The government wants to make the UK the best place to start and grow a business. In the autumn it will launch a public campaign to celebrate GREAT British business success stories. The government wants to inspire other small businesses and point them towards the support that can help them grow. It will also launch a new strategy for how the whole of government will back them. This will set out a range of measures to continue helping budding entrepreneurs and existing businesses succeed.

If you are a business interested in the ‘Grow Online, Expand Worldwide’ campaign, please call 02070344848 and speak to a member of the Click:Connect:Sell team.

Just 33% of small to medium-sized companies have a digital presence and only 14% sell their products online. But research suggests that if UK SMEs fully adopted online technologies, they could increase annual turnover by £18.8 billion. Here in the UK we’re twice as likely as the OECD average to buy goods online.

UKTI’s ‘Grow Online, Expand Worldwide’ campaign includes local support for:

• 4,000 aspiring web exporters through awareness raising sessions, a webinar campaign and international web workshops.
• 1,200 web export ready businesses through e-commerce masterclasses.
• 1,500 web exporters with bespoke one-to-one advice from experts, tailored website reviews and action planning to access web exporter vouchers – up to £3,000 matched funding.
• 600 companies from the UK retail sector to sell online by helping them to list their products on the world’s leading online sales sites including Alibaba in China and Tejuri in the Gulf.

steve@bicknells.net