Richard Michie, founder of The Marketing Optimist, was visited by the Office of the Small Business Commissioner on its SME Safari visit to Leeds last week.
The agency was one of three businesses in Leeds to be visited by a 12-strong delegation of civil servants investigating the challenges faced by SMEs in the city.
The intention of the SME Safari is for those working on the frontline of government policy to meet people running small businesses in order to hear first-hand about the challenges they face on the ground, and about opportunities the government can support them with.
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Mitchie said: “I was really surprised, and more than a little flattered, to be invited to meet the delegation. No one from the government has ever reached out before, to me, or any business owner I know, to speak about the challenges of running an SME. I wasn’t sure if it was a wind up!”
The delegation visiting the agency’s central Leeds office was headed up by Emma Jones CBE, small business commissioner at the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). It also visited Nisha Katona, founder of Mowgli Street Food and Becky Palfery, owner of Colours May Vary.
Mitchie added: “I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the questions were really interesting. They asked about how and why I started the agency, which was driven by a visit to the Job Centre following redundancy and being offered an Enterprise Allowance Scheme, something that no longer exists.”
Lots of the questions asked were around government procurement, which is still really hard for SME’s like The Marketing Optimist to get a foothold in. “Government procurement is all very well, and we have worked with North Yorkshire Combined Authority and West Yorkshire Combined Authority before, but the amount of hoops and the paper work required makes it tough for a small business like ours to cope with, so most of the time you just don’t bother,” he said.
Mitchie added that it was very encouraging to hear about the help being made available to help SMEs to deal with late payment and bad debt as well as information on access to exporting.
“Before the meeting, it felt very much like SMEs are on their own and the government is only focused on corporate interests, but following the discussion it feels like there’s more support available than I was aware of. Ironically that means they need to market themselves better,” he concluded.
