During the pandemic, owners of smaller enterprises have shown they’ll do whatever it takes to survive – and help their communities. In the new economy, they need the right digital tools to thrive
The UK’s six million small businesses make up the backbone of its economy. Combined, they’re the nation’s largest employer, giving work to more than two in five people. But the pandemic has shown they’re something else too: the lifeblood of our communities.
Just look at the spirit small business leaders showed in changing their offering when the pandemic struck. For example, in April 2020, Salford’s Didsbury Gin had just grown its turnover from £40k to £1.5 million in a year. When lockdown kicked in, the company found its significant revenue streams were suddenly switched off, so it quickly diversified its production capacity to produce vital hand sanitiser for the NHS, police and fire services.
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In March 2020, Harvard Business Review reported that, of the companies surveyed, ninety-per-cent claim to prioritise diversity, but only FOUR per cent consider disability in those initiatives.
John Willis, Founder at Power2Inspire, was so surprised when he read that he decided to find someone to help him mine more data to prove what he knows very well:
That bringing people together through sport promotes inclusion and breaks down barriers to understanding disability.
He found a data expert from Digital Boost, who offer one-hour business mentoring sessions from expert volunteers with a deep knowledge of a huge range of challenges that small businesses face.
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Power2Inspire is unique in its approach to inclusion, connecting university sports-people with special needs schools for PowerHouseGames in adapted sports including golf, tennis, rugby and Boccia (a form of bowls).
The emphasis is on games, not competition, so the rules are adapted to the abilities of the players. If a player has only a left arm, everyone has to use their left arm.
In focusing on true inclusion, all other sorts of barriers come down, including fear and confidence… there are many success stories.
One young man found his accuracy at New Age Kurling made him the top-pick team member for the first time, and another acutely disabled boy overcame his fear and swam in the deep end of the pool because he saw John could do it.
John says: “At the end of our events there’s laughter, camaraderie, a real sense of achievement. I typically find participants have 28% greater awareness of disability afterwards.”
A second call with Digital Boost connected John with Google who are helping him convert data he holds into interesting visual stories, another way he hopes to convince businesses to be open to disability. He has also used the service to validate his fundraising strategy, as a basis for future growth when games can re-commence.
John says: “I would advise people who use Digital Boost to be clear on the project, make it a small definable thing so you get the right input for the outcome you need. Working with them has taken us in new and unexpected directions towards our vision that no-one is left on the bench.”
Want to get digital experts’ help from Digital Boost?
Digital Boost is a free non-profit online platform that supports people who work at small businesses and charities to get the essential digital advice and guidance they need to grow their businesses.
It’s easy to get free, unlimited 1:1 online conversations with volunteer expert mentors to:
- Sense-check strategies
- Bounce ideas off the pros
- Get fast answers to pressing questions or issues
- Keep up to date on the latest trends and technologies
Digital Boost also offers hands-on workshops covering topics such as SEO, Facebook Ads, payment systems, and much more, as well as a resource library packed with tools and courses.
All Digital Boost services are FREE for people who work at small businesses and charities. This is thanks to the generosity of expert volunteers from leading organisations such as Google, BT, Vodafone, Visa, Bloomberg, and more. Digital Boost currently has more than 2,300 volunteers covering 55 different topics including Branding, Digital Marketing, Customer Service, E-Commerce, Data Analytics, Security and Data Protection, Payments and Money Mgmt.
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Rachel is an artist, creating stunning tree-forms as jewellery and sculptures from wire and gemstones. Her dream is to create a life-size memory-tree installation for a public space in her home city of Birmingham, UK, whose leaves will be tokens dedicated to victims of Covid-19.
The idea came from a conversation with a business mentor at Digital Boost, who provide unlimited one-hour mentoring sessions, as well as workshops and extensive digital training. She is getting to grips with the multiple roles small business owners undertake, learning the value of free expert advice and making time to put it into practice.
Akers of Art ran as a side-line until a couple of years ago, when Rachel decided to dedicate herself to it full-time. An art teacher for fifteen years, she specialised in teaching young people on the edge of exclusion, helping uncover potential in those with few academic prospects.
So, it was a natural extension to start out by offering art workshops, the first one being a clay workshop in partnership with a local charity. When the pandemic hit, they went online, sending out kits in advance, focusing on very specific projects and setting up a camera to show her hands at work.
But that took some time and the pandemic nearly destroyed Rachel’s dreams. She struggled to keep her head above water. As a single mum of a nine-year-old boy, she was worried she would have to give up and find a job. Her amazing mum jumped in and gave her the six-month breathing space she needed.
