23 Aug Very Small Businesses
I have been working with some associates recently on potential projects in the small business support space (including Business Link and the Business Link University). One of the things I am interested in is intellectual capital and its value to SMEs. I am particularly interested in knowledge businesses but all businesses in some way get value from seeing their business from an intellectual capital viewpoint. A recent CBI report though on the effectiveness of government support to small businesses makes interesting reading – in particular I liked the following:
" Since 1999, whilst the number of businesses in the UK has grown from 3.7 million to 4.1 million, the number of companies with staff fell from 1.35 million to 1.23 million – reflecting an increasing proportion of ‘one-man-bands’."
That effectively means that 70% of all businesses have no employees (that’s nil, zilch, nada). That’s an amazing statistic and must say a lot about the reasons why people start businesses in the first place. My friends at Business Link talk about lifestyle businesses – basically businesses that are started to support the owner’s preferred lifestyle – and not actually to make lots of money for stakeholders or shareholders. These businesses are considered second class because in the eyes of the goverment a good business is one that grows, employs people and hopefully also makes big profits (that can be taxed). The question is – are lifestyle businesses actually more attuned to people’s own needs? Is human capital the ultimate form of capital?
It would be useful also to consider how these businesses support larger businesses – many of these micro businesses are undoubtedely doing excellent work for much larger clients. How can we measure the value they provide to the economy as a whole? Can an intellectual capital model help?
Some of the most creative and committed people I know run micro businesses – clearly we are not alone!
No Comments