Business in Slough - BUILDING A NEW ENTERPRISE FRAMEWORK

I would very much like to invite you to join me on Wednesday 24th October at Baylis House in Slough when I would like to meet with a representative group of small and medium sized business owners and entrepreneurs who are thinking of setting up their own business. My meeting is one of a series John Hutton (Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform) and I are holding in every region throughout the UK which we have called “Building a New Enterprise Framework”.

My aim is for us to meet, face to face, a small number of entrepreneurs like you to hear your views on the shaping of renewed Government policies for encouraging entrepreneurship and supporting small and medium sized businesses.

As you may have read in the press, this series of regional meetings was launched at No 11 Downing Street on the 20th of September when I joined the Chancellor Alistair Darling and John Hutton at a meeting we held with a cross section of successful small business owners. At that meeting we heard a number of very positive ideas for a new Enterprise framework. Since then John and I have already been delighted by the excellent input we received from those entrepreneurs we have met at the first regional events held in the South West, North East and West Midlands.

It is a key priority for this Government to create an enterprise culture and environment for more successful, sustainable and growing enterprises and communities. There has been a great deal of progress, but challenges remain. My meeting in Slough will be your chance to have your say as part of the process for developing this new enterprise framework which the Government intends to publish next year.

Each regional meeting is designed to be interactive and numbers are limited so that we can give every participant a real opportunity to network with other small business owners, discuss their experiences with each other and share their ideas with me on the following issues:

 Achieving business growth
 An environment that supports growth
 The role of enterprise as a tool for closing gaps between regions and social groups
 Encouraging entrepreneurship
 International and European challenges and opportunities

An informal buffet lunch and registration for the event is between 1 and 2pm with the consultation starting at 2pm. I recognise that this will be up to a half day away from your business, but I would be delighted if you could attend to share your views.

If you are able to able to accept this invitation, please would you kindly confirm your attendance by emailing anna.grabham@rslive.co.uk
RS Live are organising the “Building a New Enterprise Framework” events on the Government’s behalf.

Yours sincerely

Stephen Timms MP
MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMPETITIVENESS

ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION

Growth within UK business

In your experience, what drives or prevents growth within a business? Whether high or steady growth, what role should public policy play in supporting the process? Do these drivers, or barriers, vary across firm age, size or sector?

What should be the balance of priority between supporting high growth among a small minority of businesses and steady growth across the vast majority?

What skills are lacking across the workforce to support growth? Academic studies make much of leadership and management training and cultural attitudes being key to growth. Do businesses support this?

Challenges and opportunities

How are the opportunities and threats presented by globalisation and the expansion of the European Market viewed by business? How does the position change by sector and size of business?

What role do businesses see for government in them being able to access opportunities or respond to threats? How can the UK realise the benefits of global trade when many UK SMEs show relatively little appetite for it?

How can business exploit the market opportunities created by the demand for environmental goods and environment regulation?

Supporting environment for growth

We would welcome views from business around the incentives and barriers to growing businesses in the UK. In particular, where is public policy supportive or enabling and where is it not?

What do you consider to be the most useful policy tools/inputs the government has provided to support business growth in the last 10 years?

In terms of attracting and retaining companies in the UK – is the UK ‘offer’ sufficient?

Closing the Gaps

How can growth be encouraged in deprived areas and regions with their more limited access to skills and markets?

Under-capitalisation at start-up and high levels of part-time business ownership explain the lower levels of performance of women-owned businesses compared to male-owned. It seems harder for many women to commit more fully to enterprise activity. How might this be addressed?

Overall, ethnic minority business owners have similar growth aspirations to other business owners but overall their businesses tend to be smaller and more sectorally concentrated. How can we better respond to the needs of different ethnic minority groups when their backgrounds and experiences of enterprise differ so greatly?

Which new approaches to public policy in these areas should be considered?

Encouraging individuals to be more enterprising

Do businesses accept the assertion that growth is reliant on harnessing the entrepreneurial talents across the workforce in larger businesses?

Can (and how should) public policy realistically encourage more positive attitudes and less risk aversion around entrepreneurship? How can government support consideration of broader models of entrepreneurship, such as social enterprise? What role is there for education and skills?

How might public policy help in maintaining growth and competitiveness among UK SMEs when an ageing population means older entrepreneurs with more limited growth aspirations?