When I started my own business almost 15 years ago, the playbook for growth was the one we developed along the way, through trial, error, and determination.
From day one, I looked for ways to learn. And I soon realised there were many other business owners just like me, searching for support.
Since then, the Small Business Charter and our network of accredited business schools have developed a unique role in quenching business founders’ thirst. We work with thousands of SMEs to take the best of that ‘can do’, learn-on-the-job spirit and combine it with the depth of knowledge and expertise offered by our business schools, to prepare our economy for a new entrepreneurial age.
To mark our 10th anniversary, the Small Business Charter has adopted a new mission statement: empowering small business success through our network of expert business schools.
This perfectly encapsulates the work we do now, the work we will do in the future, and the values we are best known for – expert, connected, and trusted.
I am truly privileged to see these values in action in my role at the Small Business Charter. It gives me the chance to visit our highly respected, accredited business schools, and witness the positivity and passion amongst their cohorts, as they take exponential strides forward.
We have proven the Small Business Charter has the power to impact thousands of small businesses. So, where next?
The seeds we have planted over the past decade are set to flourish in the bright, bracing conditions of this new entrepreneurial landscape. The Small Business Charter, more than ever, has a critical role to play because it is tailor-made to support the largest proportion of businesses in the UK.
With the right structures and strategies in place, the opportunity is there to utilise our connectivity with SMEs and local economies to produce the next generation of high-performance firms. The knowledge and expertise in our business schools can supercharge this – whether it’s about AI, sustainability, or tomorrow’s leaders.
We are beacons of the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, empowering the leaders of an enterprise economy that will be pivotal to the growth ambitions of our whole country, through the next decade and beyond.
Here’s to 10 years of the Small Business Charter – and the 10 years, and beyond, still to come.
Michael Hayman MBE, SBC Chair