In the introduction to Team Talk last week, I worried about how small and medium-sized businesses across the spectrum are falling behind, despite employing the vast majority of us. I said that freeing up their potential would be a massive boost for our country and lift an awful lot of spirits.
This is hardly a minority view, I know.
Latest stats from the Small Business Index say more small firms are expecting to shrink, close or sell up than to grow over the next year. It’s the first net-negative growth reading in 15 years.
It’s not just about numbers and ‘red tape’ either. It feels like there’s a deep-seated cultural disinterest, at best, and, at worst, disdain for SMEs. As a team player, I can tell you, this is not motivating.
I don’t personally like to moan and neither does Involvement. Whilst we never ignore the reality of whatever the situation is, we are about positivity, problem-solving and moving ahead with confidence. Being exactly what our thousands of customers need us to be to help them succeed. You can read more about this in our free Book of Involvement.
We have been rewarded and awarded for precisely this and I’m delighted to say that Involvement is in great shape.
My goodness, it isn’t half hard work though.
What really bothers me is how much of this effort has to be focussed on fighting through the mountain of stuff that’s in our way, when it could be spent on more rewarding things.
I see from the Government website that there is ‘an action plan to deliver on the pledge to cut the administrative cost of regulation on businesses by a quarter’. This is intended to ‘make Britain the best place to do business and drive economic growth’.
This sounds wonderful. Do please bring it on. But excuse me for not seeing or feeling any sign of it. Come to think of it, over the past 10 years I struggle to think of anything any government has done, that has made a material difference to remove administrative costs or regulations.
What I see is a burden of ‘stuff’ we have to deal with that takes away from the core activities of the business. An environment of over-complexity and a mushrooming of administrative time.
It’s always been a bit of a problem and as time has gone on there’s more and more of it.
The smaller you are, the less time you have for all this. Then the more you grow, the more you get sucked in.
We’ll examine all these barriers to success and growth in coming Team Talks.
Now, I’m going to stop moaning. Let’s look at how can we throw a bit of good old Involvement positivity at this situation and get our collective heads up.
Stand by.
