Tech volunteers fight to save small businesses in Covid struggle

The website – savemylocal.org – allows smaller businesses to sell vouchers for future purchases to their loyal customers.

There are about 5.8 million small businesses in the UK, which account for 60 per cent of employment and half the turnover of the UK private sector.

But millions of small businesses operate with minimal cash reserves. A report from JP Morgan suggests that small businesses in the US only have enough cash to survive for 27 days. A research project by the University of Sheffield suggests that UK businesses have even less time.

The website, which was built in under a week, enables small businesses to easily sell vouchers to their loyal customer base to generate the cash they need to survive during this difficult time. The vouchers will be redeemable when the lockdown is over.

It is hoped that this approach will prevent millions of small businesses across the country from collapsing due to short term cash flow problems.

The group is currently recruiting small businesses to test this free voucher platform and if successful can scale to meet demand. They have already had requests for collaboration from groups in Australia, Israel and other countries to see if the solution can be shared more broadly.

Volunteer Matthew Greenfield, who has friends and family in Shrewsbury, wants to reach out to businesses in Shropshire to try out the website.

He said: "There are a lot of forecasts around about the impacts of the coronavirus, and in particular about the lack of help some smaller businesses are getting and could go under.

"We care about these businesses and we wanted to do something to help then stay afloat.

"Smaller businesses keep communities alive and these are the businesses people will be sprinting to when the lockdown is over.

"We have already raised £1,000 for one business and we know consumer demand is there.

"I have reached out to local business ambassadors and council members to help spread the word of the website."