EOW Reflections: The UK’s Superpower

As I looked around the room on Wednesday evening at the Elite 100 Business Awards I saw a tiny fraction of them. The small business owners and founders, the entrepreneurs that are the UK’s superpower. There are 5.6 million entrepreneurial superstars in the UK who provide half of private sector employment, half of growth and three quarters of innovation.

I have been in the role of Small Business Commissioner for almost 4 years now. My term is up at the end of June as I’ve said before and I’ve learned a lot. I knew before taking on this role that small businesses are the backbone, lifeblood, crucial to the UK economy. However you want to put it, we’re vital. I have run my own business or been freelance most of my working life and worked with small businesses most of that time. I thought I had pretty much nailed how important the sector is to the UK Economy, but 4 years on I know better.

We are individually a tiny droplet that rolls down the window in the storm. Together we are the wet weather system that keeps the country watered and green and blooming. The problem is that Government for all the ‘backbone of the economy’ mantra hasn’t always understood that or acted on it.

Most Ministers and Civil Servants haven’t run businesses. You find the odd one who has but in the main the people making the policy haven’t run a business and have no idea what it entails. There are 7,000 big businesses in the UK and most of the people working in those haven’t run their own business either. We lack understanding of the importance of small businesses because we lack the lived experience. We can’t fully understand what we have never lived through

I’ve been trying to change that over the past 4 years. And I think the current Government is getting it. A new business Board of Trade was set up this week and I’m really pleased to see it will have small businesses on it.

We need to make sure this move to include the voice of small business continues. We need you out there telling the story. It started in the room with the awards on Wednesday evening. People talked about what it takes to run a business, win an award, get through challenges and thrive. We need to tell the rest of the UK why businesses win awards, including the recent first raft of Fair Payment Code Awards. Tell the story of what they’re for, how much hard work they take to achieve, who benefits from the work those businesses do, and why those owners and founders, the entrepreneurs get out of bed in the morning.

Post on social media, get your local press and media interested, sharpen your elbows and get a speaking slot at local networking groups and council meetings. Shout it from the rooftops. Tell your story and how that is part of the story of the superpower of the UK. It’s not just about your contribution to the economy but about your contribution to your communities, local areas and wider society.

Your social value add is just as important, the charity hours, the football pitches, the employee time off to get involved, the job creation and apprenticeships. Learn to tell your compelling story. It’s the most important contribution you can make beyond the ones you already do and it’s the story of the UK’s superpower and it’s where the answer to the UK’s recovery of productivity and growth sits.

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