The upcoming budget announcement is likely to be filled with grand gestures and promises of support for enterprise in the UK but the truth is that small businesses cannot rely on the government to kickstart their growth - they need to do it for themselves.
For months, David Cameron has been pledging to support entrepreneurs and small businesses and while it is great to see the government encouraging entrepreneurship, when you strip down the Government’s pledges you realise that it's mostly rhetoric. It's all very well making promises like a reduction in red tape and tax breaks, but the primary concern, especially for the thousands of small businesses (with one, two, five members of staff), that I deal with every day is running the business efficiently and covering overheads!
Like me, you will probably have realised by now that there is very little the government can actually do to make a real difference to our bottom lines
Like me, you will probably have realised by now that there is very little the government can actually do to make a real difference to our bottom lines. Politicians would be far better off advising entrepreneurs on the practical things they could be doing to help their business, instead of offering meaningless catchphrases.
The next time Cameron or Osbourne make a speech, I would love them to mention the number of free tools available to help improve businesses and encourage them to grow. Google Places is just one of these tools.
It astounds me how many people are unaware of the basic things that can dramatically improve your business! Call tracking numbers can revolutionise your business and virtual assistants are an amazing cost-effective and flexible way to help your business grow without having the expense of hiring staff. Yet these invaluable tools are still not widely used by small businesses.
Ultimately, the Government is talking a good talk and can create the right conditions for businesses to succeed, but only the entrepreneurs themselves can ensure the success of their business. It is much better for us to focus our time and energy on the things that we can do and control than sit on our hands and expect Westminster to deliver.
