Small to medium-sized businesses represent 99.9% of all businesses, 61% of total employment and 53% of total turnover, they are the backbone of our economy and critical enablers of social mobility, improving living standards, spreaders of wealth and innovation. 

The UK's economy has been built by and carried on the shoulders of entrepreneurs who spotted opportunity and embraced trade. 

As we head into an era of great societal, environmental and technological change at home and abroad, opportunity is everywhere, and now is the time to do everything we can to support entrepreneurialism and break this cycle of sluggish growth and productivity. 

To capitalise on this we need to put in place a policy that allows entrepreneurialism to flourish. 

The current environment is far from easy for entrepreneurs. Although inflation has eased, costs remain high, the cost of living is still affecting demand, and staff reliability and capacity are causing a constant drag. 

The result is entrepreneurs are working harder and harder to maintain profitability and to service customers – for many, the situation is relentless and overwhelming! 

Breaking out of the trap of increasingly ‘working in’ rather than ‘working on’ the business can be a difficult one to break. If left unbroken, it will prevent the business from moving to its next level of growth and productivity. Developmental activities like taking a new product to market, implementing a new sales and marketing strategy or introducing new systems and processes constantly get put on the back burner. This is even more frustrating when competitors from across the globe move forward to steal a lead. 

If time and space can't be made, then plans, strategies, and developments designed to move the business forward will never be implemented and the cycle will remain unbroken. It really is a catch-22, business owners want to break the cycle but equally struggle to create the time and space required to do so. 

It seems so straightforward but the UK hasn’t been good at embedding good management practice compared to its G7 peers. To compound this, being a nation of small businesses means the capacity to do new things is stretched and the capital and risk appetite to invest is not there or too grant-driven. 

This is why the support offered by RTC North is so valuable. We work with national and local economic development teams to put the right kind of support solutions in place. 

We provide entrepreneurs the opportunity to take a step out of the day-to-day and focus on developing the plans needed to move the business forward. Our team of 100+ highly skilled business growth, innovation, supply chain and operations specialists provide the expert knowledge, skills and funding required to develop breakthrough plans and support their implementation, and our coaches provide the touchpoints needed to make sure that everything remains on track, that actions are being carried out, bumps in the road smoothed and goals achieved. 

We help entrepreneurs to recapture their passion and love for their business and to mobilise exciting plans and developments. This is what drives me and my colleagues at RTC to deliver real impact and transformation and to help hard-working entrepreneurs achieve the rewards that they so rightly deserve. 

Such is the importance of Small Business to the UK economy, it’s only when we have a nation of happy and energised entrepreneurs that our nation will achieve its potential. 

It’s critical that this is embedded in our national mission and that we all collectively do our bit to make the landscape easier, connect entrepreneurs to opportunity and also peers who can help drive the right mindset. 

I’m incredibly excited about the future, about recapturing our entrepreneurial passion and unleashing an entrepreneurial revolution.