My father was an entrepreneur. He started as a sheet metal worker in Sheffield during the fifties for about 30 years until his health meant he had to stop climbing on roofs.
He was a problem solver and perhaps I inherited this from him. Given a problem, he would design a solution and then make it in steel.
In the early eighties he complained whichever government was in power they neglected the welfare of small businesses. The Labour Party (my father always voted Labour) saw employers as villains who should be taxed to provide welfare for the workers, whilst the Conservatives for all their rhetoric, support big business and have little concern for small entrepreneurs.
Marginalisation of Small Businesses Continues
Marginalisation of small business is deeply rooted in our culture. Schooling prepares children to be employees. Whilst many jobs have disappeared we still train children to be workers. If you want a trade, something you can practice in your own right or at least turn your hand to when you’re out of work, then you have to work it out for yourself.
Perhaps we’re suspicious of entrepreneurs because our experience of the big ones is so negative. Go back to the nineteenth century and whilst there were problems in the mills, eg low pay and poor health and safety, the mill owners lived near their mills and contributed to their city. In Sheffield the names of Firth, Brown, Ward, Graves are well-known because their names are all over the buildings, parks, art galleries, etc they contributed to their city.
Compare them to the mill owners today. They are rentiers, meaning they own businesses to make money through speculation. They have no direct interest in the purpose of the business. Many don’t live in this country, often living abroad for tax purposes. They use legal tax avoidance to salt away their profits for their own benefit.
Still, there are many small traders; self-employed people making a precarious living. They contribute to their local economy and make a greater contribution when they know their business is sustainable.
Community Development and the Economy
So why doesn’t the local economy feature in our thinking about community development? Community audits rarely cover the local economy. Do what I’ve just done and Google “community audit”. Search whatever you find for mentions of economy, shops, finance … The nearest you’re likely to find is employment. A community audit can involve local businesses but in all the audits I’ve seen the economy is almost invisible.
Churches for example focus on the very young and very old and then wonder why the economically active don’t appear at their services.
Tesco recently opened a massive supermarket in my neighbourhood, one of the biggest in Europe. Its local contribution is significant – I use its toilets regularly! When it opened in November 2011, many predicted local shops would close. So far local shops, including 4 small supermarkets within a couple of minutes’ walk are still open. They’re struggling but survive. How?
Because the Muslim community have put heart and soul into building their own economy. I don’t know how they’ve done it and suspect a lot of unemployed family members work for almost nothing. But they’re making it work. They’re creating a community to their own model and that is an option open to all of us.
Remember not all local businesses are traders (and indeed not all are small). How many self-employed people in your area work from home, perhaps with customers all over the world? How do you find out about them?
Where are small businesses building the local economy in your experience? How are they doing it? Who is visible and who invisible?
