Business owners on Lockdown 3: ‘We are tired, fed up, worried and helpless’

We are delighted to have contributed to the Irish Times article today 11.01.2021 on how SME owners are managing through the pandemic. Our contribution is replicated below which I hope find interesting.

The article in full is also available on this blog. It’s very interesting to see how various business owners are managing in these difficult times.

Remember if there is anything we can do, please get in touch, 046 907 3868.

‘We have spent almost a year in survival mode’

Raymond Gibbons, BMS Accountants Ltd, Navan

We provide bookkeeping, payroll and accounting services to over 90 clients throughout Leinster. With three full-time staff and one part-time we offer SMEs operating in a variety of sectors from retail to services.

I set up the business at the height of the recession in 2009 with a view that SME owners, regardless of size, need the support of an accountant to help them manage their business, rather than an accountant who merely prepared financial records and offered snippets of advice along the way and generally only at annual client meetings. That hands-on and personal relationship has served us well.

We worked tirelessly during the first lockdown to ensure clients got much needed information on the support schemes available to them. The stress that we as a business were under was immense, providing clients with updates, dealing with revenue on their behalf, managing the payroll changes and also ensuring that we missed no tax deadlines.

I invested in new hardware and software to enable remote working. With limited resources from cash to time, we really tested our ability to prioritise and manage our workload. I wanted to protect three full time jobs and I did that, with the support of my staff. We are a small but strong team and I like to think we are helping our clients through this difficult time too.

We have spent almost a year in survival mode. It has been tough and exhausting but it is time to start forward planning now. With the new software, hardware, website and restructuring of our business model which allows us to work flexibly and remotely, we can compete with practices many times our size. bmsaccountants.ie

See the full article here; https://www.irishtimes.com/business/business-owners-on-lockdown-3-we-are-tired-fed-up-worried-and-helpless-1.4454664