Meeting the team and going for growth

On Monday I started in role as the Small Business Commissioner and set out in this post my approach to get money moving through the economy and into the hands of small firms.

Introducing the team

This week I have met the team who run the Office, located in London, Birmingham and Cardiff. They work to build a positive payment culture across the UK and support small firms who are struggling to get paid on time, whilst recognising those who follow good practice through the Fair Payment Code.

There is a casework team who deal with issues raised of late and long payment. The Fair Payment Code team assess applications to the Code and work with companies (large and small) to secure them a bronze, silver, or gold award. All this activity is promoted by a marketing and comms team who want to raise the profile of prompt payment so it becomes the accepted way of doing business and saves hours of non-productive time chasing debt.

All members of the team are working on a single mission to make life easier for small firms.

They are a committed and talented group and we know we have more to do!

Expect to see in the coming weeks; content on how to adopt e-invoicing, updates for small businesses selling on marketplaces, insight on the impact of adopting digital tools on getting paid faster, and daily shout-outs for businesses getting onto the Fair Payment Code.

Growth strategy

This week also saw the launch of not one, but two strategies. The Industrial Strategy has been a year in the making and sets out the government’s ambition to support business growth, including reference to an upcoming consultation on potential new laws to address late payment. The Trade Strategy, with its focus on export, gives entrepreneurial founders a boost with its intent to form more trade agreements, easing the way for Great British businesses to sell their products and services to the world.

This first week has shown me it’s a busy time in government when it comes to engaging with and supporting the country’s business base. In my own area of that work, I see a team that wants to back small business and we are working on your behalf to strengthen existing activity and pursue new approaches to get money and contracts flowing in your direction. More on that to follow next week!