He who dares Rodders..................

[doctor Bob]

Well I furloughed my guys on March 23rd, 5 in total.
I carried on working and my business partner self isolated soon after for 2 weeks and returned about 2nd week of April.
Very worried about the business at this point............

Move forward to now and I've decided that I have 2 options, i can carry on losing a substancial amount of money each week or be brave and crack on.
So on Monday I got 2 guys back in to see how it goes. Hand sanitizer on each bench, disposable masks, floor markings, hand washing on the hour and after using shared items such as clamps etc also wipe down after use.
All is good, nice to make progress and feel work is getting done.
Next few installs are new builds so we can work one trade at a time.
The 2 chaps are happy, pleased to be back and more comfortable that their jobs are reasonably safe.
Feeling much more bouyant.

As a small business owner, I feel I've slipped through the system, too big a unit for £10k grant, no rate rebates, yes I will recieve furlough wages at some point but at present over £10k paid out, nothing back yet (and it's no subsidy for me, just stops me laying off the guys at present). Also not self employed so no 75% wages.
It is what it is and it's all about the long term, some say I deserve it as I've been paid dividends. :shock:

Anyway, bollooooxs to it all, feeling happy, good order book. He who dares rodders

 

[AJB Temple]

Good for you. I admire your spirit, determination and optimism. Sincerely hope it works out. Adrian

 

[Fitzroy]

Nice to hear. My brother runs a sports manufacturing and distribution company for a lower tier sport. He thinks he can survive until end June but then he’ll have to wrap it up. He’s wracking his brain trying to bring in any cash he can as early as he can. I think it’ll be those who workout how to adapt early that’ll survive. Best of luck to you.

Fitz.

 

[Droogs]

Glad to hear Bob, hope it all goes well and you are up and running properly as soon as poss, that goes for all the forum too

 

[Blackswanwood]

Ditto the above comments and I wish you all the best in getting to (the new) normal.

 

[MikeG.]

Absolutely no surprise to me at all. Having met Bob, I can tell you all, dear readers, that he is a really positive and enthusiastic person, with a passion for his business. He was never going to sit there and let his business fold without a fight.

Best of luck to you Bob.

 

[AES]

+1 to all the positive comments above Bob. Just from your posts here, if anyone deserves to get through, it's you. All the best.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Well I furloughed my guys on March 23rd, 5 in total.
I carried on working and my business partner self isolated soon after for 2 weeks and returned about 2nd week of April.
Very worried about the business at this point............

Move forward to now and I've decided that I have 2 options, i can carry on losing a substancial amount of money each week or be brave and crack on.
So on Monday I got 2 guys back in to see how it goes. Hand sanitizer on each bench, disposable masks, floor markings, hand washing on the hour and after using shared items such as clamps etc also wipe down after use.
All is good, nice to make progress and feel work is getting done.
Next few installs are new builds so we can work one trade at a time.
The 2 chaps are happy, pleased to be back and more comfortable that their jobs are reasonably safe.
Feeling much more bouyant.

As a small business owner, I feel I've slipped through the system, too big a unit for £10k grant, no rate rebates, yes I will recieve furlough wages at some point but at present over £10k paid out, nothing back yet (and it's no subsidy for me, just stops me laying off the guys at present). Also not self employed so no 75% wages.
It is what it is and it's all about the long term, some say I deserve it as I've been paid dividends. :shock:

Anyway, bollooooxs to it all, feeling happy, good order book. He who dares rodders

Best of luck!

 

[NickM]

It sounds like you have no other choice but to do what you're doing. I really hope it goes well.

 

[gwaithcoed]

All the best Bob. Hope everything turns out well for you
Alan.

 

[JohnS]

Best of luck Bob, this is a horrible situation but you seem to be doing well.
I'm a key worker and my job is secure so I can't imagine how you and your guys are feeling throughout all this.
I'd happily pay a little extra tax if it meant the government could somehow save all small businesses. Nobody deserves to lose their life, job, business throughout this pandemic.

 

[TFrench]

Good on you Bob. We're far enough down that we got the grant. The two lads who aren't family in our firm are still on furlough - there's just enough trickling through to keep a couple of us going for a few days a week. Order book is bulging though - I'm sure everyone is going to decide all of a sudden they need everything doing at the same time.
We were in a food factory today and the engineer was telling us 3 small companies who do a lot of work in there have folded already...

