Hayley Parker and Richard Neale always envisaged the launch of their business Ops-Box Group Ltd this month (April) to involve plenty of face-to-face meetings.

With the nation now on coronavirus lockdown that is not going to happen - but in many ways the timing could not be better, especially for those firms reeling as a result of the pandemic.

While this is a time of crisis for many companies for all the obvious reasons Ops-Box Group Ltd - actually founded in February this year - is a specialist in helping firms plan and grow.

As Mr Neale joking said in his correspondence with Punchline, to launch a new business now might smack a little of madness on their part, but if ever firms needed assistance it is right now - and not surprisingly Ops-Box Group is focusing on helping those currently most at need.

"Our customers are SME businesses based predominantly in Gloucestershire. There are no sector specifics, our services will resonate mainly with businesses who have one or two directors, possibly family businesses, entities that have no sounding board within their existing management structure," said Mr Neale, 55, who has provided banking relationship director roles to many Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire based SMEs.

"We envisage these to be say £1-5 million turnover size where they are too small for personalised offerings from their financial services partners, and need direction with their plans, along with assistance in operating those plans to assist their growth.

"Temporarily, given the current situation, we are focusing on our proven ability to write plans and prepare cashflows etc to support lending applications."

He added: "Hayley and I are constantly reflecting on how we can bring value and support to our clients, and only in conversation this morning we have decided to provide some targeted focus on helping businesses plan for the recovery (whenever that is), by using possible available time now to help business owners take a detailed look into their business, with a view to drawing up a three stage plan for recovery - essentially worst case, realistic, and best case.

"This would look at things financially as well as operationally. We firmly believe that businesses who use this "down" time wisely to plan, scrutinise and take action within their businesses as they will be the winners as and when normal/favourable conditions return.

"To that end we are offering financial inducements to interested clients who wish to embark on this strategy.

"Typically, at this time, we will offer either a 20 per cent discount off our usual fee, or a deferred payment structure where fees could be paid later.

"We take the view that this is getting support out to where it is needed with financial incentives which mirror some of the financial aid programmes that are currently available."

His business partner, fellow director and shareholder, Ms Parker, 38, is the founder for the firm.

She left Lloyds in 2013 having worked with SMEs throughout her career and carried on working in the UK and overseas with global firms such as Capita, Vertex and the Education Development Trust providing operational planning, project work, and interim management.

"At the moment we are just starting our launch phase. Ideally this would have generated many face-to-face meetings with trusted professionals and advocates of us personally. This is now taking place by video calls and will be supported by the launch of the website," said Ms Parker.

"Practically we appreciate that there are many blockers to the implementation of government backed lending products at present and as a result Ops-Box is targeting our immediate messaging to those that need support in preparing their lending application and working with businesses to support them with contingency planning for now and the future."

Mr Neale added: "We can write plans, prepare cashflows etc to provide a stronger application for financial support.

"If necessary, we can assist with sourcing lending too. Long term we hope that from this initial engagement we can provide our other support services as businesses hopefully exit from this current situation and begin to build for the future, where we see a support model being integral to business success."

Ops-Box describes itself as a fully flexible business support services to help clients work better, more efficiently and grow profitably.

It can offer support lending applications with plans and forecasts and can source lending solutions too.

It considers its USP that the two directors have 50 years' experience working in the SME space with such clients, having spent the bulk of our careers in senior relationship positions at Lloyds Bank, yet we have also both worked in external SME positions.

To find out more visit Ops-Box Group Ltd, telephone 07759 407064 or 07432 557966, or email enquiries@ops-boxgroup.com.