The acronym SME is bandied about a lot by the Government, banks and others, but the term “Small to Medium-sized Enterprise” isn’t quite what most people think it means. In fact, far from it. When the Government and banks talk about SMEs they are referring to businesses that have between 10 and 249 staff (excluding owners/partners/directors). A micro-enterprise not only includes freelancers – it includes shops, pubs, restaurants, home and garden service companies and any other business with under 10 employees. The actual number of enterprises by terms used is as follows:-
| Micro (0-9) | Small (10-49) | Medium (50-249) | Large (250+) | |
| UNITED KINGDOM | 2,109,590 | 350,845 | 75,740 | 11,665 |
| ENGLAND | 1,794,475 | 292,650 | 64,175 | 9,890 |
| SOUTH EAST | 329,135 | 49,280 | 10,545 | 1,500 |
| East Sussex County | 19,465 | 2,715 | 480 | 35 |
| Eastbourne | 2,635 | 540 | 125 | 10 |
| Hastings | 2,305 | 430 | 95 | 10 |
| Lewes | 3,615 | 510 | 90 | 5 |
| Rother | 3,595 | 420 | 65 | 5 |
| Wealden | 7,315 | 815 | 105 | 5 |
| West Sussex County | 30,225 | 4,645 | 880 | 160 |
| Adur | 1,845 | 265 | 50 | 10 |
| Arun | 4,560 | 725 | 100 | 10 |
| Chichester | 5,705 | 795 | 120 | 25 |
| Crawley | 2,735 | 655 | 220 | 60 |
| Horsham | 6,125 | 790 | 140 | 15 |
| Mid Sussex | 6,050 | 850 | 140 | 15 |
| Worthing | 3,205 | 565 | 110 | 25 |
Source: ONS 4 October 2011 (data from 28 March 2011). Licence: Open Government
Micro-business is actually big business in terms of numbers. Mid Sussex is no exception and has the second highest number of micro-businesses in West Sussex and third highest in East and West Sussex combined (excluding Brighton & Hove which is a unitary authority). It looks even better in percentages:-
| Micro (0-9) | Small (10-49) | Medium (50-249) | Large (250+) | |
| UNITED KINGDOM | 82.80 | 13.77 | 2.97 | 0.46 |
| ENGLAND | 83.03 | 13.54 | 2.97 | 0.46 |
| SOUTH EAST | 84.29 | 12.62 | 2.70 | 0.38 |
| East Sussex County | 85.77 | 11.96 | 2.12 | 0.15 |
| Eastbourne | 79.61 | 16.31 | 3.78 | 0.30 |
| Hastings | 81.16 | 15.14 | 3.35 | 0.35 |
| Lewes | 85.66 | 12.09 | 2.13 | 0.12 |
| Rother | 88.00 | 10.28 | 1.59 | 0.12 |
| Wealden | 88.77 | 9.89 | 1.27 | 0.06 |
| West Sussex County | 84.17 | 12.94 | 2.45 | 0.45 |
| Adur | 85.02 | 12.21 | 2.30 | 0.46 |
| Arun | 84.52 | 13.44 | 1.85 | 0.19 |
| Chichester | 85.85 | 11.96 | 1.81 | 0.38 |
| Crawley | 74.52 | 17.85 | 5.99 | 1.63 |
| Horsham | 86.63 | 11.17 | 1.98 | 0.21 |
| Mid Sussex | 85.75 | 12.05 | 1.98 | 0.21 |
| Worthing | 82.07 | 14.47 | 2.82 | 0.64 |
With 85.75% of business being micro in Mid Sussex, we have a higher proportion of micro-businesses than the UK, England, South East and West Sussex regions. Whilst the big corporates (and there are no Mid Sussex businesses with 500+ employees!) are getting buddied up with Government Ministers, and banks saying they’re not getting many complaints about not lending enough money to SMEs (14.3% of Mid Sussex businesses), the big question raised by Tony Robinson is “what is Government doing for micro-businesses?“ Whilst larger organisations can grow and contract with relative ease due to their larger resource pool (money, time, staff, specialist skills, etc), micro-businesses can only expand (with great difficulty) or fold. Tony estimates that less than 10% of Government initiatives in the last 10 years has been aimed at micro-enterprises and has launched an ePetition to find out what Government is actually doing to support micro-businesses – which will hopefully shame them into action as Robert Craven bluntly explains the difference between SMEs and micro-enterprises.
Micro-businesses make the difference between a community and a “Tesco Town”. Even if you don’t actually own or work for a micro-business, you can still get involved in a number of ways including:-
- Signing the ePetition
- Promoting on Twitter – the campaign uses the hashtag #MicroBizMatters
- Promoting on Facebook – there is a MicroBizMatters Facebook page
- Telling your local micro-enterprises about the campaign – it’s in their interests to sign and promote it
ABBStract is a micro-business providing data and website services aimed at local micro-businesses in Mid Sussex and is proud to be supporting the “Micro Biz Matters” campaign. It’s in our clients’ and potential clients’ interests, as well as our own, to sign and promote this campaign as much as possible. We hope you’ll join in, because Micro Biz Matters in Mid Sussex and across the UK.
Tags: Burgess Hill, Crawley, Crowborough, East Grinstead, Hailsham, Haywards Heath, Horsham, Lewes, micro-business, Mid Sussex, Sussex, Uckfield, UK, Wealden