Small Business Support

Market Stall image for Small Business Support blog.

Or, Distinct Lack Thereof

Getting any small business off the ground is difficult enough, but there is definitely a distinct lack of any ongoing small business support, here in the UK right now. Which really sucks. So, if you’re looking to turn an idea into more than just a hobby (as was I), then this article is just for you.

What follows are some of my experiences and thoughts on the subject of Small Business Support, as I have endeavoured to keep my dreams of owning my own business and being self-sufficient alive, since the pandemic.

If you’re reading this from overseas, then the majority of this blog may not be relevant, but you still might get some ideas. So, still definitely worth a read (no pressure).

Access To Finance

I recently attended (April 2025, if you’re reading this way in the future) a seminar entitled; Access To Finance. This was hosted by Business Sheffield, an organisation run by Sheffield Council that offers “Small Business Support”. For three hours, various speakers chatted about how their organisations were helping SMEs in Sheffield, by offering loans of up to (get this) £40M.!? (In my dreams!)

The final speaker (who just happened to be my business mentor at Business Sheffield) talked about grants. More specifically, about the grant application process, how it’s a complicated process and how Business Sheffield can help you through that process. Not about what grants are available to small businesses (which is what I was hoping for), as it appears that there bloody well aren’t any and it would have resulted in an extremely short talk.

Once the Q&A section of the seminar had finished, Farah (a Clinical Hypnotherapist who I had met earlier that morning and had been sitting next to) and I turned to face each other, both with expressions of incredulity, and we shared a short, spontaneous laugh. It was at that exact moment that we both realised that there is absolutely no support for people in our situation. <insert Venn diagram>

A Defining Moment

But, what do I mean by “our situation”? Before I answer that question, I need to explain a previously used acronym; SME. SME (with regards to businesses in the UK) stands for “Small to Medium Enterprise” and is the definition under which all small businesses in the UK are categorised.

At the time of writing this blog, the UK government website defines an SME as;

…any organisation that has fewer than 250 employees and a turnover of less than €50 million or a balance sheet total less than €43 million.

(Yeah, I know. I’m not sure why the values are in Euros and not Pound Sterling, either.)

This definition is further split down into three more sections. A “Medium Enterprise” is pretty much the figures stated above. A “Small Enterprise” has fewer than 50 employees and a turnover/balance sheet total of less than €10 million. Finally, a “Micro Enterprise” has fewer than 10 employees and a turnover/balance sheet total of less than €2 million.

Situation: Normal..?

So, as a Sole Trader trying to scratch a living, with no employees; what are Farah and I classed as? A “Pico Enterprise”? Our situation, along with every other person in this position, is that we’re too small for any meaningful support, thus we fall through the cracks in the “support” system.

We’re pretty much left to fend for ourselves, with only our blood, sweat, tears and determination to survive on. Unfortunately, none of the aforementioned help to pay the bills.

The issue is, businesses like ours tend to (but, not always) fall outside of the current buzzword strategy push, with today’s (at the time of writing this blog) being; Growth and Diversity. Now, there’s nothing wrong with either of these, but when you’re a sole trader just starting out, your focus is getting all of the necessities in place and maintaining a steady income.

Other Support Organisations

This “support issue”, I’ve found, isn’t just with Business Sheffield. I’ve dealt with a number of “support” organisations (six, to be exact), both pre- and post-pandemic, and they all appear to have the same malaise when it comes to Pico Enterprises (I’ve coined the term, so I’m gonna run with it).

This is because of how these “support” organisations are funded. They can’t be seen to favour one business over another, so can’t provide meaningful support where you need it. Nor do they help Pico Enterprises in the one area that really is the most critical.

Time

When you have to do everything yourself, time is the one thing you require the most, but seem to have the least of. And there appears to be so much more you have to do now as a small business Pico Enterprise, these days.