 

[sawdust1]

Good on you Bob, maybe put up some posters saying "DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE" as well as this is one way the nasty gets in. What you done is all you can do !
At the beginning i thought great a couple of months off and Boris will pay me, all those jobs around
the place i can now get on with. Yeh right, my website has gone mad and i cannot keep up with all
the orders that keep coming , which is great but a bit overwhelming. 2 weeks is all i got whilst my timber supplier was closed. I work on my own with some help from my lad so no problems.

 

[Buckeye]

Best wishes, hope you do well in the recovery from this and the business progresses well

 

[ColeyS1]

You will be alright Bob, stay strong and positive.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

[doctor Bob]

Well week 1 with 2 guys back went well.
They have chosen to wear a mask all day.
we have worked the 2m distance fairly well, lot of it is just common sense, take the long route, wait for others to pass etc etc.

My own view is that the country is in lockdown panic and people now seem unable to take sensible decisions about their own lives, they expect the government to tell them exactly what and when to do things and have zero ability to apply common sense.
Furlough scheme is great but being abused by both sides, if you hate your job then you will find every excuse not to go back to work, if you are unionised they will assist you in not going back to work, if your lazy you won't go back to work. This week one of my fitters worked for a comany doing London flat fit outs, 200 office staff being paid on furlough but working with 20% cash top up to keep them quiet.
My own view is the economy is screwed, one quarter of furloughed people are now effectively unemployed and just don't know it yet. The surface has just been scratched, the real trouble starts in about 3-4 months as furlough stops.
Anyone currently furloughed, good luck for the future, don't treat it as a holiday, use it wisely.

 

[Blackswanwood]

Well week 1 with 2 guys back went well.

My own view is that the country is in lockdown panic and people now seem unable to take sensible decisions about their own lives, they expect the government to tell them exactly what and when to do things and have zero ability to apply common sense.

Anyone currently furloughed, good luck for the future, don't treat it as a holiday, use it wisely.

I couldn't agree more with both of these statements. Ever fancied a term as Prime Minister Bob?

 

[doctor Bob]

A term .................... would't need that long.

Society needs toughening up, far to many entightitled grown men and women thinking they are owed stuff and when things go against them thinking that their liberty, freedom, rights have been infringed.

Facebbok has a lot to answer.
My local village page is just a fantastical view on peoples opinions of entitlement.....................

Facebook quote....."so we are supposed to return to work even though it's clearly not safe, madness **** off Boris"

I have known this person for nearly 12 years, aged 50 ish, in all that time he has never worked, he is an expert in claiming benifits, highly skilled at it, rarely a week goes past without another one of his kids being diagnosed with some society disorder ..............

When I pointed out the fact that he won't be returning to work because he doesn't work and never has, he accused me of being unsympathetic and unaware of his families conditions, then the whole village decided I was the "see u next tuesday" ................... anyway I had a field day and carried on.

Entitlement oozing out of his ears.............

 

[Trevanion]

I have known this person for nearly 12 years, aged 50 ish, in all that time he has never worked, he is an expert in claiming benifits, highly skilled at it, rarely a week goes past without another one of his kids being diagnosed with some society disorder ..............

Ah, I know people like that! I work with one too...

Twice my age and has absolutely no interest in coming back to work so long as he gets government self-employed payouts during this crisis, sat on his fat arse doing jack diddly squat...

Meanwhile, I pushed the boss hard to have the workshop re-opened after three weeks of downtime because we were struggling to keep up with orders before lockdown. Finally reopened after the fifth week, It's just me in the workshop at the moment working on two sets of bi-folding doors and a bunch of single doors and it's been great being by myself with the radio on full blast and the machines roaring as they should . Sure, I'm not getting paid anything extra for doing it and I could've just done as the prat above and refused to come in and just sat on my arse twiddling my thumbs but I struggle to sit still for too long. I was keeping very busy during the lockdown with stuff that needed doing at home, but I'd also like to keep my job pretty secure.

I might put a request into higher management to have a replacement work colleague, preferably a pretty young lass :wink: :lol:

 

[Trainee neophyte]

As I am reading this, my other half is shopping on Amazon for child's birthday. We are living on our savings at the moment, as there is no income, and little expectation of income, and wifey is complaining that only 5 presents for a birthday doesn't seem like much!

Excuse me while I go and bang my head against the wall repeatedly.

The good news is the savings will all have been piddled away soon enough, and then reality may finally begin to sink in. In the meantime, "eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die".

Reality is a moveable feast for most people.