We hear from one of our clients, Paul Berry, Managing Director, at Power Systems International, about how their CBILS loan has helped revitalise their business.
How did Covid-19 impact your business, and why did this mean you needed funding?
The impact of COVID has evolved throughout the pandemic and through the various lockdowns. In the first place everybody was scared, and the first thing that everyone does is to stop and cut everything they can, including our projects. Though not all projects were cancelled, we have seen noticeable delays in committing to projects and also in delivering on existing projects. Many sites simply closed and that left us with a lot of stock and staff ready to supply and commission units, but unable to do so.
Can you provide specific examples of how you used the funding, and how it has brought positive changes to your business?
There are three main benefits. The first is being able to steer a path through choppier waters, and being able to absorb the higher peaks and troughs in working capital that these uncertain times bring. The second is, by having the liquidity, we can continue to make good well grounded business decisions, such that we have now expanded and have taken on further workshop. Finally, it is allowing us to bid for larger business, knowing we have the capabilities to meet that.
What do you think would have happened to your business if your application hadn’t been approved?
Life would have been very difficult. We would have had to have shelved plans for the workshop and increasing capacity. The real benefit is shared across the economic playing field, so it is not just the big companies with a lot of cash on their balance sheets. With the British Bank ensuring that there is liquidity throughout the economy, it has helped our clients to pay us in time, so don’t have the pressure with our suppliers, and we continue to pay on time to all our suppliers. We still feel that there will be challenges so having this back-up gives us conficdence for the next few years.
What advice would you give to other business applying for Covid-related funding?
I have worked in a business with liquidity problems, and there is no bigger stress than not knowing when you will pay your bills. The pandemic is the most seismic economic event of my lifetime, and we thought we are relatively lucky in Engineering, many businesses are not so fortunate in the short term, like hospitality and retail. However, even in the depths, there are opportunities and I truly believe we are at the start of a decade of great innovation and this funding can help propel businesses like ours to create new solutions to meet new problems, or to tackle existing problems in new ways. I can see great energy being generated in the UK and I believe that this will be one of the single greatest legacies of this time.
The CBILS deadline is fast approaching, to get an application in before the deadline of March 31st, get in contact with Funding Bay here.