Social Media

My current Social Media output frequency is (quite frankly) rubbish. I tend (when time allows) to err on the side of quality, not quantity (my Instagram and Facebook are here, go check ‘em out). Unfortunately, that doesn’t help with the content, Content, CONTENT algorithms of all social media platforms. And, Social Media appears to be an all too necessary evil these days.

How the hell are these people on my feed(s), who knock out one or two videos daily, managing to physically make anything and still have the time to sell it, is completely beyond my comprehension.

And don’t even get me started on Youtube (my channel , such as it is, is here).

Website

Social media was fine (to start with), but I was continually restricted in how I sold the creations I make. Getting likes and the odd share is great, but if you’re not selling anything, then what’s the point?

So, having my own website was a biggie for me. But, before this site was created, I spent hours upon hours searching for the right web design company. I went around in circles, not being able to get the recommendations I required to give me confidence I would be making the right choice. Especially, as one or two of the companies I looked at suggested that you should be looking to spend upwards of £5000 just for a folio website.!? (I jest not)

Not one of the aforementioned six so-called “support organisations” could give me any pointers on even in which direction I should be heading; local or otherwise. Other than suggesting Google searches, which was no help whatsoever.

Oh, they had online courses and seminars a-go-go for you to sign up to. Each showing you how to set up and build a website yourself. But, I didn’t (and still don’t) have the time (or, quite frankly, the motivation) to be arsed to learn website design to the specific degree that my OCD and Autistic tendencies would require.

I finally took the plunge and plumped for a company to contact about my website needs. Thankfully (or luckily), Darren and Carina at Volta Creative have been absolutely wonderful, and I can’t recommend them enough. Should you be in the market, then do go check them out.

Mind & Body Strong, Grasshopper

Please, please don’t be put off or discouraged by anything you’ve read, so far. Should you want to set up on your own and give it a go, then do it. If you don’t, you’ll probably be forever wondering; What If..?

Plus, Corum’s got your back with some helpful pointers, to get you on your way.

Get Your Ideas Down

I can’t stress enough the advantage of sitting down, with a pen (or in my case, pencil), a pad of paper and a beverage of your choice, and getting down your ideas. Absolutely anything that pops into your head, relating to the business you want to start, needs to be written down. To my mind, if it’s written down, it’s out of your head and you can move on to other things.

I suppose (if you’re more hip and down with the kids than I am), there’s no reason why you couldn’t do all of the above digitally. Just remember to BACK IT UP! To a cloud drive, another device or removable data storage. Better to be safe than sorry.

Business Plan

Now you have some ideas, you need to start planning. Whether you intend to go down the New Enterprise Allowance route (as I did, or some other locally funded government startup scheme) or not, I’d advise you to write/type up a Business Plan.

In the time since I got back from Australia and decided I didn’t want to work for anyone else ever again, I’ve written four business plans. These have been for the various “support organisations” I’ve had to deal with to get (and keep) Silverhand Creative off its arse. So, I’m well versed in the creation of these documents. There are many templates you can find online, but they all have a similar structure and information requirements. I’ve highlighted the main sections below, with short descriptions.

Executive Summary

Business Idea – (Good job you sat and jotted all this down beforehand, isn’t it) What do you intend to make/sell? How do you intend to make/purchase it/them and where?
Business Aims & Objectives – I would suggest splitting this down into sections. Short Term (1-3 Months), Medium Term (3-6 Months) and Long Term (6-12 Month). In mine I also added in a Longer Term (12+ Months). This will help you structure how you progress, so that you don’t try and get everything done in the first instance.
Personal Profile – This is about you and what previous training and/or experience you have that is relevant to your new business endeavours.
Key Personnel: If it’s just you, then put that it’s just you doing everything. If you’re going to be getting a little help along the way, put that too.
Personal/Business SWOT Assessment – SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. These sections are pretty straight forward to complete, just be honest with yourself.
Customers – Who will be your customer base? It’s easy to just say “everyone”, but it’s worth narrowing down to a specific demographic. This will help greatly for future targeted marketing and saving money for such.
Competitors – Who are you up against? Both locally and online. What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Marketing

