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Here we are In August 2020, the Lockdown was placed around 23rd March 2020 and for all the bars, night-clubs, bowling alley’s, restaurants and the like it has been the most miserable time ever.

I have spoken to owners and operators who have been close to tears having placed 100’s thousands GBP plus untold hours which have been lost track of! There is now no sign of an end to this as COVID-19 continues to cause chaos, with venues planning to open only to be told the day before NO!

After working in this industry for over 30 years and only selling in 2018 I feel for these operators and owners, I feel the pain for the staff involved all of who treat this industry as more than a ‘Job’, you have to have a special skill set to be an owner/Manager, work a busy venue as security or sales staff it takes a certain skill!, A perseverance, empathy the ability to listen and not judge.

I have said for a while, (Since April) that the entire industry needs to be ‘reset’, that includes Landlord Rent, Business rates, IF this doesn’t happen you will never catch up, you will be worried about ever-mounting debts that due to restrictions – the venue cannot possibly catch up!

Now Mayor Andy Burnham has said, “There is a growing amount of evidence that pubs are one of the main places where this virus spreads.” He further states  “You can’t safely open schools with pubs open as well, with that level of performance.” in relation to Track and Trace – You can clearly see that the ‘BLAME the bars’ rhetoric is starting to build. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-53714874

WHAT CAN YOU DO AS AN OWNER /OPERATOR

You HAVE to follow the guidelines, no matter how you feel about them whether it’s ‘Social distancing’, ‘Track and Trace’, ‘Table service App’ IF it’s in the rules/guidelines you leave yourself wide open for further kicks in the (You know where) if you don’t!

I have spoken to numerous venues and operators and listened to the reasons they don’t believe they ‘need’ to follow the ‘Guidelines’, from ‘lack of interaction with customers and staff’, ‘The are only guidelines’, ‘our customers are only young and less vulnerable’ This will NOT work when the crap hits the fan and they trace an outbreak back to your venue!! They will be on you like a ton of bricks and you will be closed!

HSADD Ltd has three products to help venues stay compliant

MYSMARTBAR provides a Table service developed specifically to help Bars, restaurants, takeaways and venues get back on their feet by charging only 1p per order and £99 setup fee. This includes Track & Trace built-in.

ISITCHECKED Provides a real-time checklist which can be adapted to any scenario and can be used for Track & Trace independently, this keeps a full record of all the things you are doing to remain compliant. When EHO or the Police call there is nothing better than full digital records to defend your venue.

Compliance Management – This is a fully integrated cloud-based Health & Safety package that covers staff training through to Fire risk assessment and maintenance records.

The last word, I have over 30 years at running a busy and ‘difficult’ venue in Liverpool City Centre, there is little that I have not had experience with, dealt with, resolved over that time, IF I can help I will, the call and my time will not cost you a penny – but could save you thousands!

MySmartBar has launched with great enthusiasm and is the ONLY 1p per order App in the UK, which has been built to help businesses trade safely and at a reasonable price for venues that have suffered through COVID

• FREE APP
• PRODUCTS MENU(s) uploaded for you
• EASY FREE BACK OFFICE ADMINISTRATION
• SIMPLE 1P PER ORDER FEE

MONDAY 27TH JULY 2020 09.00 AM – Now stop paying excessive fees to other Table order App services! 1p PER ORDER!

• Quick and easy setup one-off fee £99
• Low 1p (yes one penny) per order
• Monthly direct debit billing
• No Contract tie in
• Free customer App
• Venue full admin system, (change your menu, manage staff)
• Minimises staff customer contact
• Multiple staff using the same time
• Improves sales flow and time
• New features coming soon

• Quick and easy setup one-off fee £99
• Low 1p (yes one penny) per order
• Monthly direct debit billing
• No Contract tie in
• Free customer App
• Venue full admin system, (change your menu, manage staff)
• Minimises staff customer contact
• Multiple staff using the same time
• Improves sales flow and time
• New features coming soon

New 1p per order App to be a lifesaver for small bars and restaurants

Are you an SME bar, a restaurant that does not have your own order App like maybe the larger venues have?

Now you can have the full benefit of an App that your customer can order from. They can browse from your full menu and drinks and order directly from their table. Orders then appear on a screen at your POS ready for the staff to collect the payment and deliver the order – however, you want to.

• QUICK AND EASY SETUP ONE-OFF FEE £99
• LOW 1p (YES ONE PENNY) PER ORDER
• MONTHLY DIRECT DEBIT BILLING
• NO CONTRACT TIE IN
• FREE CUSTOMER APP
• VENUE FULL ADMIN SYSTEM, (change your menu, manage staff)
• MINIMISES STAFF CUSTOMER CONTACT
• MULTIPLE STAFF USING SAME TIME
• IMPROVES SALES FLOW AND TIME
• NEW FEATURES COMING VERY SOON

Unlike some App interfaces that charge you 15 to 30% of order value, we don’t, we want to help venues get open and get selling within the guidelines of Corvid-19 rules, this system reduces the time the customer and staff are together discussing the order, what offers etc

HOW DO I SIGN UP?

