SME done with it

A campaign and government e-petition on behalf of the UK's 4.5 million micro enterprise owners is gathering pace after only two weeks.

The ‘Tell us what you’re doing for micro-enterprises not SMEs’ e-petition created by Tony Robinson OBE is already ranked 14 out of nearly 500 government accepted e-petitions on business issues. With new signatures being added every day it will soon be in the top ten.

With so many recent announcements of government initiatives to help business, particularly ‘SMEs’, you may wonder why this e-petition is getting so much attention? Tony Robinson OBE explains that:‘the term ‘SME’ includes many larger corporately managed businesses and does not translate to mean the majority of small, indeed micro, businesses run by their owner. These businesses all have less than ten employees and there is very little practical help
being given to them by government.’

Tony says: ‘To government big is beautiful Yet millions of micro-business owners,including up to half a million start-ups each year, need a fair trading environment in order to survive. They should get an equal share of government interventions to help with, such as: skills; knowledge; bank lending; public procurement; apprentices;
regulations; late payment; claims; tribunals; recruitment and business support.

“95.7% of UK enterprises are micro-businesses and yet I estimate that in the last 15 years 90% of the £billions of government support has gone to the 5% of businesses with over 10 employees. This is unacceptable. We’re not looking for hand-outs but when
government intervene to help business with skills or support initiatives we are looking for fairness. The first step in getting some equality of treatment is for government to report exactly what they are doing for our size of business.”

There are estimated to be around 4.6 million micro-enterprises in the UK with this figure growing on a daily basis. Tony is now in his 25th year of starting and running his own businesses, and admits he has continually struggled to influence government policy on behalf of pre starts, start ups and micro enterprise owners. However, he believes this e-petition initiative can change this:

“We have heard a lot of lip service, over the years; about the ‘value of start-ups’ and that we’re ’ the lifeblood of the economy’. We want to replace the platitudes with hard facts. When we reach the required 100,000 signatures on our e-petition, our call for government to report what they’re doing to help micro-enterprises
rather than ‘SMEs’, will be debated in parliament. When this happens, the clearer communication we want can become policy”.

Lorraine Allman, MD of Speed Mentor Central Limited based in Wales has 15 years of experience in running businesses and is actively involved in the e-petition campaign. “Many
micro-enterprises, my own included, have ambitions to develop and grow and offer employment opportunities. This does, however, require willingness on the government’s part to recognise and value the contribution that we make to the UK economy, starting with a clear understanding of what a micro-enterprise looks like, what works well and what doesn’t”.

It’s not just the micro-enterprises themselves getting involved in the campaign either. Business membership organisations and companies providing services such as accountancy and legal advice are also backing it. There is strong support for the view that
now is the time to measure government success as an enabler of enterprise in the UK for what it does for micro-enterprise owners.

The e-petition is open to anyone who is a UK resident whether they are a micro-enterprise or not. It can be viewed and signed at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18396

The twitter hashtag to follow all things related to the e-petition is
#microbizmatters

ENDS

EDITOR'S NOTES

Tony Robinson OBE is co-founder of the Enterprise Rockers, an informal movement which aims to get a fairer and better life for micro enterprise owners. He has been owner/director of The
Business Advisory Bureau Limited/ EntrepreneursUK.com for over 25 years. He is founder and co-owner of the SFEDI Group which includes SFEDI Solutions, the UK Sector Skills Body for Enterprise, SFEDI Awards and The Institute of Enterprise and
Entrepreneurs (IoEE). He is a published business author and was awarded an OBE in 2001 for services to small firms and training.
A micro-enterprise is a business with less than 10 employees, including start-ups and covering the self-employed, sole
traders, partnerships, limited companies, social enterprises and freelancers.

More information about the e-petition can be found in this blog which appears on a number of well-known small business websites. For example it is the most read blog on Business Zone having over 4200 readers.

http://www.businesszone.co.uk/blogs/tonyrobbo/tony-robinson-obe-enterpriserocks/i-am-not-sme-part-two-epetition-behalf-micro-enter

Tony Robinson OBE can be contacted on 07715 749079 or Skype at SfediFounder or e-mail at tony@EntrepreneursUK.com or twitter
@TonyRobinsonOBE