EOW Reflections: Passion drives success

I met a lot of small business owners this week and every time I have that privilege I come away convinced of three things: they’re passionate about what they do, they feel inadequately supported apart from by their peers, and they’d happily grow their businesses but don’t know where to start. With 5.56 million small business around the UK in all regions, sectors, at all stages there’s huge passion to be tapped into and massive potential for growth if we could just crack the ‘don’t know where to start’ bit.

Navigation is the key. The necessary support is available, although perhaps it would strain at the seams if everyone attempted to tap into it at once. From Growth Hubs and LEPs to Local Authorities and libraries, Job Centres and trade associations, membership groups and business breakfasts, accountants and bookkeepers there are people and organisations who can signpost you to angels and funders, lenders and grant makers as well as cyber security experts, AI tools, business advisers and help with contracts, payments, exports, HR, employment law, regulations. You name it. It’s out there. I’m sure you already know the problem. When small business owners have time to draw breath and consider what might help them take their business to the next level, navigating the system is overwhelming, the choices and decisions that need to be made seem impossible, and you could be paying a lot of money you can’t really afford to take out of the business only to find you’ve made the wrong choices. What on earth do you do? Where do you start?

We need to get this right because everyone will benefit if we do. Big and Medium sized businesses with their deeper pockets can afford to build in-house capability and capacity, pay consultants and specialists or hire freelancers. Smaller businesses need to be able to identify the right help and support for them and their circumstances and find it easily and locally, at the right time, for the stage their business is at. It’s not easy to ask for help. There’s too little time in a small business to do everything in 24 hours never mind the working day. You have to wear too many hats so it’s easy to miss the rules or to misinterpret them. If you have to tell your story several times before you find someone who ‘gets’ what you’re asking the easiest route is to give up your aspirations and settle for more of the same. That’s a real passion killer in business.

It’s time to pull the support systems together so that the ‘whole’ is accessible, easily navigable, holistic, affordable, trustworthy, high quality, effective and efficient, for the huge range of different needs, even at 3.30 am, rather than hard to navigate and sometimes piecemeal, siloed and of variable quality. Small businesses will benefit and so too will customers all the way up the supply chain. With the right support the passion will burn bright, strong and long.