SME Safari Edinburgh: ‘Policy can make a world of difference’

Wow. What a wonderful group of businesses and founders we met on SME Safari Edinburgh this week. As a reminder, SME Safaris are monthly visits that connect civil servants who work on SME policy and programmes, to entrepreneurs in their real-life trading setting.

Huge thanks to Christian Arno, Rupert Laing, Women’s Enterprise Scotland and Rachel Jones for taking the time to meet and thank you to officials from UK and Scottish governments for attending. Here are the key points:

• The value of light manufacturing in city centres: this was witnessed up close on an incredible visit to Shortbread House of Edinburgh where we saw handmade baking in motion. The visit emphasised the value of manufacturing units and ventures located in the heart of the city for the employment it creates and channel for self-sufficiency, keeping food production local. A concern from the founder was the prospect of higher rates imposed on warehouses, which may be intended for online platforms, but would also include this business that is already operating on tighter margins due to increased employment, energy and ingredient costs.
• Domestic skills and international talent: there were calls for closer links with skills policy and providers to educate a local workforce in trades such as manufacturing. We were told of recent job adverts for a marketing role that attracted hundreds of applicants, yet very few for being on the production line. Businesses are addressing this through attracting international talent from all over the world, yet visas are an issue. Concerns around extending visas for individuals who have started families and built careers in Scotland makes for nervous workers and employers who want the best for their team.
• Access to funding: the lunchtime roundtable discussion with members of Women’s Enterprise Scotland mainly focused on access to finance which remains low. Calls were made for funding to be directed into sectors such as care and education, where there is higher representation from female founders, plus a review of the requirement to source private funds to match public sources, and for gender disaggregated data. (Since our visit, the Budget has confirmed that the British Business Bank will make a further £100m commitment to female led firms in the next financial year.)
• Resource to combat Intellectual Property (IP) crime: a fascinating visit to SnapDragon Monitoring informed us that $500bn is the size of the annual global lost revenue due to fake goods. The team of 40 investigators at Snapdragon work every day to monitor IP infringements on behalf of individual and corporate clients. They highly rate the work of the Police IP Crime Unit and recommend greater resource for this body in light of growing online impersonation that causes economic harm to small firms.
• The power of peer support: this one comes up in every SME Safari; the degree to which founders turn to each other for help and support. One of the entrepreneurs met has been part of the same group of 8 individuals for 14 years – it has been his sounding board and counsel group.

Thank you also to Stacey Dingwall and Susan Love for taking the time to meet me and share the excellent work of FSB Scotland and ACCA Scotland, representing the needs of small business. A call with Nick Ford, FCIPS, CGMA who is Director of Procurement at the Scottish Government provided an insight into SME Procurement in Scotland where 47% of contracts go to SMEs. A more detailed post on this to follow.

The title of this week’s newsletter was spoken by Carolyn Currie MBE MCBI who leads Women’s Enterprise Scotland and the words encapsulate why we run SME Safaris. They are based on the belief that policy is better designed when policy makers are close to those for whom it’s intended.

Thank you, Edinburgh entrepreneurs. You let us into your trading spaces and beautifully presented your points. They were well heard.

Emma