A new Business is Great Britain campaign has been launched by the Government to provide additional support to small businesses around the country – kick-started by Business Secretary Vince Cable and Skills and Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock.
Designed to ‘build confidence amongst small businesses’, the initiative will be using case studies of companies which have been successful in building out operations. The campaign sees government bringing many of their SME resources together under one banner, in a move designed to make their £10 million annual SME resource create a ‘greater impact’.
Key strands within the new development are to inspire small business owners to consider the potential of their company and plan for long-term growth, hire new staff and export to foreign markets.
Speaking at the launch event for the campaign, Cable said,
“I hope everyone now sees that the government is supporting small businesses in a joined-up way. The problem in the past has been that resources have been hard to see. Also, the big support arrangements like UKTI and the apprenticeships schemes, which are very much for SMEs, will be easier to access.”
Also speaking at the event, Hancock said,
“We have set out today the start of our ambitious plans to help small businesses realise their potential and the support available to help them grow. Government has an important role in providing a coherent package of measures to support businesses, but there is also a role for business-to-business support, with successful, growing small businesses talking to others about how exporting, hiring and business planning can take a business to the next level.”
The coalition has also announced that it will be publishing a cross-government strategy on small business in December 2013, which will be aimed at helping small businesses with the ambition to grow.
