Think big

Last week we formally responded to the UK Government’s discussion paper Simpler reporting for the Smallest Businesses which set out a number of proposed initiatives that would change and simplify what micro-entities would be required to provide by means of compliance and tax reporting. Some of the ideas were sensible, some of them not so much. However, the premise of the debate has real value – how can government help UK’s smallest businesses in order that they can in turn be empowered to make a significant contribution to the UK’s return to sustained and healthy economic growth.

But we think the challenge is bigger than just lightening their compliance obligations and so this is what we fed back to the Department of Business Innovation & Skills last week. We think that there are reporting and operational issues impeding growth, but we think these issues are qualitative, not quantitative. UK businesses need better reporting, not less.

And while small businesses will certainly require some help from government in the form of more sensible compliance obligations, they would actually benefit more if the policy makers also compelled industry bodies, banks and the software industry to work together to devise and build more useful frameworks and integrated services that better met the everyday needs of our millions of small business owners, and which enabled them to be better run, and more profitable businesses.

The UK must not only return to short term economic health but we also need to seize the opportunity to redefine the role of UK businesses in tomorrow’s global economy, and that will require real collaboration across many disciplines and industries, not least technology.

So, our challenge is to think big – and we’d love to take an active and collaborative part in defining and shaping what UK small businesses really need.

Here’s a link to the media release we put out this morning.