The UK is one of the best places for entrepreneurs to start a business but it still has a number of issues which needs to be resolved if this is to continue post Brexit.
The UK government has stated in its Industrial Strategy white paper “Our ambition to make the UK the best place to start and grow a business requires us to safeguard the things we do that already contribute to our success, and to act where necessary to make us even more attractive.”
So what action is needed to help Small Businesses?
The Patient Capital review industry panel identified the real issues and stated stated that “opportunities remain for improvement across the ecosystem, particularly with respect to the transformational development of some of these start-ups into large-scale businesses, where the proportion of UK start-ups which scale into large businesses lags significantly behind the US. This indicates that many UK-based businesses are unable to reach their full potential and either remain “stuck” in a mode of incremental growth, or accept a trade sale as the most convenient exit, both of which are ultimately to the detriment of the UK economy, tax receipts and job creation.”
… so I thought I would brainstorm an 11 point action plan for the UK government to act on in 2019, my:
UK Entrepreneurs Policy Wish List 2019.
1. Global Business Language
- All business owners to be able to learn at least one of the top 5 business languages for free online: Top five languages: Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic and Portuguese
- Business language and industry terms should be taught in all secondary schools
- All schools teach Chinese as second language and not French to reflect international trade opportunities
2. Knowledge Economy
- Online Knowledge Centres hosted by one business focused university per region which cover topics such as: Export, International Financial Transactions, International Legal Contracts, Global Insurance, International Taxation
- Graduates who start businesses (and pay Corporation Tax) which employ more than 5 people (and pay PAYE) for more than 2 years get their student loan deleted
- Creation of the national Innovation/Entrepreneurship/Export awards televised and sponsored by large businesses
3. Business Productivity
- All businesses must report a productivity metric in their annual accounts to companies house. This should force them to look at how to improve it, to ensure they are inline with international benchmarks
- An industry strategy for UK low productivity industries should be set and implemented within 2 years
- Support for increasing productivity through cloud and freemium technology platforms should be free for all SMEs
4. UK companies should be able to create subsidiaries through UK companies house online
- For UK dependent territories within 24 hours
- Commonwealth countries within 5 working days
5. To develop a better UK business centric culture, the BBC/Channel 4 news (government owned and run channels) to report good news stories on UK businesses and how they are exporting.
- BBC/C4 measured on how many different UK based/citizen owned businesses they report on per year. The Total should be good news stories minus bad new stories.
- The BBC/C4 charter to be changed to mandate promoting British Business Interests, especially British citizen owned SMEs and startups. It is currently the other way around.
6. Government Spending (Local, County, Region Government and NHS)
- Local governments to report on how they support SMEs through awarding smaller multiple awarding contracts
- All local council/NHS offered contracts to be offered to SME who have registered office within 30 miles of the county/region boundary
7. UK embassies driving UK exports
- Set core focus of UK embassies to developing trade links and opportunities for UK businesses
- To offer quarterly business networking sessions (<£50 per ticket)
- To provide national reports/opportunities on monthly basis (free)
- Set a new foreign office metric (UKP exports to that country per citizen of that country) which is reported to parliament each year
8. Business Taxation
- Streamline the HMRC business tax system so everything can be done online without an accountant or dedicated software. If it can’t be done delete that aspect of the tax system
- Business rates for UK headquartered businesses set to zero for businesses less than £10m turnover
- Business corporation tax at 12.5% same as Ireland, our neighbour
9. SME Finance
- British Business Bank to have focused fund for SME growth ( especially for businesses with £1m to £10m turnover)
- Startup loans to continue with greater support in mentoring and global-export business best practice
- CSR and charity donations to get better tax relief to encourage the long term development of a sustainable third sector
10. All new processes post Brexit
- For import and export to be done online within 24 hours
- For bringing talent to UK (immigration) streamlined to 36 hours with online forms (e.g. getting Visa and NI) and pay less than £200 per person/employee
11. Business Buildings infrastructure set for the new century
- All new business parks/buildings have renewable energy generation
- All new building (business+housing+retail) to have fibre broadband into the property (and not up to the curb) as the vast majority of businesses are run from home