Setting up a website and a social presence was new to Rachel. That’s where her Digital Boost mentors, two from Google and one from RSG Consulting, have been invaluable.
Her hard work paid off and demand for her online workshops grew. But workshops alone weren’t enough for Rachel. Her passion is to create sculptures as installations for public spaces.
She loves those that allow her to explore the therapeutic nature of art. Like the care home in Warrington where she created three ‘snapshots’ of the Warrington Golden Gates to remind residents with dementia where they are and give them a sense of home.
Setting up a website and a social presence has been new to Rachel. That’s where her Digital Boost mentors, two from Google and one from RSG Consulting, have been invaluable.
As well as the idea for a community-based memory tree, she has discussed creating an online gallery on her website, investigated the price points for her art and who she should be targeting, whether B2B or B2C customers.
Rachel said: “I can’t believe all my hard work is finally paying off. I’m my harshest critic but am finally beginning to believe in myself. Digital Boost is fantastic. I’m so grateful the experts there are willing to give up their time free of charge. I’m now focused on making my memory-tree installation a reality.”
Want to get digital experts’ help from Digital Boost?
Looking to start or grow your small business idea but haven’t the first idea where to start? Here’s why mentoring could be the key to your success…
Whether it’s starting your own business from scratch, growing the one you already have, or trying something new, when it comes to shaking things up in your career, it’s rightfully a stressful time.
One of the main points of confusion and worry can be knowing where to start and having the confidence to know you’re making the right decisions, which is exactly where finding a mentor comes into practice.
Ashleigh took the plunge when she founded her own company Cook It Up, a Nottinghamshire-based healthy food fusion business inspired by her travels, with the help of a mentor.
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- Mastercard launches Strive UK to empower British micro and small enterprises to thrive in the digital economy over the next three years.
- Strive UK will support small businesses to build financial resilience and improve growth prospects.
- Programme comes as new research finds £827 billion growth opportunity for UK’s small businesses.
Today, Mastercard launches Strive UK, an initiative that will empower 650,000 British micro and small enterprises (MSEs) to thrive in the digital economy over the next three years and beyond.
Strive UK is an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, which advances equitable and sustainable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world. The programme aims to empower micro and small businesses around the country to succeed in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools, and personalised, one-to-one mentoring. For example, this will include a data science powered ‘One Stop Shop’ for entrepreneurs with curated recommendations on support, resources and tools available to help them grow their business, as well as 1:1 support for businesses to identify and adopt the right digital tools for them.
Small businesses play a critical role in the UK economy, accounting for around 36% of turnover in the UK private sector and making up 48% of the labour force. Despite this, they have been hit hard by the pandemic, with nearly two thirds of small businesses seeing revenue decrease.
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Mary and her husband, owners of Hippersons Boatyard, bought the sixty-year-old business on the southern reach of the Norfolk Broads National Park nearly ten years ago. Moving their barge home from London to Suffolk, they decided to occupy one of their own houseboats while the barge was in dry dock for repairs.
She immediately realised that they had bought a tourism business, with boat maintenance taking second place. They would need to attract a different type of customer and manage stays, from booking to check-in, directly rather than going through an agent.
So, they created holiday experiences including overnights in stylish new luxury glamping pods, water-based experiences including canoe tours, paddle boarding and dayboat hire, and packages with bookings at the best local restaurants.
Mary decided to move much of the business online and taught herself to run the customer experience and promotion of their holidays, learning about marketing, the power of Facebook, and setting up a YouTube channel to give customers the information they need before arrival.
It was a fortunate decision. Mary had an advantage when the pandemic brought the first lockdown in March 2020, and her plans accelerated. She realised that if she didn’t go online faster they could lose the business forever.
Taking up free digital courses on offer, Mary upped her digital game, creating and commissioning vlogs, and building her website with more engaging content.
Consequently, when they were allowed to open on 4th July 2020, the business was super-busy. Units and day boats were perfect sizes for the social bubble and visitors enjoyed the experience so much they quickly booked again for 2021.
Mary discovered Digital Boost, who provide free unlimited business mentors as well as workshops and extensive digital training to small organisations, as she sought to improve her skills during lockdown. She connected with Chris from BT for a mentoring session. She was most impressed that he had researched Hippersons beforehand and came to the conversation armed with great ideas.
The focus of the conversation was YouTube, and Chris shared his screen to show Mary how it works, how to get subscribers and how to write a profile that connects to Facebook and other social media for message continuity.
He also showed her how to create ads and promote locally, which inspired her to create a film showcasing their guided canoe tours for local people using her new underwater GoPro camera, aimed to reach the age-group most connected to YouTube.