Market Research [Desktop & Field] – Don’t just Google everything, have a wander around where the goods you’re planning to sell are sold (shops, market stalls, etc). Make discrete enquiries, see how business is going and check out the prices.
Legal – What potential legal requirements could be needed for you to go into business?
Product(s) – What do you plan to make/sell?
Costs & Prices – How much will the raw materials cost and what price will you sell the final product at?
Place – Where do you plan to sell your items? This doesn’t have to be a physical location, as you may be looking to sell on online marketplaces; Facebook, Etsy, etc.
Plan – This is your marketing/selling strategy. It’s a good idea to mark it out as you did for the Business Aims & Objectives section, above.
Finances – This section should be completed with the help of whichever organisation is helping you start your business.

Funding

Chances are if you’re going down the New Enterprise Allowance or whatever your local equivalent is, you’ll end up getting £1000. Which, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t a lot. Trust me. Gone are the days where you could apply for grants for equipment, or website partial funding, etc.

The only options that will be potentially open to you are small business startup loans, usually at a reduced interest rate. These loans come from the British Business Bank – Startup Loans Company and are funded by the UK government.

You can apply for sums between £500 and £25,000, with repayment periods from one to five years. To be eligible, you must be aged 18 or over, live in the UK, have your business in the UK and be eligible to work in the UK. Your business must also have been running for less than three years.

If you intend to go down this route, then please get some advice beforehand.

Supply Chain

Whether you want to get creative and make items from scratch, or buy/import goods to sell, you’ll need to find out where to get it all from. Luckily for me, the majority of the materials I use are either donated, rescued from skips (with permission, of course. #SkipRat), or purchased for cheap at car boot sales, garage/yard sales or sourced online via Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace.

For you, however, it may not be that simple. You might have to source various materials from different suppliers/distributors. The problem that I’ve found with this, is that (especially if you’re just starting out) you may be too small of a concern for them to deal with. I have a “Too Small For Big Business” blog in the works, so I’ll link it here when that’s done.

But, don’t be disheartened if they don’t reply to email enquiries straight away. Give it a few days or a week and if they haven’t got back to you by then, chase them up. Give them a call to see if anyone has picked the email up, or (which is more likely) see if your email has gone straight to their Spam folder. This is always difficult for me, due to my chronic (and sometimes debilitating) social anxieties and insecurities.

Be Flexible & Adapt

When I first decided I was going into business for myself, I had a couple of ideas of what I wanted to do. One was the Upcycled Creations side and the other was a complete colour-coded sanding system for crafters, makers and DIYers.

The main sticking point was exactly what I mentioned earlier in the Supply Chain section. I really struggled to get manufacturers to even talk to me, let alone deal with me. I lost so much time (and enthusiasm) trying to get this into the planning stage. Eventually, my then business mentor suggested I focus on the upcycling side and put the sanding system on the back burner. As of writing this blog, it’s still there.

Then, when we were all released from the pandemic lockdowns, I had to take a part-time job to pay the bills, which meant less time on my business. So, I came up with another idea that would help bring in some turnover. I can’t say too much at this time (as it’s still work-in-progress), but part of this includes a new ecommerce website (Volta to the rescue). This new endeavour isn’t what I originally planned to do, but it still fits within the Silverhand Creative banner.

So, if your first idea doesn’t go quite to plan, try something a little different. Don’t give up, just try something else. You may be able to come back to your original idea, once you’re more established.

Final Thoughts

In Conclusion (as I’m already up to 2494 words), starting up on your own isn’t easy (unless you’re loaded, or have just won the lottery), but it is doable. It just takes a lot of time, some determination and just a little bit of self-belief.

Just don’t rely totally on the Small Business Support from the usual government funded channels. Plan it all out, lay down a strategy and bloody well give it a go. If you’re sure something can be done, then don’t let anyone else try to tell you it can’t be done. Go for it and see what you can achieve.

Let me know how it goes,

C…