How your SME can become a government supplier
Sharing your success , best practice and lessons learned
Growth
UK Gov ‘ Open for Business ’
How your SME can become a government supplier
Emma Jones , is Founder of Enterprise Nation and became the Small Business Crown Representative , to help UK SMEs win government business , in July 2016 . Here Emma explains how SMEs can engage with government as a supplier : " UK Gov is ‘ Open for Business ’ and keen to meet its target to spend £ 1 in every three with small and medium businesses by 2020 .
Simplifying public procurement for SMEs
" In my new role as Crown Representative I focus on three priorities . One is to simplify the public procurement bidding process for small businesses . Second is promoting the fact government is open for business , and the third is innovation . How do I connect buyers from the mighty powers of Whitehall with product and services from tiny businesses across the UK that they don ’ t yet know exist ? I hear both sides of the story and my job is to try and connect the two and to deepen understanding .
" When discussing government procurement , entrepreneurs say to me , ‘ It ’ s too difficult , there ’ s too many procurement platforms .’ They struggle to find time to write bids , but winning work is worth the effort as government is a credible client and pays its invoices on time .
G-Cloud simplifies digital procurement for smes
" When sitting in government meetings , I hear what government is doing to try and simplify things . One simplification tool is G-Cloud , an online portal for suppliers of digital technology and services to create a single profile that can be used as a basis for all public digital marketplace bids . Small , innovative businesses win the majority of work on G-Cloud . This is a good methodology and needs to be replicated by a Crown Market Place to help simplify procurement across all areas of purchasing ."
Emma will be giving a keynote presentation at UKSPA ’ s York conference in May [ see p14-15 ]. She will discuss the future of small businesses in the UK , the Industrial Strategy , innovation exchange , and engagement with government . Enterprise Nation is a small business community of over 80,000 people who benefit from business books , events , buyer introductions and funding : enterprisenation . com ■
Emma Jones Founder of Enterprise Nation , Small Business Crown Representative
Emma launched Enterprise Nation in 2006 as the home business website . In March 2011 , she was one of eight co-founders to launch StartUp Britain . She is a business expert and author
Read online at : ukspa . org . uk / breakthrough spring 2017 | UKSPA BREAKTHROUGH | 63