31.03.20
Business support: lessons learned from our start-up and productivity project
Source: PSE Feb/Mar
Dr Melanie Smans is Economic Development Manager at South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils
The South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils Business and Innovation Strategy Action Plan 2016-2020 highlights the importance of providing support to people who wish to start a business or be more productive.
Of the more than 15,000 small and medium-sized businesses in the districts, just over a third are sole traders. Part of the councils’ role is to support the local start-up business culture, increase small businesses’ resilience to economic shocks, and foster increased productivity.
From March 2018-October 2019, the councils’ economic development team delivered the Stronger Economy – Start-Up project. A series of week-long, free, pop-up business schools were held to stimulate the local economy which suffered due to economic shocks (including the fall-out of the Honda car plant closure announcement) and areas ranked in the 40% least deprived nationally.
The aims of each event were to increase the confidence and wellbeing of participants, assist people to start or grow a business without spending any money, provide an ongoing peer support network for start-ups, and increase awareness of the support available by the district councils’ economic development team and ultimately build a relationship with the team.
At the end of each week over 33% of participants had started a business, with one resulting in 48% starting a business. After each event participants reported being more confident, happier, and better skilled to start and grow their own business. Participants were encouraged to set up a networking group. All groups have continued and not only provide a supply chain and customer network but an important peer support network.
Although the project was resource-intensive, the economic impact (in terms of return on investment for the council) and social impact make it worthwhile. The three key lessons from our work are:
- Think like a business owner, not a bureaucrat
Scholars generally agree that entrepreneurs are opportunity-seeking, risk adverse and innovative. To foster entrepreneurship, councils can deliver initiatives that allow people to first gain the confidence to seek opportunities to start and grow a business, and then gain the skills to act on them. The simplest way is to provide events or networking opportunities in varied locations that are open to neighbouring districts. This is fundamental as businesses do not operate along local authority boundaries. This ‘open door’ approach encourages businesses to access supply chains, customers and networks outside of their village/parish/district/county.
- Networks and partnership working are essential
The economic development team has built positive and productive relationships with housing associations, job centres, schools, chambers of commerce, and training providers. These partnerships provided funding, resources and networks. Accessing local networks was key to increasing awareness of the team, gaining credibility, and encouraging people to attend who may be apprehensive about participating.
- Take a big picture approach
Focusing interventions just on one area of deprivation or the primary area impacted by an economic shock limits the opportunities available to businesses and may not be an efficient use of council resources. The project encompassed both districts, the deprivation and the economic shock, which maximised the impact of the councils’ interventions.
We are pleased that the Institute of Economic Development, the UK’s leading independent professional body for economic development and regeneration practitioners, awarded the project the Greatest Economic Impact award for 2019 and hope it inspires other councils to take a grass-roots, holistic approach to economic development.