5 Ways We Can Help Each Other Today

Our News Release launching the Micro Business Alliance and this fabulous website designed and curated by Ian Farrar and Mischa Steele have both been well received. The last week has given us great impetus with the Government and new members nationally and internationally.

The support of Liz Barclay, the Small Business Commissioner, and the Shadow Business Secretary, Bill Esterson MP, to our Alliance has been immense.

Charles Cracknell wins the award for contacting the most MPs and local, regional and government officials to introduce our Alliance to them. He has also followed up with many international organisations with large micro business networks, which are joining our Alliance as a first step in forming their own country’s Micro Business Alliance. We all believe that a Global network could be very powerful.

Our leader, Ian Cass, has had a busy six weeks on behalf of our Alliance meeting with senior politicians, including the Small Business Minister and Shadow Ministers, as well as senior officials in critical-to-micro-business Government Departments such as HMRC and Treasury. Ian is also meeting with large companies with many micro business owner customers that are interested in either working with or joining the Alliance.

You’ll see on this website the five members of the Alliance’s Steering Group, which meets quarterly. Additionally, three of us (Ian C, Jenn and I) will be meeting after the Be More Happipreneur Show at Cheshire Business School on 17th April, and at least four of us will meet at the MicroBiz Unite event, organised by Ian Farrar and his Far North team, at the Customs House Theatre, South Shields on June 15. (See Events)

Thanks to the sponsorship of Hull City Council, the John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank and Yorkshire in Business, all Alliance members are invited to a free luncheon and two-hour event to review our first year’s progress. This will take place on Friday, March 22nd, 2024, at 12 noon, in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, during the two-day Happipreneur Festival (22 & 23 March 2024).

So that’s a lead-in to these five ways we can help each other:

1. PROSPECTIVE MEMBERS: As we hoped, our numbers are already opening doors and influencing the government’s understanding of the value of micro-businesses and the importance of fair and good policymaking that affects them. Namely, the number of organisations in the Alliance and the number of micro-businesses these organisations represent. Use the press release with a link to this website to introduce other companies, networks and membership bodies engaged with over one hundred micro businesses.
2. MPs, LOCAL, REGIONAL AND NATIONAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS: Use the press release and a link to this website to introduce the Alliance to all MPs and all officials you have contact details for.
3. RECOGNITION AND ISSUES: Through any member of the Steering Group, let us know of any research, events, issues and good news about the valuable contribution of micro businesses. Let us know of any meetings or interventions by your organisation with local, regional and national government so that Ian Cass can support you in any of his meetings. Unity means together we are mighty.
4. ANNUAL MICRO BUSINESS SURVEY/CENSUS: There are many great research surveys and consultations by Alliance members. Local, regional and national Governments already collect on microbusinesses, and there are many academic surveys too. However, unlike some other countries, no single annual survey provides the complete picture of micro-businesses’ value, pain and success points/issues, past year and future year contribution to the economy, jobs, innovation, communities, regeneration, diversity, equality, environment and sustainability. Through all Alliance members helping collect data, we can provide a useful annual survey for all our members AND policymakers. Please give us any questions you would like to see answered in such an Alliance annual survey.
5. MICRO BUSINESS OWNERS LEADING THE WAY: As many of you know from the Happipreneur and Be More Happipreneur Show, I champion micro business owners as the best creators of new jobs, innovation, happy workplaces, thriving local communities and high streets with “trickle-up” always more likely to work than “trickle-down”. As an advocate of Schumacher’s “Small is Beautiful – economics as if people mattered, ” I am certain that micro-business owners also lead the way on ESG. The Alliance members have all signed up to a set of values, which means we all want micro-businesses to be recognised for their immense contribution to communities, people and the planet. Jill Poet. Alliance steering group member and CEO of the National Organisation for Responsible Businesses (ORB) has just written a book entitled “It really is….JUST GOOD BUSINESS – the art of operating a responsible, ethical and profitable small business”. I thoroughly recommend it and ORB’s online ESG course for micro businesses (£15) and certification. I co-authored “The Happipreneur” – the new Small is Beautiful and a guide for all enterprising people – which also explains to policymakers that “there is another way” of harnessing the incredible economic, environmental and social power for good of the micro-business sector – 95% of all businesses. If you’re interested in promoting Jill, my and the Alliance’s values to your micro business contacts, just email me with your address, and I’ll post you a free copy of both books. You can also book a “Be More Happipreneur” Show for your employees, customers, suppliers and members. https://tonyrobinsonobe.com THANK YOU.