The second part of Lord Young’s report on business, delivered as business advisor to the Prime MInister, focuses on the importance of the micro-business in the UK. A key plank to the development of enterprise and sustainability, whether in the social sector or not, is the long term growth of organisations with less than ten members.

Growing Your Business – a report on growing micro-businesses offers insights into the importance of the sector, and how, as community populations flex and employment rates fluctuate, it is the micro-business that inexorably feeds the enterprise seed-bed activity of the nation.

You can download a pdf copy of the full report here.

The report, publish in May 2013, does contain some reference to the social economy, although not significantly, however the index of resources and the layout of strategies for growth are highly applicable to any ambitious social business organisation.

The report focuses on three key strategic areas for enterprise growth…

Confidence – in the small enterprise embracing the belief that they can make it happen. Particularly important in a groundbreaking Social Business.

Capability – Mapping and deploying your key skills, as well as recognising the ones you do not have, is a key factor in growth. The report clearly evidences that asking for external help is a key indicator of business ambition, but also a key factor in growth and sustainability.

Coherence – a belief that support for micro-business, particularly in the social sector, is ‘…designed and marketed in way they understand, trust and can find…’.

SEEM can play a key part in this role, disseminating good practice, articulating the needs of the sector in a language understood across the piece, as well as working with members and partners to stimulate social finance initiatives and growth across all elements of the sector.

Lord Young covers several key areas on marketing issues in this regard. Do the government articulate or disseminate loans and finance information for any sector widely and effectively?

Is public sector procurement significantly focused on a one stop shop approach, and are procurement processes properly understood, both in the social sector, as well as by the public sector when looking back at us?

This ‘single market’ response to all forms of procurement is of particular importance to the social sector, we would argue. Small or ‘social’ does not necessarily mean unprofessional or ineffective. Do local authorities and other major procuring organisations in the public sector still, even in the summer of 2013, fully appreciate the latent delivery capability of the micro-social sector?

The ‘using what we have better’ section of the report is particularly telling in this regard. Exploit your Social Business potential to the full. Talk to SEEM.

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You can find the SEEM main home page here.