What happened when Enterprise Nation members went to 10 Downing Street

This week we resumed monthly visits to 10 Downing Street to meet the prime minister's business adviser, Jimmy McLoughlin, and offer Enterprise Nation members an opportunity to air views on the UK enterprise environment. They didn't take much cajoling to speak!

Enterprise Nation's community membership manager Sophie Arnold attended the meeting and reports on what happened.

Enterprise Nation members selling everything from social media training to hot chocolate, baby work-out gear and accountancy services joined the session which covered a variety of topics.

The members who attended were:

• June Angelides, Mums in Tech

• Vern Hill, Carifit

• Stephanie Onwunali, What Next Coach?

• Denise Rawls, The Hackney Hive

• Darryl Bannon, Darryl Bannon Consulting

• Brian Watt, Hans Sloane London

• Paul Durrant, PDT Sales Consultancy

• Dan Mclaughlin, Smart Pensions

• Adam Jacobs, Bloom

• Caroline Syson, Pocket PA

• Krupa Suthar, Insights That Shine

• Kriss Baird, Lean Business UK

• Suren Siva, Zebra Crowd and Graduate Freelancers

• Clive Brazier, The Food Agency

• Simon Kallu, SRK Accounting

• Amber Atherton, Zyper

• Natasha Courtenay-Smith, Bolt Digital

Entrepreneurship education and skills

This was one of the biggest talking points. Kriss Baird pointed out the lack of entrepreneurship training in formal education and that there are many options available to learn crafts but not to learn how to turn those crafts into a business.

Amber Atherton built on this further by suggesting that entrepreneurship be built into the national curriculum.

Training for entrepreneurs

Krupa Suthar brought up the importance of ongoing training for entrepreneurs and suggested a skill swap scheme which allows entrepreneurs to provide pro-bono work for good causes in return for training subsidies.

June Angelides added that large corporates could make places available on their existing internal schemes for worthy entrepreneurs.

Natasha Courtney-Smith, an accredited Facebook trainer on the She Means Business programme welcomed the work of large corporates such as Facebook and Amazon who have built platforms to hugely enable enterprise and are now fulfilling an obligation to train people on how to use the platforms!

Paul Durrant pointed out that the government has a similar responsibility around the introduction of the new GDPR regulations.

Generation connect

Another popular concept was skill swapping across generations.

Stephanie Onwunali, a coach working with young professionals, outlined that different generations need distinct kinds of support.

For example, the younger generation are more IT and social media literate but may need more support on the soft skills the older generation excel at.

Daryll Bannon put forward the suggestion of a scheme which paired an experienced older person with younger entrepreneurs.

Trade and SME procurement

Denise Rawls raised the emerging opportunities for SMEs in the African market and how the government might be able to support this.

Vern Hill pointed out how difficult it can be for SMEs to become recommended partners to large government institutions such as the NHS, suggesting a database and accreditation scheme which would allow GPs to recommend with confidence.

Taken together, this was a group of entrepreneurs that are as keen to see the next generation thrive, as they are to develop their own skills.

Many of the suggestions and recommendations made would be well suited to the private sector, with government purely playing the role of facilitator and enabler. Watch this space!

Wow! What a day! Thank you .@e_nation & .@emmaljones for our trip to #number10 to discuss how the government can support startups. pic.twitter.com/3j08a31WVR

— Krupa Suthar (@Krupa_ITS) July 20, 2017

Had an uplifting morning in Downing Street. It's good that government's listening to small business. Thanks, Emma, Sophie and @e_nation too. pic.twitter.com/3uokRQcwZN

— Paul Durrant (@pauldurrant12) July 20, 2017

Big thanks to @e_nation for inviting a range of business owners to contribute ideas to support #SME #Entrepreneurs @beisgovuk #worktogether pic.twitter.com/INzq1UcVsr

— Darryl Bannon (@darrylbeth) July 20, 2017

Had a lovely morning with this lot talking entrepreneurship at the big 10@e_nation pic.twitter.com/Yksfuv0xWJ

— Denise Rawls (@Denise_Rawls) July 20, 2017

.@smartpensionuk huge thx @jimmym @Number10gov @emmaljones @e_nation and all the businesses for a top discussion on #SME growth pic.twitter.com/or0gGybr8Z

— Dan McLaughlin (@Dan2Mac) July 20, 2017

Thanks @e_nation for giving our group and I chance to voice opinions to gov on #entrepreneurship @beisgovuk @Number10press #larrythecat pic.twitter.com/PZ9wAVBvZi

— Kriss Baird (@krissbaird) July 20, 2017

Oh! And we met the famous @Number10cat sound asleep despite our excitement haha

Cc: @e_nation pic.twitter.com/qmcqZ1x0LE

— Steph Onwunali (@WhatNextSteph) July 20, 2017

What a treat to see @margot_james_mp at the door of this small business session! pic.twitter.com/17J8j94ESn

— Emma Jones (@emmaljones) July 20, 2017