The UK’s female leaders have been tenacious in their response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. While physical doors may be closed for the foreseeable future, digital opportunities are opening up.
In this uncharted territory, networks of female mentors have become more important than ever. As we highlighted in our Mentoring Matters report, mentoring is one of the best ways women can help other women, especially through a crisis. Virtual events have become a means to connect female founders and a source of advice and support. Instant messaging tools like Slack and Whatsapp as well as video conferencing tools like Zoom have taken centre stage as tools to assist female leaders to maintain morale and sustain business operations.
In this newsletter, we will be covering the Government support and grants you should know about. We will also be sharing some upcoming webinar series and online events that you may be interested in, as well as news highlights we think might support you and help to drive your business forward after lockdown.
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
We know that financial help is vital to help support our female leaders who are struggling with the challenges of the coronavirus outbreak. The UK Government has created a new Coronavirus Business Support Hub. Here are some of the schemes on offer to help you and your business cope. We will be updating you on new schemes and changes to the schemes in our policy updates.
1. Bounce Back Loans
This week, the UK Government announced the Bounce Back Loan scheme. The scheme will be delivered through a network of accredited lenders and help small and medium-sized businesses borrow up to £50,000 or 25% of turnover, whichever is lower. The scheme is not available yet. It will launch on 4 May 2020.
2. Coronavirus Business Interruption Scheme
Banks are helping SMEs by providing the financial backing they need through the government-backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Scheme (CBILS). CBILS is a term loan product offered in conjunction with the UK Government and the British Business Bank. A government guarantee is issued in favour of the lender, which allows banks to consider lending to viable businesses affected by coronavirus.
The scheme is designed to support UK SMEs with a turnover of less than £45 million. You can find out more details and check your eligibility for the scheme here.
For businesses with turnover greater than £45 million, you may be able to obtain the financial backing you need through a Coronavirus large business interruption loan.
Barclays is one of the accredited lenders. You can find out more here.
3. Support for our Start-ups
The UK Government has announced a £1.25 billion package to support start-ups through coronavirus. The Government’s Future Fund will issue convertible loans of between £125,000 and £5 million to startups seeking to bridge funding for working capital purposes.
The funding must be matched by private investors and the Government will provide no more than 50% of the funding. The loans will convert to equity at the next fundraising round at a 20% discount, or a higher rate if the private investor demands it. The scheme will launch in May and remain open until September. You can find out the full details here.
4. Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
The UK Government is also providing support through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, reimbursing 80% wages, up to £2,500 per month, for employees on temporary leave (Furlough) due to coronavirus. Any entity with a UK payroll can apply, including businesses, charities, recruitment agencies and public authorities.
The Scheme will be backdated to 1 March and available for at least three months. The online service was launched last Monday.
5. Self-employment Income Support Scheme
Self-employed people are eligible for a taxable grant, worth up to 80% of their average monthly profit over the last three years, up to £2,500 per month, for at least the next three months. You can find out more details about the scheme here.
6. Statutory Sick Pay
The cost of providing 14 days of Statutory Sick Pay per employee will be refunded by the Government in full to businesses with fewer than 250 employees. This will provide two million businesses with up to £2 billion to cover the costs of large-scale sick leave.
BARCLAYS SUPPORT AND OPPORTUNITIES
1. Barclay Coronavirus Support Hub
The Barclays coronavirus support hub provides the latest information, tools and guidance to support businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays’ products, webinars, Facebook live events and more information on how to access the government schemes.
There is also an updated FAQs section on this hub, which provides the latest information for businesses.
2. Barclays webinars
You may wish to register here for an upcoming Business Resilience through coronavirus webinar looking at the challenges and support businesses require throughout this period.
Alternatively, to find out more about the latest UK Government support packages for startups and scaleups, register for this webinar later today at 2pm with the Barclays team.
This week, Juliet Rogan explains in a short video guide to Barclays Eagle Lab how the UK Government’s Future Fund will work. She looks at some of the details including convertible loan notes, interest rates and conversion processes.
3. Checklist for Businesses - Dealing with coronavirus disruption
Barclays has put together a checklist with practical guidance and useful resources to support you and your coronavirus business planning. You can check out the checklist here.
4. Female Founders Forum - 2020 Events
We are launching regional roundtable Eagle Lab events across the UK. It is an ambitious, far-reaching programme that will bring our tried and tested formula of successful think tank events from London to Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Southampton, Leeds and Newcastle.
We will address four “scale-up” topics, with each roundtable focusing on a particular theme and provide you with more details about the events in our upcoming newsletters.
The first event is due to kick off in September and will either be a physical or digital event, depending on local conditions and the lockdown.
If any of these locations are convenient for you, or you know of any female leaders in these regions, we would like to get in contact. Please get in touch or pass on my details jess@tenentrepreneurs.org.
5. DIT Global Entrepreneurship webinars
The Department of International Trade (DIT) is offering free webinars to UK Companies with experts presenting for 25 minutes and answering your questions to help you find solutions to the issues you are facing. You can sign up for the upcoming webinars here and view the previously recorded webinars here
FEMALE FOUNDER HIGHLIGHTS
Our Member Debbie Wosskow is taking AllBright's services online, with a series of new digital events aimed at turning self-isolation into career development. Debbie recently spoke with Monocle, urging women to “take on an entrepreneurial mindset”, discussing how this has enabled Allbright to pivot in real time and how other female led businesses can do the same.
Alexandra Daly, one of our Members and founder of AA Advisors, is developing digital solutions, including a series of podcasts, to assist clients as they seek to maintain dialogue with investors. Alexandra recently spoke with Private Equity Wire about how “people are hungry for information, but feel physically isolated due to Covid-19”. In Alexandra’s view, podcasts to communicate with LPs will be used by managers over the long term. Looking to the revival stage after the coronavirus pandemic, Alexandra discusses how she sees podcasts as a way to streamline the introductory process and could be used as an efficient way to raise capital.
Our Member, Annabel Karmel, whose children’s recipes are prepared by the Yum Yum Food Company, has set up a campaign to supply free, good quality food to NHS workers and vulnerable people.
Leah Hutcheon, founder of Appointedd, an online booking and business management software firm, is offering SMEs free access to their products to deal with clients and promote social distancing measures. Leah has been impacted by the crisis and wanted to “support those small businesses who had been worst affected”.
Journolink, a business co-founded by Gemma Guise, is providing free services to SMEs to share their stories about how they are coping with the challenges of Covid-19 with journalists and broadcasters.
We want to inspire female entrepreneurs across the UK. Do you know any inspiring female entrepreneurs? Send them through to jess@tenentrepeneurs.org.
We will be sending through our newsletter every two weeks. If you share content with the hashtag #femalefounderforum, we will retweet you or repost it.
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