'The truly early-stage founders are underrepresented. Policy conversations skew towards larger SMEs and companies with over £10m turnover'

Do small businesses really care about lofty stuff like the Small Business Strategy, is what we asked two of our members earlier this week. We got a resounding YES.

That's what she said 

Jill Poet, co-founder and CEO of the Organisation for Responsible Businesses said the economic contribution of small businesses is largely overlooked – and so is kindness and environmental responsibility.  

She said:

“Many of these solo businesses choose a collaborative approach, working with a collective of similarly tiny businesses to provide a broad range of services. This is a business model that is becoming increasingly popular, yet their successes and economic contributions are completely undervalued.” 

She said she wanted to see a ‘comprehensive overview’ of the current approach to business support and the suitability of those planning and delivering these programmes. 

She also suggested that an ESG (environmental, social, governance) approach should be embedded into all training and support programmes in a holistic approach. 

She said:

“All trainers should show a good understanding of this way of doing business rather than being ‘old school’ profit at all cost consultants.  

“Small steps should be encouraged, supported and celebrated to develop a business model and mindset that understands caring about people and the environment. In the long run this will help businesses reduce overheads, improve reputations, gain competitive advantages to win more business and increase profits for the longer term, while simultaneously reducing environmental impacts and supporting the local community.” 

That's what he said

London-based adviser Paul Grant, founder of The Funding Game, agrees there needs to be a more robust understanding of the contribution small firms make to the economy and how they operate.

He said:

“Right now, policy conversations tend to skew toward larger SMEs, companies with over £10 million turnover. The truly early-stage founders are underrepresented. 

“We need a dedicated council or advisory board made up of real grassroots or early-stage entrepreneurs, people who’ve built something from scratch and have achieved some level of success, people who know what it’s like to struggle with bootstrapping and fundraising. It would also be movers and shakers in the industry who really understand the problems that these businesses are going through.” 

Interestingly, he also wanted to see the government actively tracking things like the percentage of start-ups successfully raising funding at each stage (pre-seed, seed, Series A, etc) and benchmarking it against ecosystems like the US or top-performing European countries.

He also wanted to see a national start-up funding index that could be as simple as recording the total early-stage investment divided by the number of active start-ups.   

You can read more about Paul’s ideas in this interview with Enterprise Nation's Amanda Peters.

Relevant resources

• Ideas shared by Enterprise Nation members for the government's new small business strategy

• Six straightforward things small businesses want to see in the government’s Small Business Strategy