Supporting Growth Businesses at The Scale-Up Summit

As someone who started and grew a business, I know what it means to have to do everything and anything to get a business off the ground. You experience the highs, the lows and no small number of frustrations along the way. But at some point, you’ll reach a point where the potential for further growth is limited. It could be any one of many things could be holding you back - time, finance, being ‘too involved’ in the day to day, staffing challenges, cash-flow, finding new customers and markets, limited marketing, or having to navigate ever changing conditions and trends.

But there’s a way through and beyond all of this; and it’s scaling-up. So that’s why the Mayor of London and LEAP teamed up with the British Library’s Business and IP Centre to host the first ever Scale-up Summit. The event was just one part of the work we are doing to support London’s growth businesses through the London Growth Hub.

The event was a fantastic opportunity to hear from some great household names and brands such as Paul Lindley (founder of Ella's Kitchen), Julie Deane OBE (founder of The Cambridge Satchel Company) and Will Butler-Adams OBE (CEO of Brompton Bikes) just to name a few. Their stories and honest advice to the bold and ambitious London entrepreneurs in the audience was warmly received. And I felt privileged to be invited to close the event, during which I outlined City Hall’s ambitious plans to support small and growing businesses.

A key part of these plans is to ensure that Londoners can access the support they need to start or grow their business. We are helping them do this through the London Growth Hub, which brings together the capital's vast business support offer into a single online resource at www.growthhub.london. As well as the online portal, the London Growth Hub is providing other face-to-face support to businesses looking to grow. This includes some one-to-one support, masterclasses and big events like the Scale-up Summit.

The Scale-up Summit was a great opportunity to meet some really exciting growth businesses and over lunch we held a roundtable discussion to outline our plans to support growth business. We want to continue that dialogue and ensure our plans are informed by your ideas, so if you want to take part email the Growth Hub team ([email protected]) to register your interest in attending future discussions.

Watch Brompton Bike’s CEO Will Butler-Adams OBE talk to the London growth Hub about why Brompton loves London: