Time to put my head above the parapet here maybe...
We don't - or shouldn't! - need this loan to get through the Covid situation. But we are applying for it anyway.
We have certainly needed the 10k grant, but we have only had to eat into a little of that so far, although frankly my concern is not that we should need it now but more when we fully re-open, I do not expect business to get to the level that it was anytime soon andwe take staff on furlough i expect to rely on the grant to get through the next period. Anyway, that's by the by..
Getting the bounceback loan for me is
Worst Case - Things take a lot longer to recover than anticipated and this money is there for us to lean on in 9, 12 or x months time.
'Neither here nor there case' - We repay the loan in 12 months if we decide not to push on with the next stage of our business and it's been a free insurance policy.
Best Case - We have a fully costed out plan for the next stage of our business to allow us to scale up production. The only thing we hadn't resolved was how to finance it! And this would finance it for us. If business resumes to a sustainable level then this money could put that next stage into practice. It would mean splashing out a big chunk of money (for us - relatively to the rest of the economy it's nothing!) as well as taking on a new business premises, paying additional rates, and employing 2 more full time members of staff as well as potentially increasing the hours of existing staff.
Assuming we get the loan, I'm not sure if I should feel guilty about taking something that we might not need or use, or indeed for being 'gifted' finance for the next stage of our business on a plate. But in fact, would we not be doing exactly what the government wants? As someone mentioned is it just a thinly veiled method of QE and exactly what they do want to happen is businesses to have a glut of low cost money that they pump right back into the economy and into expansion/improvement plans..?