Update - Government Progress on SME Productivity
The problem
We have had meetings with civil servants, MPs and junior ministers to discuss the well-documented UK small business productivity problem.
Whilst there have been, and are, publicly funded initiatives that try to assist small businesses to perform better they are grossly underfunded, and as constructed, always will be, and are therefore ineffective.
There will be no return to the major strategies of the 90’s and 00’s which saw the creation of 82 Training and Enterprise Councils and 110 Business Links employing 2000 field operatives to provide direct consultancy support. Over a 22-year period these helped one million businesses, and UK small business international competitiveness rose from 21st to 7th place.
Since 2010, this has drifted to 10th place and faced with Brexit, COVID, Ukraine can only get worse as other countries subsidise their businesses to survive and compete.
The solution
We believe that this historically huge success story can be replicated in the 20’s by a network of accountant practices providing practical support to their local businesses for 1% of the previous investment cost.
Two major trends have evolved that make this possible:
Technology that in minutes can analyse and apply solutions that used to take weeks.
Accountants as ‘trusted business advisors’ assisting business owners with their futures.
We are therefore planning a tripartite collaboration between government, Runagood® and accountant practices.
Conclusion
Such ‘wheels grind slow’ because government makes strategy at long range and is reluctant to be deflected. So any new idea (such as this) is first assessed as to whether it fits current strategy (which it doesn’t) causing initial rejection followed by escalation by advocates (where we are now).
Our advocates are optimistic that we will prevail, because the prize is so compelling for a proven, minimal investment in ‘UK Small Business plc’.
Your next step…
Book a Partner assessment here to be ready when the green light comes on.