Levelling Up

Yesterday I had the privilege to attend a roundtable briefing to No 10 to Danielle Dove, special advisor on business to the prime minister. Hosting the session was Enterprise Nation's Emma Jones. I joined fellow Enterprise Nation Local Leaders from across the UK, where I was representing my area of Surrey.

Our discussion linked to the government’s White Paper on Levelling Up. We shared our insights on topics such as access to funding, business support, people and places plus what we’re seeing from our clients as needed to be factored in to further drive business recovery to boost skills, jobs/employment and business and social prosperity.

Interestingly, regardless of regional economic strengths, opportunities and inhibitors we all shared the same core challenges and issues. We all had different but connected ideas on how to address some of those challenges and issues. It was a truly inspired conversation, demonstrating energy, a desire to improve and a growth mindset. Didn’t expect that after just one hour between us we’d shaped a vibrant set of directions for policy or initiative review.?

No doubt much will take continued collaborative discussions, and I hope that on this all business support and membership organisations can once again come together as a collective voice to support the government shape necessary legislation and schemes.

Amongst the broad discussion, my comments referenced 3 key points:

1. Access to funding / business support including investment. Cash flow is often cited as a reason for business failure, business growth restriction or impeding swift business recovery. What if financial management & planning and the full range of funding options available across the public and private sector was made easy and accessible? Maybe this could increase business success rates and aid social prosperity.
2. Lack of People (in the business or in the supply chain) can impact loss of reputation, brand value, customer loyalty, sales and ultimately the bottom line. What if we could bring segments of society who have been displaced from or excluded from employment back into the world of work through fairer recruitment, better leverage of apprenticeships and student placements year in business and extend the kickstarter program? Think segments such as neurodiversity, BAME, youth, women (*menopause), care givers, redundancy, retirees – many lacking employability confidence or feel that the world of work doesn’t work for them. Maybe this could deliver truly diverse & inclusive recruitment resulting in reduced unemployment, increased productivity and social mobility and ultimately strong economic growth.??
3. Access to business support including talent & skills development. Gaps in knowledge in house for key specialisms needed to support business growth at different business life event stages can hinder growth. What if we could improve the Help to Grow program allowing sub 5 employee size businesses to participate and on shorter course durations and better leverage the business support community in a fair way compensating them for consultancy and services delivery? Maybe this could up-skill a broader set of businesses and generate income for those involved in supporting those businesses, and increase jobs and?boost economic growth.

Just some ideas.

I thank all my peers for their straight talking and thoughtful contributions – it was hugely insightful as a business owner and as a champion for SMEs. So inspiring that I hope we can collectively start to influence those we connect with to find ways to implement some of the suggested direction straight away.

On the call with me were:

Dan Martin (thanks to Dan for inspiring me to write this article!), Joanna Drinkwater, Heidi Cooke, Samantha Oakley, Fin Wycherley, Emma Goode, Paul Clayton, Stuart Allen, Owen Harding, Paul Shaw, Mark Harris, and Leisa Pickles.

I look forward to discussing this topic on this month’s free monthly Small Business Meet-up for Surrey that I’m hosting for Enterprise Nation on 25th April. To register to attend: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-local-meet-up-surrey-tickets-314520036897

#sme #smallbusiness #supportsmallbusiness #business #entrepreneurship #Surrey #Surreybusiness #levellingupwhitepaper #levellingup #buildbackbetter #sustainablebusiness #responsiblebusiness #worldofwork

?