EOW Reflections 30/06/2023

I admit that I’m not great at using social media. However, that could change after a message yesterday from a man who had been at the UK Finance Conference on Wednesday. Thank you. Due to you, I know we’re having an impact. Sometimes we’re so caught up in counting figures that we miss the other impacts. He was particularly taken by what I said about the use of the phrase SME.

I firmly believe that it’s not serving businesses, particularly micro and small businesses, well because they’re being lumped together with medium-sized enterprises which are very different in structure, business model, capacity, resourcing. The needs of the smaller 5.6 million businesses (freelancers, sole traders, micro as well as small) in the UK are very different from the 36,500 mediums with up to 250 employees and the 7,700 large companies with 250+. As Ian Cass of the Micro Business Alliance has said for years, a small business isn’t just a big business only smaller. Needs vary with size, stage the business is at (starting up, scaling-up etc), the sector and region, the person leading the firm.

We need more women, disabled, ethnic-minority and neuro-minority led businesses, but each has their own needs for support and information, never mind funding, processes and payments. These are the businesses responsible for half of growth, half of employment and three quarters of innovation. We lump them together and allowing ourselves to think that one size fits all. Thanks to my new contact on social media for taking that on board. Just help me get the message out.