On safari with SMEs
If you were in the Victoria area of London on Tuesday and saw a party of 8 pacing the streets, that would have been the SME Safari.
Civil servants including the head of SME policy from Department for Business and Trade and colleagues working on Employment Rights bill, youth enterprise, and business engagement, participated in a pilot of visits to meet real-life founders. The intent of the trip was for those working on the front line of policy to meet those at the front line of enterprise; to hear first-hand from business owners on current challenges and opportunities.
With huge thanks to Cemal Ezel OBE, Matthew Truman, Andrew Macleod, and Monisha Robinson, for sparing the time to meet with us.
They each run very different businesses but three points came up consistently. These entrepreneurs want:
- Access to markets – at home and overseas
- Less friction – in day to day business dealings
- A positive environment – that provides certainty and incentives
Please meet the businesses and summary of the points they made.
Cemal Ezel is running a global social enterprise that tackles homelessness through great tasting coffee. Change Please is trading in 8 countries, has 5 self-run coffee sites, sells coffee direct, and operates through 300+ sites in partnership with large suppliers such as Lexington Catering. Cemal referred to the toughest part of the business being the coffee shops as they require manning and labour is getting more difficult and expensive. He is looking at how AI can help his business through potential deployment of robotics but believes ‘hospitality is about people.’ This is a social and serial entrepreneur who spots opportunity, having identified a UK advantage to export coffee to America in view of our lower tariffs compared to other countries, and shipping from Belfast to benefit from the Windsor Agreement. His key requests to government; encouragement of AI adoption for small firms, reduction in regulatory burden (particularly when dealing with Local Authorities), and a more positive narrative.
Matt Truman is one of the UK’s most significant funders of consumer retail with a venture capital arm, private equity offer, public equity fund and advisory business under the banner of True. Having successfully started and exited two businesses himself, Matt is on a mission to accelerate retail trade but is concerned about the flow of talent from Universities, EU exports (which continue to be on hold amongst his portfolio of 70+ investments) and the cost and friction of hiring. Matt believes in the power of entrepreneurs and how they will evolve based on market conditions but feels the UK would benefit from a clear plan so capital allocations can be made with certainty and a more positive approach, plus incentives, to encourage home grown talent (and entrepreneurs from beyond our borders) to start and grow their venture in Britain.
Andrew Macleod started Emilia’s Crafted Pasta at the age of 24, his second venture after launching a poker events business when he was 17. Seeing a gap in the market to serve fresh pasta, he secured investment from a proven food & drink entrepreneur, partnered with his now head of operations, Ashik Ali, and got to work. We met in their fifth site and latest opening at 56 Victoria Street. Andrew spoke about trading conditions as pre and post 2020; pre where he felt tailwinds behind him and post, where he says ‘all we see is headwinds’ referring to rising costs and a challenging hospitality environment. We remark that despite this, the business has expanded, to which Andrew immediately replied ‘but imagine how much more we could have grown without these pressures.’ Point well made. Andrew and Ashik are looking for better visibility of upcoming changes to taxes and new rules/regs so they can better plan for the future, they would like to see more incentives for entrepreneurs (repeated theme) such as EIS/SEIS which incentivises investors but not applied to founders, and support for skills, with both Andrew and Ashik making a case for the UK to do a better job of recognising work in hospitality as a career rather than a stop-gap job.
Monisha Robinson graduated from London College of Fashion and was inspired by her dapper grandfather to start a business selling jewelled bow ties. She has since expanded her range into men’s accessories and is growing sales via PopUps and corporate gifting. Operating out of shared workspace, Monisha gives back to the business community by mentoring for the King’s Trust and being on the board of her local Chamber of Commerce. She is a strong believer in re-building craftsmanship in the UK and is after support to grow in areas from sales to production and marketing which made up her wish list for officials who, by this point in the day, had plenty to consider.
Thank you again to these amazing entrepreneurs for taking the time to share views. As per the intro, they want access to markets, less friction, and a more optimistic tone to motivate them to continue doing what they do so well which is start and grow incredible ventures. I hope we can deliver what you are after.