SPREAD THE CASH - AND THE LOVE
HOW ARE YOU ALL COPING??
My sincere sympathy goes out to all the couples who have had to deal with postponing weddings and all the unneeded extra admin that must have gone along with that… as if it wasn’t already complicated enough. How has it been rearranging venues, catering, bar hire, suit hire, train journeys, hotels, and all the other tiny details that have taken a lot of forward planning and now need double the thought? Done a bit of screaming into a pillow?? I can’t imagine the spin something like this would have sent me into two weeks, a month or three months before my wedding. I would love to hear about it in the comments!! It goes without saying to vendors and couples alike – postponing rather than cancelling will be key to keeping wedding professionals’ businesses alive. If you can look to leaving those deposits with your vendors rather than asking for them back, it will keep stress levels down for a lot of self-employed people who were already living hand to mouth.
My sympathy at this time is also with the livelihoods of small business owners who will struggle to be indemnified by the government’s help for self employed people and SMEs. This because they haven’t been in business very long, because they don’t have the requisite tax receipts, because they ore owner-directors being paid by dividends, because they are running limited companies, or because they earn too much. On this last point – how can it be fair to cap a self-employed single parent at 50k when her neighbours on PAYE will each be able to claim 80% of their £70k salaries?
In response to this, if you are one of the lucky ones with a guaranteed income or able to WFH on full pay, I urge you to think of ways to steer business to the small business owners, freelancers and self-employed people around you. Buying food from independent retailers (your local bread maker, honey producer, veg box scheme (https://rogueslondon.uk/ are offering to donate one box to St Mary’s hospital staff for every ten you buy – and they are delivering pasta!), but also venturing to the organic markets (https://www.lfm.org.uk/markets) that are still happening (shopping outside definitely preferable at the moment!), and who are making long trips in from the countryside in order to keep pesticide-free fresh food on our tables.
But what else? Check neighbourhood apps for people who have come up with novel ways to make some cash and think about whether you could use them. On the Nextdoor app (https://nextdoor.co.uk) I have found someone offering to write notes and letters on her typewriter and send them through the post which is a brilliant idea – I am terrible at getting letters posted and would gladly pay a few quid for this. How about those illustrations you’ve always wanted to get done for your website – could now be the time to offer that work to an unemployed artist, using either your network or a website like Fiverr (www.fiverr.com - if anyone has any better recommendations PLEASE comment with them). Or even getting your website done? (I highly recommend Jack Segal, connect with him on twitter - @jack_segal). OR have you been thinking about coaching, business development, OR writing that novel? If the latter, https://www.londonlitlab.co.uk/ offer novel and screenplay coaching on-line and they seem like wonderful people. Charlotte Atkinson offers one to one coaching in getting your films made and produced: https://charlotteproduces.com/ and offers a free 30 min call. Summat to consider?
How about getting some of your gardening/outdoor painting and DIY done now? There are many decorators, landscapers and builders (https://www.mybuilder.com/) suffering from cancelled contracts who wouldn’t even need to come into your home and you could get some of those gash jobs crossed off NOW. That new front door you were going to get at some point anyway? Bricks repaired or repointed? Drains and gutters and all that boring shit? If you are in a stable financial position, think about getting this work done now while it is quiet for these sorts of trades.
In terms of shopping, how about buying stuff from peer to peer sites like www.shpock.com, https://www.village.co/uk/, www.facebook.com/marketplace? I’m sure you’ll find a way to collect without having to get too close, ie by transferring cash online and then collecting bags from outside the door or the front garden. The extra cash and space is so useful for people, and you are not clogging up the postal service and the environment by buying new! Plus you give us sellers that much needed dopamine hit with a £2 sale :) DIY items are particularly hard to get rid of and they are hard on the environment so consider looking for those second hand first.
What do your friends do or make? Greetings cards, furniture making or repair, lawn mowing, dog walking, computer fixing, cake making, language teaching, clothes designing, picture drawing…? Dare I say it but maybe this could even be time to think through birthday and christmas presents and sort them now, while you have TIME and people need BIZNESS (and things to do?). Ok maybe I’ve had one too many coffees….
LET’S MAKE THIS FUN!!!
Please, please comment below and let me know I’m not alone!
