COVID 19 Survival Assistance for SMEs

Greetings – we hope you’re staying safe and still operating your businesses or, if not, you're able to think about some business strategies to implement when you to recommence business operations again.

The Australian government, through the Stimulus Package Number 3, which was unanimously passed by Parliament last week, has implemented a number of significant strategies to assist many small and medium-sized enterprises that are struggling with the challenges of COVID-19 Coronavirus.

The highlights of the last 2 weeks include:

• JobKeeper Payment Scheme passed and commenced to operate from 30 March 2020.
• Commercial Tenants Rental Waivers introduced for businesses which qualify for the “JobKeeper status”
• About $200 billion has been directly allocated by the government to assist businesses with turnovers under $50 million per annum including:
• boosting cashflow for employers – tax-free boost of $20,000 - $100,000 to help pay wages
• coronavirus supplement – sole traders and self-employed persons are eligible to apply
• access to superannuation withdrawals is available for businesses which qualify for the coronavirus supplement
• Coronavirus SME Guarantee Scheme has started – the Australian government is guaranteeing 50% of the loans issued utilising funds that were made available to the banks ($90 billion) by the Reserve Bank for loans to SMEs.
• JobKeeper Payment Scheme rules released by Australian Taxation Office.

ESS Small Business has released a range of articles which will assist business people to have a clearer understanding of these programs and to assist in the development of a “COVID-19 Survival Plan” for your business.

In conjunction with ten of our affiliates, who have significant expertise in working with small businesses and medium-sized enterprises, accountants and business advisors, on Wednesday 22 April 2020 at 12-noon AEST, ESS Small Business is launching the “COVID-19 Survival Panel for SMEs”, a weekly information webinar to be presented each Wednesday at 12-noon to answer questions and to discuss issues relevant to the challenges facing small businesses and medium-sized enterprises to navigate the difficult conditions that  COVID-19 has caused.

In each of the webinars two members of our affiliate panel will be presenting their observations on how businesses are operating in these difficult circumstances and will give advice on the way forward for business operators to adopt.

The inaugural “COVID-19 Survival Panel for SMEs” Features:

• Paul Barnaby, Beyond Accounting Technologies and the Australasian Representative for Plan Guru – Budgets, Cashflow and Projected Balance Sheet software. Paul is a Chartered Accountant with extensive experience who provides specialist knowledge relative to:
• predictive accounting
• corporate financial analysis
• budgets and cash flow forecasting
• business management consulting
• Jordan Lowry, Managing Director, Blackstone Business Services, workplace culture, employee behaviours, human resources, workplace health and safety advisory organisation providing advanced HR and management resource to assist businesses to navigate COVID-19 hazards.

You can register for this complimentary webinar by clicking here.

I'd like to invite you to visit the ESS Small Business' website – Survival in Difficult Times – Learn More which includes all of the material we have produced to assist with combating the challenges of “COVID-19” where you will find some articles are free and others have fees attached to them.

If you have any questions on any aspect of the assistance that ESS Small Business' products can provide for you to use to assist in navigating the “COVID-19 Survival Challenges", please don’t hesitate to contact us:

• Email: peter@essbiztools.com.au
• Telephone: 1800 232 088

We've prepared a more detailed summary of the key issues relative to the assistance provided by the Australian government’s stimulus packages in the “Want to Know More”.  Please click here to obtain this complimentary detailed summary.

I invite you to view the “Empowering SMEs” video (click here) which gives you more details on the Australian government’s assistance and the “COVID-19 Survival Plan for SMEs” which ESS Small Business has produced.

Stay safe.  If you would like to have a discussion, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

If you have a friend or colleague you think might find this article interesting, please forward to them.

Have a great day!