Preparing for phased re-opening
Apologies if you’re feeling “informationed-out”, but the information just keeps coming!
There is a huge amount of work going on to make sure that the town centre is ready for the next phase of the Government’s steps to recovery, and we know you are all working incredibly hard to make sure that your own businesses will be ready. The best way the BR BID can support you is by signposting you to helpful information, so today’s update focuses on the following:
1. Details of Government webinars on making your business premises Covid-19 Secure
2. Links to a helpful “checklist” for preparing your business for reopening
3. Save The High Street “Health Check for Businesses” survey
4. Suppliers List – how to sign up!
1) Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19) business webinars – find out how to make your workplace COVID-secure
The UK Government, in consultation with industry, has produced guidance to help ensure workplaces in England are as safe as possible during the coronavirus pandemic. Join a free webinar, hosted by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, to find out more about how to make your workplace COVID-secure.
The webinars cover a range of different types of workplace settings which are allowed to be open. Many businesses operate more than one type of workplace, such as an office, factory and fleet of vehicles. You may need to use more than one of the guides/webinars as you think through what you need to do to keep people safe.
• Wednesday 27 May, 11am: Factories, plants and warehouses– Guidance for people who run factories, plants and warehouses
• Wednesday 27 May, 3pm: Restaurants offering takeaway or delivery– Guidance for people who run restaurants offering takeaway or delivery services.
• Thursday 28 May, 11am: Shops and branches– Guidance for people who run shops, branches, stores or similar environments.
• Thursday 28 May, 3pm: Vehicles– Guidance for people who work in or from vehicles, including couriers, mobile workers, lorry drivers, on-site transit and work vehicles, field forces and similar.
• Monday 1 June, 11am: Construction and other outdoor work– Guidance for people who run outdoor working environments.
• Monday 1 June, 3pm: Labs and research facilities– Guidance for people who run indoor labs and research facilities and similar environments
• Tuesday 2 June, 11am: Offices and contact centres– Guidance for people who run offices, contact centres and similar indoor environments
• Tuesday 2 June, 3pm: Homes– Guidance for people working in, visiting or delivering to home environments as well as their employers
2) Resource: Getting your business ready: The Essentials
A big thanks to Liverpool BID for sharing this resource, which gives an overview of steps when preparing to reopen your business. We briefly thought about changing it to Bognor Regis BID colours and taking the credit, but that’s not the way we roll!
If in doubt, or if you have to choose which of the information to read or advice to follow, always go back to the Government guidance for your business sector: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19
3) Save the High Street: Health Check for Businesses Survey
“Save the High Street” has designed a Health Check for businesses to complete to get a clear understanding of how ready our high street economy is now and as we head into the recovery stages from Covid 19.
The survey covers the most important strategies for high street business owners right now, across six key themes:
1. Reducing your costs
2. Selling in new ways
3. Adapting your marketing
4. Collaborating as a high street
5. Preparing for the future
6. Funding your business
I filled in the survey as a “test”, and whilst the questions seemed more suited to retail businesses, going through the sections is a useful reminder of all the things you COULD do to help your business, if you haven’t already done so.
Once you’ve completed the survey (which takes about 11 minutes), you’ll receive the following personalised support for FREE:
• A Health-Check report and scores, highlighting vulnerabilities and opportunities across your business.
• 6 top recommendations based on your responses, each with engaging content, step-by-step guides and more.
• A telephone call with an expert consultant to discuss your report and recommendations (optional and the first 1,000 responses).
Another benefit of businesses completing the survey is that the BID will receive a completely anonymised overview of the situation in Bognor Regis, which will help us identify more ways we can provide support for our businesses.
You can link to the SaveTheHighStreet.org's COVID 19 Recovery & Resilience Health Check here: https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/5576426/High-Street-Recovery-and-Resilience?s=BID
4) Suppliers List
The BID Team has been contacted by a number of suppliers asking us to introduce them to businesses looking for products to make premises Covid-19 secure. We’re currently building up a list of these contacts, but want to give priority to BID and local area businesses before suggesting any out-of- area or online-only distributors.
Please emailheather@brbid.orgif your business supplies any of the items businesses may be looking for to make their premises Covid-19 secure, and we will include you on the suppliers list – currently set to go live early next week. Equally, if you’ve had great experiences with any suppliers and think they could help other businesses, please send me their details so I can include them, too.
Kindest regards,
Heather and Clair
Even though Clair and I are working from home, you can still contact us by email: info@brbid.org, by phone: 07917 692690 or through Zoom meeting software. The software is free to download and works across a wide range of platforms – phones, tablets, PC’s, Macs. If you’d like a virtual face to face, please invite: heather@brbid.org
Kindest regards, Heather
Heather Allen, BR BID Co-Ordinator