon across both retail and hospitality/take-out.
If you liked this article and video session, Retail & hospitality: how to operate in the new UK tiered restrictions and why it’s still a good time to set up shop, please share.
If you would like to get the latest information and advice geared towards the independent worker and self-employment sign up to our newsletter below.
