Surviving Covid-19 may not be over yet. I am glad to say however, after three months of temporary closure, DrivenByQ is open again. There are only a few jobs booked but we are starting to look toward the future with some optimism. Realistically, the process of us surviving Covid-19 began in March 2020.

Number Crunching

No sooner did we realise the furlough scheme was going to be the best option for our staff, we also knew closing DrivenByQ would mean no revenue stream generation. Immediately, consideration turned to our finances. There was a frantic scramble to go through all our figures and start projecting forward.

The first thing to review was our spending. The second was chasing any outstanding invoices. Luckily we have plenty of financial data ready for analysis so number crunching is readily available. Sustaining ourselves for two months on outstanding payments would not be an issue but the longer term brought bigger concerns.

Support Package

Before worrying too much about the developing situation (and being drawn in to the doom and gloom circulating the travel industry), it was time to take a step back and look at things with a cool head. We knew there would be support from somewhere and luckily, the government came through with a support package.

The furlough scheme replaced half our monthly overheads. A payment break on vehicle finance eased the pressure further. More support came through a grant from the Welsh Government and finally the Bounce Back Loan was the icing on the cake.

The Best Option

Coincidentally, finding help came quite easily. Our company structure (with employees on salaries) helped justify all claims. The same was true as a VAT registered company witnessing (more than) a 60% decrease in trade. The extension of the furlough scheme until October provides even more reassurance.

I know many people at the start of the crisis went in to panic mode. They instantly looked for an alternative income stream or more drastically, an alternative career in surviving Covid-19. For DrivenByQ, we didn’t really need to do anything, except to accept that doing nothing was the best option – at least for now.