This system is designed from the ground up to make everything as easy for the venues as possible.

1. Go to https://mysmartbar.co.uk
2. Register interest MY SMART BAR
3. FULL ACCOUNT SETUP AVAILABLE SHORTLY

TO SETUP YOUR FULL ACCOUNT YOU WILL NEED

1. Your bank details for the direct debit mandate
2. Your logo to display with the App
3. A PDF or photograph(s) of your menu
4. Card payment details to pay for setup

Do the customers pay through the App?

Not yet but that feature will be available as an option very soon, the customer pays you directly by whichever method you use, cash, contactless, card

Does it really cost just 1 penny per order?

YES – we charge 1 penny per order, NOT a % of the order, it doesn’t matter to us whether the order is for £1.00 or £100.00 you pay the Penny.

Do I have to pay by Direct Debit?

Yes, this is the only way we can keep the prices down, monthly you will receive an invoice for the 1p per order, this will be collected from your bank around 10-12 days later.

I have several staff, how do they manage the orders?

To keep the costs low for you then we provide the software and service, you provide your own internet connected device, whether that is Ipad or other tablets, Chrome book or laptop that is your choice. The orders will come up on the system, each signed in bar staff can accept the order, take the payment, serve the order, mark the order completed. The more staff you have the more devices you have will improve your throughput of sales and therefore increase turnover

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST CLICK BELOW

Staff who are dealing with your customers should be carrying out hygiene, hand washing, alcohol gel, facemasks etc – but as a business owner how can you monitor this, perhaps at multiple site.

Even at one site, you may ask your staff to wash their hands on a regular basis, even if you stated every 30 minutes you know full well that within a few weeks or even days, that will slip to 45 minutes, then one hour then 2-3 hours – maybe!!

Four simple steps with ISITCHECKED free App, once this is set up a hand wash record can be saved, contactless, paperless and recorded in real-time, accessed from anywhere in the world – IF the staff hygiene is slipping you will be aware immediately.

Record produced includes automatic time/date/GPS stamp

Night Clubs, Bars, Pubs, Restaurants are the highest rental values in the UK, surely this cannot continue?

When clubs, particularly the city centre bars and clubs that are mainly standing venues relying upon the throughput of customers come out of Corvid-19 restrictions they will be operating on a much-reduced capacity, service times, volumes and all of which reflect on profit.

Rents have always been calculated by the landlords’ dependant upon the use of the premises. A simple way of looking at it is that if you had a corner shop with 300 SqFt then you may pay a rent of £2-3,000.00 PA, Business rates would be pro-rata.

Take the same general area and 300 SqFt fully licensed late night bar then you may pay as much as 10 times the rental value dependent upon the area and footfall. The point is that the Landlord is fully aware that the nightclub and bars have a much greater turnover/profit therefore they want their ‘share’!

With the event of Corvid-19 and the closure of bars and clubs and now as we come through this hospitality disaster if you own a bar or nightclub the likelihood is that when you get open you are only looking at around 20% of capacity and turnover due to the likely discussed restrictions on distancing is still in place.

I do not believe that Landlords can still command the same rent as they have prior to Corvid, it is not feasible or even practical for any venue to consider paying such large TEN FOLD rent values for a nightclub any longer – or at least until normality returns and actual turnover increases. They would not get that value of rent for a corner shop or other normal retail site, as the turnover would not permit it.

So Landlords, IF you don’t want to have thousands of empty premises on your books you really need to consider the huge drop that venues have already suffered through no fault of their own and the realistic profits that these venues can generate in the future, at least for the next 2-3 years!

The VOA will also need to readdress the Business rates model that they use, the SqFt business rates are the highest of all rates – again based on previous turnover and profits and the councils wanting their share – IT IS NO LONGER FEASIBLE!

WHY DO I NEED TO DO ANYTHING DIFFERENT?

The world has changed and the old rules and regulations have been totally altered, you never had to worry about people standing too close to each other or your staff – now you do.

Lots of reopening businesses are having to adopt ‘social distancing’ of 2 metres (6 feet in old money). You have to make sure that the staff are protected, perhaps with suitable PPE (this has to be risk assessed and be suitable). How are you dealing with cleaning? in the past the occasional wipe down of the tables was sufficient, hand washing glasses was sufficient, will this still sterilise the surfaces?

Staff training will have to be completed with social distancing and IF you still use paper you need to consider that Corvid-19 has been shown to stay active on surfaces for 2-3 days! Who handles that paper? How many people handled the paper before and after?

HSADD has two Cloud platforms that reduce paper handling and training to ‘paper-free’. Compliance Management to provide full compliance with your business, H&S Policy, Rish assessments, PPE assessments, remote training for staff and lots more included. ONE Module includes everything so fixed easy costs.

