SME's are the backbone of our economy - but is there enough government support?

There is certainly a lot of media attention at the moment on the support that government is providing for UK small businesses. SME’s are considered to be the backbone of our economy with the potential to save the UK economy. Business owner and entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson has been voicing his concerns with urging the government to promote economic growth by supporting small businesses. Another influential businessman, Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP commented that the government has no strategy for businesses.

Here at CMC, we talk with small businesses everyday and recently a number of businesses have been expressing their frustration by a lack of support from the government. Do you feel the same way?

Well, there is good news for young entrepreneurs as the government has just launched a new loan scheme to help young people between the ages of 18-24 years old to start up their own business. This is an attempt to help beat of the recently reported startup statistics of 4 out of 5 businesses fail in the first 5 years.

This is great for start up businesses but there does seem to be a lack of support for the more established businesses.

Listening to radio 4 on Tuesday, there was a very interesting programme on small businesses. Lord Young was a guest speaker, promoting the release of the first comprehensive report on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) since the Bolton Report of 1971. It seems shocking that this is the first report in the last 39 years when small businesses play such as an important role in our economy. The report revealed that ‘business stock is dominated by around 4.5 million small and medium sized enterprises, 99% of all businesses in the UK’.

This radio 4 programme established the need for mentoring with experience and knowledge. Here at CMC, we believe we have both of these qualities – experience and knowledge. Don’t take our word for this, please do look at our partners profiles. You may also be interested in looking at our case studies of how we have helped our clients build their businesses.

Whats your view, we would love to hear your thoughts?

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