With potential plans to relax lockdown measures making the news headlines, the hospitality industry must quickly prepare for reopening. But with new rules and restrictions, many business owners may face a whole host of challenges when it’s time to open their doors again.
Here, we cover some of the things that businesses can do in the final weeks of lockdown so that they can hit the ground running.
Evaluate your financial position
Aside from ensuring you have the appropriate health and safety measures in place, business owners across the country must stay financially alert. Once lockdown is lifted (and possibly for the foreseeable future), you’ll need to monitor growth and performance more closely and regularly than usual. But before you reopen, you’ll need to evaluate your financial position.
To do this properly, businesses should take advantage of the latest cloud technology. Those who are willing to embrace cloud accounting tools will be able to quickly and effectively review their budgets and uncover non-essential costs. This will allow you to determine whether or not you can afford to reopen your business as normal.
Utilise technology
If we’ve learnt anything from 2020, it’s that traditional processes simply won’t do. The ongoing pandemic has pushed many hospitality businesses to use technology in innovative ways, and there’s no better time to go digital than now. Automation could potentially help your business survive, so before you reopen, consider how you might evolve your processes and operations.
Whether that be switching to a cashless system, using chatbots to rapidly respond to customer queries or switching from paper invoices to digital, technology can be used to your advantage. Sure, it may take some time to implement all of these changes and there’s definitely a learning curve, but utilising technology will be beneficial in the long run.
Forecast, forecast, forecast
Forecasting has always been (and always will be) essential to making well-informed business decisions, and the pandemic has only highlighted the need to predict and plan. By weighing up the risks and rewards of reopening your business before you invite customers in, you’ll be able to ensure that you make the right choices going forward.
If your hospitality business has been operating for some time now, there’s a strong chance you already know how to forecast. Be that as it may, given how unpredictable things currently are, the numbers you come up with might not be accurate. As such, it could be a good idea to seek professional help.
Seek professional advice
Struggling to adjust to the ‘new normal’? Get the advice of a professional. Our expert team of accountants here at Nabarro Poole can support you with everything from budgeting and forecasting to tax planning and compliance.
To learn more about the bespoke services we offer, give us a call on 0161 998 4276 or email info@nabarropoole.com.
Recent Comments