ISITCHECKED provides one of the best paperless checklist systems, this is contactless, worldwide, time and date stamps, GPS stamped, insurance approved, approved for controlled drug storage by VMD

THOROUGH AND ACCURATE RECORD KEEPING WILL BE VITAL TO REDUCE YOUR LIABILITY AND INSURANCE COSTS MOVING FORWARD – HSADD’s systems provide that and are ready to deploy rapidly.

HSE Has received 4,500 complaints already and lots of businesses have not even opened yet!

More than 4,500 complaints have been made to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) since the first UK case of coronavirus was confirmed, it has been revealed.

Last month the HSE issued a warning to employers that it would hand out enforcement notices to those who do not comply with the two-metre social distancing rule in workplaces that remain open during the outbreak.

The workplace safety regulator said it was now working through the reports, received since March, with a ‘range of actions’.

Yesterday in the House of Commons Andy McDonald, shadow secretary of state for employment rights, asked an urgent question on guidelines for workplace safety after the lifting of the lockdown. (credit Iosh Magazine https://www.ioshmagazine.com/2020/05/07/uk-regulator-receives-more-4500-covid-19-complaints)

If you require any further information or a free trial of our ISITCHECKED system please contact us using the buttons below.

Whether it is the NHS or facilities Management, home care for the elderly or infirmed or care homes, everyone at some point have checklists that they complete, this is normally on paper – not counting clinical notes.

The variety is vast, from simple toilet checks, floor cleaning records, open and closing records, vehicle and equipment checks, fridge temperature checks for medical storage fridges or food storage.

Every piece of paper can pass between seven people and hold Corvid-19 virus for up to 3 days

The paper checklists are not only holding untold virus and bacterial content rendering them a good transported for infection, but they are also technically worthless to defend any claim for litigation against your business.

The entries are more often wrong, the times are never accurate, the person who has completed the check cannot often be identified, IF they are missed the Management do not know the checks haven’t been completed until many days even after they should have been!

The checklist can be replaced with a simple QR code attached to the wall outside the facility, whether it’s toilets, fridges, car park, corridors, lifts in fact anything or anywhere you need a checklist completing.

The QR code is then scanned by a mobile phone or any internet-connected device, like a small tablet, once scanned then the report is available on the device, it is completed and submitted. The report is then available 0.75 seconds later from anywhere in the world (see our short video)

As you start to reopen your businesses, things like social distancing, hand washing, temperature checks, alcohol gel placements are all going to have to be checked and recorded, IF you don’t keep good records this may make you liable to claims from both staff and customers alike.

Why not make it as easy as possible to keep these records?

ISITCHECKED can do all this for you and store the records in our cloud-based system.

• ZERO cross-contamination between people
• ZERO paper handling
• Eliminating up to seven people handling a piece of paper
• ZERO Paper buying, printing or storage costs
• Instant access to multiple report formats and export to PDF
• Automatic Time, date and GPS stamp
• Fast, almost instant change or add to checklists remotely

Do you expect that you will just flip a switch to turn the lights on and start working as you did on 22nd March 2020?

You could not be further from the truth and here at HSADD we have been looking deeper into the things that you may have to do different, not only to prevent cross-contamination but under Insurance warranties, H.S.E requirements and any ‘New’ Corvid laws that may come in.

Not taking into account of any ‘social distancing rules’, which could place capacity values to 1 person per 4m2 – how can you even have a conversation with someone 2 metres away with music playing? It’s just not practical, it’s positively ‘Un-sociable’ under the normal ‘having a night out’ situation.

It comes as the Trade Unions Congress (TUC) has urged businesses desperate to resume trading to take caution.

It is calling for “tough new measures” to ensure that all employers carry out a risk assessment before lockdown measures are lifted and staff return to work.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady told the BBC’s Today programme: “Everybody wants people to get back to work safely so that we can get the economy back on its feet”.

“But workers have to know and be confident, that their health and safety is being put first. Otherwise, we’re going to see this virus spread again and we’ll be back to square one.” (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52438693)

Having spoken to Insurance Companies, who may have to pay out over £1.2 BILLION! The insurance Companies will need to re balance the books and that can only come from the customer in increased premiums, increased claim excesses and less flexibility with claims.!

Stricter Insurance terms are more than likely

The enforcement of T&C’s is likely to be ruthless, making sure that your staff are fully trained, that records are kept to high standards will all be examined by Claims Departments looking to reduce the payout, use your excess or at worse reject the claim back to you because you are in breach the T&C’s!

Don’t wait until you only have a couple of weeks notice to get up and running, advanced preparation and putting in place your H&S, staff training, record-keeping systems, like ISITCHECKED paperless and contact-less checklist system to remove possible viral transfer, are an absolute must AND they can be prepared well in advance! You will have enough to do to get open and dealing with this element now is one job less to deal with.

Whether it’s staff training, Health & Safety Policy, real-time checklists, Fire Risk assessments, HSADD Ltd has a digital cloud-based solution for you, which includes contactless checklists and staff training reducing transfer contamination risk.