{"id":17286,"date":"2016-10-20T12:00:29","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T11:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digileaders.com\/?p=17286"},"modified":"2019-05-08T14:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T13:48:00","slug":"small-businesses-britain-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digileaders.com\/small-businesses-britain-need\/","title":{"rendered":"Small businesses of Britain need you!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>In July 2016, I became\u00a0the new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/meet-emma-jones-our-new-small-business-crown-representative\">Small Business Crown Representative<\/a>. The role is focused on working with\u00a0central government\u00a0to ensure the target of spending \u00a31 in every \u00a33 with small business is met by 2020.<\/p>\n<p>As a business owner myself, running Enterprise Nation, a lively community of over 70,000 small businesses, I want briefly\u00a0to outline progress to date and make\u00a0one key ask of civil servants.<\/p>\n<p>The Crown Rep role is\u00a0one day per week,\u00a0so it was important to set\u00a0priorities on\u00a0what can be achieved in a\u00a012-month tenure. The three\u00a0priorities I&#8217;ve set\u00a0are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>simplify:<\/b>\u00a0make it easier for small businesses to work through the bidding process<\/li>\n<li><b>promote:\u00a0<\/b>make sure small businesses know government is open for business<\/li>\n<li><b>innovate:<\/b>\u00a0match government buyers with new products\/services in\u00a0their pre-procurement phase<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Three months in and progress is being made.\u00a0To get the word out that government is open for business, I&#8217;ve\u00a0been travelling the country in person and communicating online. There have been small business\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/guidance\/emma-jones-small-business-crown-representative\">roundtables<\/a>\u00a0in Leeds,\u00a0Birmingham\u00a0and London, with more to follow in Bristol and beyond. Meet the buyer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/guidance\/emma-jones-small-business-crown-representative\">webinars<\/a> are being rolled out so small businesses can log on and hear direct from a government buyers about requirements and top tips on how to pitch. A &#8216;Guide to selling to the Public Sector&#8217; is about to be released and we\u2019re refreshing the Government\u2019s SME Panel, which will meet quarterly to offer feedback and input.<\/p>\n<p>We are exploring how mandatory\u00a0information that is\u00a0currently\u00a0required every time\u00a0a company bids for a contract\u00a0could be updated so that the applicant (in the case of small businesses, this is often\u00a0the business owner\u00a0themselves)\u00a0completes the information once and it remains stored in\u00a0preparation\u00a0for future bids. This\u00a0would save business owners valuable time and increase efficiency.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the measures government is taking to make it easier for SMEs to bid for government contracts, many of the entrepreneurs I meet are\u00a0frustrated. They understand the pressures of the buying department and feel they have solutions to offer. Their issue is that they just can&#8217;t get their products and services seen or tested without going through a full procurement exercise. It&#8217;s in this area I&#8217;d appreciate help from procurement and commercial leads across all departments.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than &#8216;Meet the Buyers&#8217; events, I&#8217;d like to see a concept of &#8216;Meet the Entrepreneurs&#8217;, where you can view products and services in an environment that&#8217;s safe for the entrepreneur to share the IP behind the idea. This is something I&#8217;m exploring with a\u00a0company that \u00a0organises a show to match entrepreneurs with investors \u2013 my job is to connect them with you!<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d like to hear from any buyer who has an early engagement exercise and would\u00a0be willing to give the\u00a0show a go and themselves an opportunity to identify potential suppliers with innovative products and services that could benefit their department. If this sounds like something you\u2019d be interested in, or you just want to know more, send me a message on Twitter (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/emmaljones\">@emmaljones<\/a>) or get in touch with Crown Commercial Service.<\/p>\n<p>Small businesses are keen to work with you. You are keen to buy from them. If the right connections can be made, everyone wins.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/civilservice.blog.gov.uk\/2016\/09\/27\/small-businesses-of-britain-need-you\/\">This post first appeared on the Civil Service blog here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In July 2016, I became\u00a0the new Small Business Crown Representative. The role is focused on working with\u00a0central government\u00a0to ensure the target of spending \u00a31 in every \u00a33 with small business is met by 2020. As a business owner myself, running Enterprise Nation, a lively community [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-17286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","region-london","region-birmingham","region-bristol","region-leeds","region-west-midlands","region-yorkshire","topic-government","topic-smes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Small businesses of Britain need you! | Digital Leaders<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/digileaders.com\/small-businesses-britain-need\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Small businesses of Britain need you! | Digital Leaders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In July 2016, I became\u00a0the new Small Business Crown Representative. 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