{"id":27995,"date":"2019-01-09T15:40:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T15:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/?p=27995"},"modified":"2019-01-09T15:47:46","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T15:47:46","slug":"why-small-business-really-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/09\/why-small-business-really-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Why small business really matters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2016, there were 5.5 million\nbusinesses in the UK. Over 99% of businesses are Small or Medium Sized\nbusinesses \u2013 employing 0-249 people. 5.3 million (96%) businesses were\nmicro-businesses \u2013 employing 0-9 people. Micro-businesses accounted for 32% of\nemployment and 19% of turnover. They are the backbone of our economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, attention is\nfocused on large companies; home grown or foreign owned corporations. Their\nlobbying capability and significant resources ensures they get the attention\nthey need: whether it’s competitive interest rates, concessions on business\nrates or deals on utilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small and medium sized businesses\ncomprise a significant proportion of large company supply chains: whether the\nOEM is JLR or Amazon. Even the Chinese retail giant Alibaba depends on the\ngoods of much smaller businesses the way that much of Amazon’s portfolio comes\nfrom its Marketplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often OEMs help their supply\nchains with, for example, support on quality control. Nevertheless, the\nemphasis is on the value the OEM can drive from its supply chain and how this\ncan be passed on to the end user. Within this model it would take an audacious\nentrepreneur to turn this model on its head and provide an ecommerce capability\nthat favours small businesses and the communities they serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am on the hunt for small\nbusinesses, ones that care about the communities and customers they serve.\nWhilst governments shilly shally about protecting the intellectual property\nthat small and medium businesses in the UK create (it is being plundered by\nforeign owned corporations whilst Ministers almost usher them in rather than\ndoing what they said in their manifesto), I can supply them with an ecommerce\ninfrastructure that will rival the biggest and best. This will give them a\nchance to fight back and avoid becoming a small fish in a big pond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to know more, message\nme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meanwhile, I ask the great\nand the good to do a few things to help our small business communities.\nNapoleon got it wrong when he said that we were a nation of shopkeepers: we are\na nation of craft entrepreneurs and the sooner that is recognised, in\neducation, in spend on business support and vital business infrastructure, the\nbetter we can ride through issues such as Brexit, skills and productivity\nissues and the dumping of steel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. I ask\norganisations like Chambers of Commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses and\neven the Institute of Directors to convince the Confederation of British\nIndustry to work together to persuade the Secretary of State for Business,\nEnergy and Industrial Strategy that a level playing field for all businesses is\nbetter for Britain whether we are inside the EU or not. Having the United\nStates Secretary of Commerce tell us to take an adversarial approach\nto the EU will only help the finance sector and large (American owned)\ncorporations and their shareholders. <\/li>
  2. I ask\nbanks and the finance sector to dig out books on Joseph Schumpeter, the\neconomist that coined the phrase ‘gales of creative destruction.’ Schumpeter\nbelieved that credit enabled small entrepreneurs to challenge the status quo\nand disrupt the market place in turn driving up innovation, quality and\ncustomer care. The only people who benefit from the status quo are the staid,\nunproductive corporations and their investors: businesses that only survive because\nof their lobbying power, their ability to avoid corporation tax and the\nhandouts they receive from Ministers eager for the ‘shovel selfie.’<\/li>
  3. Finally,\nI ask the public to choose where they buy more carefully. Companies that have\n‘loyalty’ schemes and marketing practices that abuse human psychology are not\nyour friends, no matter how much their Christmas video makes you cry. Buy\nlocal, buy independent. You can still do it on-line (I will make sure of that)\nbut just think of who is really benefitting from the profit on your purchases.\nAnd perhaps when you realise that products like biscuits are cheaper than\napples, you can ask your MP why healthy food costs so much more.<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In 2016, there were 5.5 million businesses in the UK. Over 99% of businesses are Small or Medium Sized businesses \u2013 employing 0-249 people. 5.3 million (96%) businesses were micro-businesses \u2013 employing 0-9 people. Micro-businesses accounted for 32% of employment and 19% of turnover. They are the backbone of our economy. Unfortunately, attention is focused […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,53,112],"tags":[1819,1820,1818],"class_list":["post-27995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-latest","category-top-stories","tag-chambers-of-commerce","tag-economy","tag-small-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}