The Government has refreshed the Board of Trade to help Britain’s small businesses export, grow and discover which shipping category best describes a box containing three different kinds of box.
The new board will advise on exports, digital adoption, support services and access to finance. It will also bring together business leaders who understand growth, which is encouraging news for firms that have spent the last decade being told to unlock their potential by people who cannot unlock a PDF.
The announcement counts 5.5 million small and medium sized businesses. They make things, repair things, sell things and keep whole towns operating while official plans invite them to leverage global pathways. Most would settle for a pathway with a sign, a functioning website and one form that does not ask whether their shipment has a preferred personality.
The Department of International Bubble Wrap has prepared a welcome pack. It contains a map, a packing list and a discreet warning that customs forms reproduce when left near a warm printer.
‘Exporting should not require a PhD in boxes,’ said Daphne Invoice, Official of Goods With Aspirations. ‘A small firm needs a buyer, clear instructions and perhaps one person who does not describe a tariff as a journey.’
The plan includes a call for evidence on small business finance and a summit involving firms, trade bodies and government. Those are real problems. Access to money and useful advice matter considerably more than another roomful of executives nodding at a slide labelled ambition.
A Board of Trade can use its expertise to identify barriers. Its finest achievement would be locating the moment when a straightforward loan application becomes a personality assessment conducted by a drop down menu.
At its first meeting, the board declared support for enterprise. A local manufacturer then asked whether a product could be sent to Belgium. Twelve advisers reached for different acronyms, while the chair remained the only object in the room with a clearly defined purpose.
Export advice should stay practical. First, a firm needs a buyer. Next, it needs rules that can be understood before the opportunity grows a beard. Then it needs finance that arrives while the customer is still interested. Advisers should answer direct questions directly. They should not send a deck, form a circle around a deck or commission a strategy for opening the deck.
The Government says small firms need a real seat at the table. Ideally, that seat will eventually be attached to a vehicle capable of getting a box across a border. The first successful export may be the chair, provided customs can decide whether it is furniture, executive support or a senior official with four legs.
Real story: Department for Business and Trade.