From analytics, Chris and Mary realised that people liked videos about the engines and what goes on around the yard even more than the marketing-type films. This insight is bringing about a fundamental shift in her marketing approach as she upped her digital game, creating and commissioning vlogs, and building her website with more engaging content.
Mary said: “I’m so excited to move forward with the ideas Chris shared and am impressed that he found out about us before the call, especially as he is a volunteer. Our digital strategy is working, and I’m so pleased we moved online. We are creating employment opportunities locally and I am excited that customers love our new approach.”
Want to get digital experts’ help from Digital Boost?
We know that prosperity among the UK’s 1.4 million SME employers will be essential to our economy bouncing back from the impact of Covid-19. Given the right support, they have the potential to deliver as much as £140bn in gross value added (GVA) to the UK economy by 2030 – and to create 3.2m jobs over the same period, according to NatWest’s recent ‘A springboard to recovery’ report. And yet the report also highlighted a continued disparity in the allocation of support and funding by gender, location and ethnicity in the UK.
NatWest is committed to removing barriers to enterprise and helping the economy build back better by providing support to those who traditionally face the highest barriers to entry in business. So, in order to help reset this balance, we have partnered with Digital Boost to provide tailored digital training and advice to SMEs and charities looking for extra support to help grow their business and boost revenues.
Digital Boost was created in response to the pandemic, to help drive inclusive economic growth and improve the livelihoods of millions, with a particular focus on the needs and challenges of charities and small and micro-business owners. It helps businesses get the digital skills they need to grow their revenues and be more productive, by matching those who need to upskill with digital experts for free one-to-one mentoring, workshops, and tailored course and resource recommendations.
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Rachel from Creative Active Lives worked with Digital Boost to help her understand how to reach new customers online who could benefit from her activity kits for adults and children with physical and learning difficulties, to grow her business in new directions.
Rachel is a single mum whose first business started ‘by accident’ when she discovered a talent for hula-hooping and circus tricks and started teaching adults with physical and learning difficulties.
She built her social-enterprise by working with occupational therapists and other experts in dance, art, and crafts, to adapt the skills. She has since taught thousands of people, specialising in care homes and those with dementia.
But the arrival of Covid-19 was devastating for her business.
With home-schooling her priority, Rachel was forced to put things on hold. But she needed to pay the bills and wanted to help. She created activity kits for STEM activities, beading, pottery-making and a sensory fidget box for children with autism and ADHD. She applied for grant-funding to set up a website and was successful.
She wanted to build a new site that others could share, like a marketplace. But how to create something that was a brilliant user experience? That’s when she spotted Digital Boost on her LEP website and got in touch to set up a mentoring session.
Rachel connected with a mentor at Google, a specialist in website development. He helped her navigate her way through the digital tools available, like Audience Finder and Reach Planner. She discovered she could explore potential customers and how to reach them by understanding, for example, their search behaviour for kids’ activities.
Rachel said: “I feel I’m winging it, but I’ve had amazing help. The mentor at Digital Boost helped me short-cut to finding my audience and making my brand visible online. I’m so grateful to Digital Boost and am lining up some more experts to help me explore more ways to grow the business.”
Want to get digital experts’ help from Digital Boost?
Amanda, founder of Mann’s Cookies created her first-ever business with the help of her family, baking and delivering fun and delicious cookies nationwide. Digital Boost helped her optimise her social media content and build partnerships with other businesses to help her grow.
Amanda wanted to help her friend who runs a local A&E department with some tasty team treats during their long shifts and ended up starting a cookie business with her fourteen-year-old niece in 2020.
Her children helped build her website and keep her customers engaged with blogs and fun social-media posts. Amanda can’t contain her excitement as she processes orders and heads to the kitchen at 7am each morning.
Her fun-cookie boxes are lovingly created for every occasion and include vegan, gluten-free and even a rude option! Additive-free, they are delivered through letter-boxes nationwide.
However, as a first-time business owner, Amanda needed more serious advice on how to build her online presence, manage customer experience and grow collaborations with businesses selling products as diverse as coffee, umbrellas, and sponges. So, she reached out to Digital Boost when she saw a post on Instagram.
They jumped in to help her with advice on SEO and managing partnerships, so she could handle the success of her growing business and take things to the next level.
Amanda said: “Mine is a COVID-19 business. I couldn’t imagine I would have so much fun and meet such amazing people. But I don’t have business experience so am grateful I found Digital Boost. They were brilliant on their mentoring calls. They are helping me get to grips with the mechanics of things, how to deliver great customer service and keeping up my social media presence.”
Want to get digital experts’ help from Digital Boost?