Why Isn’t The UK Government Doing More To Encourage Micro Businesses?

The UK is about to exit the EU. The expected result is that the UK will lose some jobs, particularly in banking, as banks look to move EU operations out of the City. Some, like HSBC, have already said that jobs will likely be moved to the continent.

The expected losses are not really known yet, but the cost of leaving the EU could mean that up to 500,000 jobs in the UK could disappear.

While it is unfortunate that this could happen, it is an opportunity for the UK. Entrepreneurship could be set to rise, and for example, people could start micro businesses that trade internationally.

The problem is, the UK Government does little to encourage them.

Affiliate Marketers

One of the best micro business structures that the UK Government could encourage, is the affiliate marketer. These people advertise products sold by a merchant and collect a commission for the sales.

Many affiliate marketing companies don’t have staff but are one person working from home. The best affiliate marketers can make six figures, but even the average can earn enough to make a good living.

There are also several advantages for people setting-up an affiliate marketing business. These include:

• Low set-up and running costs.
• Flexible working conditions (allows business to be set-up and run while the owner continues to work or maintain other responsibilities).
• Tax treaties allow for affiliate marketers to earn money outside of the UK and pay their taxes to the HMRC.

To make a good living, an affiliate marketer needs to have the right mindset and skills. This is where the UK Government fails. While it offers business training opportunities and startup loans, these are specifically geared towards bigger businesses; those that could grow to include staff, premises, etc.

Instead, micro businesses seem to be discouraged. Either the UK Government doesn’t see the contribution micro businesses could potential provide the nation or they don’t understand them.

Slight Adaptations Of The Affiliate Marketing Business

Another important thing to consider is that affiliate marketing model could be slightly amended so that those unsure about selling goods for other people could use other revenue models. These include advertisement space on blogs or websites, and membership sites where people sell information to subscribers.

While these aren’t affiliate marketing businesses, they have similar benefits, disadvantages, costs, and maintenance. Yet the UK Government again doesn’t seem to offer support in setting these up either.

The Challenges For Micro Businesses

The main problem is that while affiliate marketers can make a living from their work, it can only be done with the right skills. My opinion is that the UK Government doesn’t understand the unique skills required for affiliate marketing and therefore, hasn’t created a business support system for this niche.

Instead, they create programmes for hairdressers, engineering consultancies, accountants, etc., but these have a high failure rate and cost the economy money when debts aren’t repaid.

Yet the skills for affiliate marketing can be effectively offered. Part of TwoFeetMarketing’s objective this year is to create and support an affiliate marketing training programme where we help at least 10 new micro businesses start-up.

Within a 10-week course, we will deliver all the necessary information needed to start and maintain an affiliate business as well as a website, domain name and a year’s membership to support the business.

This is everything the new business should need for the first year. Yet the costs for delivering this are ￡345 per person. Surely the UK Government could afford this to set-up numerous businesses? In fact, for one business loan the UK Government does offer (￡50,000), they could set up 144 micro businesses.

If they all achieved minimum wage within a year, which is more than possible, then the collective earnings in 2018 for these new businesses would be 2.2 million. These new businesses would also help the economy by encouraging spending with consumers and providing an income to 144 new people.

What are your opinions on the Government’s business start-up support? Do they encourage affiliate marketing or other micro businesses?

Let us know in the comments.