This year, the average small business will spend £4,850 staying safe from Covid.
Small businesses will need to foot the costs of office risk assessments, signs, sanitizing products, air filtering systems, and professional cleaning services, with the average company spending £4,850. This works out at £23bn for the year in total.
These figures come from a survey by Hitachi Capital, which surveyed 1,500 small businesses. They found the following statistics:
- Fixed premises will cost an average of £5,443 to keep Covid safe
- Outdoor or onsite businesses costs £5,446 to be safe
- Businesses which offer home working expect to spend £3,660
Small businesses, which are operating completely remotely (20 per cent of the survey) will experience the lowest Covid costs, with 68 per cent not spending any money at all and 21 per cent spending less than £1,000.
Unfortunately, it estimated that one-third of small companies are actually losing money by keeping customer numbers low, in order to remain Covid safe. This figure comes from a survey by financial institution, Iwoca.
This survey also found that a quarter of small business are experiencing decreased sales due to social distancing restrictions. Four out of every ten small businesses claim that maintaining a Covid safe work environment “significantly” or “very significantly impacts their business.
A quarter of small businesses spend at least an hour of each day cleaning and sanitising their premises.
CEO of OnFyre, Darren Stanley, has commented: “There’s also a huge additional cost having to maintain a Covid-secure workplace. I had to employ five extra staff members at a recent event costing me an extra £250.”
Despite this, almost one third of small businesses are now trading than they were before the coronavirus outbreak.
Seema Desai, chief operating officer of Iwoca, said: “As restrictions are being eased, many small business owners are chomping at the bit to recover their full potential. It’s encouraging to see that a third are trading more than they were in pre-Covid times, and hopefully, we’ll see even more businesses recover once restrictions can be fully lifted around the UK.”
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