The 7th Annual #MicroBizMatters Day – One Million Helping Hands on January 8 2021 was held in my and Tina Boden’s hometown of Scarborough. It was our most successful yet and was brilliantly hosted, designed and produced by Yorkshire in Business team and sponsored by Sage.
The 8th Annual and Final #MicroBizMatters Day on March 25th 2022, was held in Scarborough hosted by Yorkshire in Business and sponsored by Hull City Council, John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank, Hull Libraries and Simply Business.
#MicroBizMatters Day was the second day of the #MicroBizMatters Festival. On the first day of the festival, Thursday March 24 an informal, fun, late lunch/afternoon with DJ featured speakers: Lorraine Allman – “Enterprising Child”; Ian Farrar – Far North; Adam Corbally – The Apprentice and the ‘Ireland and UK Micro Business Awards’ Grand Finals. I performed my “Be More Happipreneur!” Show, sponsored by Simply Business and followed by a Q&A including all the afternoon’s keynote speakers.
Headline speakers on our 8th and final #MicroBizMatters Day (One Million Helping hands) on Friday, March 25 were Adam Corbally, the most popular The Apprentice finalist, Brad Burton the UK’s Number One Motivational Speaker (video message); Liz Barclay, the Small Business Commissioner; Bill Esterson MP, Shadow Minister for Business and Industry; Ian Cass, CEO of the Forum of Private Business; Janet Jack CEO of the International Association of Bookkeepers and the Association of Accounting Professionals, Jill Poet, CEO of the Organisation for Responsible Businesses, Louise Third Author of “PR on A Beermat” and a special film we premiered on the young entrepreneurs of Hull. Our MC for the day was Adam Corbally.
Over 30 top speakers from the UK and Ireland gave their tips to help business owners to survive and thrive, and as usual, it was all live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube from 7 am.
Here were the short schedules. Thanks to the amazing Yorkshire in Business team it was a triumph. 
H Here was the FULL SCHEDULE:
Yorkshire in Business proudly present the 2-Day #MicroBizMatters Festival including: Tina Boden & Tony Robinson OBE 8th Annual & Final #MicroBizMatters Day (One Million Helping Hands)
Live in multiple Scarborough venues and theatres & live-streamed globally through Facebook and YouTube
Twitter: @MicroBizMatters #microbizmatters
Sponsored by Hull City Council, John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank & Hull Libraries
#MicroBizMatters Happiness & Inspiration Day – Thursday, March 24, 2022
Time: 10,30 am until late Venues: Various including Tipi, Open Air Theatre, North Bay
10 am to 1.30 pm – Arrive, Network, Rest & Play Session
Highlights include Nabs café drop-in; try surfing; Escape Room; 7 miles run with Tony getting donations for #macmillancancersupport; seaside stroll and beach chalet with Tina…. or just sunbathe.
2 pm to 3.15 pm Indie DJ Music, Food and Drinks Session in the Tipi
Featuring: Ireland and UK Micro Business Awards Grand Finals Announcement
3.30 to 6.45 Inspirational Speakers in the Tipi
Featuring: Adam Corbally (Business & Education Speaker & The Apprentice Finalist), Lorraine Allman (Author of Enterprising Child & co-creator of the #MicroBizMatters movement), Ian Farrar (CEO Far North, top podcaster and influencer) and Tony’s “Be More Happipreneur” Show + Q&A Panel
7 pm until late is Party time in the Tipi – “What happens in Scarbados stays in Scarbados”!
Time: 7 am until late Venues: Various including McCarthy Theatre in the Stephen Joseph Theatre
*7 am to 12.30 pm is the #MicroBizMatters Day Challenge session when as business owners we give time to help each other. In the run-up everyone is asked to contact someone they haven’t seen for a long time, if ever, arrange to do something fun together and tweet a photo of you doing it with the hashtag #microbizmatters.
*We will be live streaming on Facebook and YouTube helpful survive and thrive tips from business owners including Merlie Calvert, Larissa Cooper, Mo Kanjilal, Allegra Chapman, Janice B Gordon, Catrina Clulow, Ruairi Devlin, Emily Whitehead, Valerie Dwyer, Jan Cavelle, Simon Cox, Sonali Joshi, Adrian Ashton, Katie Stidolph, Umesh Samani, Rachel Hayward, Hull’s young entrepreneurs and many more.
Guests in Scarborough have the additional optional activities: Open Top Bus tour with Tony, Networking on board the Seagrown ship in the harbour and Ladies over lunch with Tina.
* 1 pm to 3.15 pm is “Levelling the playing field” in the McCarthy Theatre.
What should business membership organisations and the Government do to help make micro-business owners’ lives better? What can we, as business owners, do to help each other? Featured Speakers are Liz Barclay, the Small Business Commissioner, Bill Esterson MP, Shadow Minister for Business and Industry, Janet Jack, CEO of the International Association of Bookkeepers. Ian Cass, CEO of the Forum of Private Business and Jill Poet, CEO of the Organisation for Responsible Businesses. Their talks will be followed by a Q&A Panel conducted by your MC for the afternoon, Adam Corbally.
* 3,30 pm to 6 pm is the “Get it done” session
Starring: Brad Burton the UK’s Number One Motivational Speaker and supported by “survive and thrive” tips from the young Entrepreneurs of Hull, the Business Boost Entrepreneur Winners and Louise Third, Author of PR on a Beermat. The afternoon will be closed by Tina and Tony who say, “Thanks for the memories” and allow a short Q&A.
* 7 pm until late – it’s back to the Tipi for party time featuring a live band and more food!
Watch this #MicroBizMatters Day video about Enterprising Scarborough – The Queen of Seaside Resorts
What is #MicroBizMatters Day?
#MicroBizMatters Day is an annual Day of Recognition, Action and Learning for micro business owners. 95% of all businesses in the UK are micro-businesses (0-9 employees and under £2 million turnovers).
The 8th Annual #MicroBizMatters Day – One Million Helping Hands – will be hosted in Scarborough by Yorkshire in Business on Friday, March 25th 2022.
It is a social media day when over one million business owners give a little time to support each other. Recognition is by use of the #MicroBizMatters hashtag. Action is support for the major campaigns to make life better for independent business owners of which #PayIn30Days which I started in 1996, is the best known, Learning is from an event live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube featuring famous and successful business owners giving tips for success in different sectors.
How do I get involved?
Search for #MicroBizMatters on Twitter and Facebook and you’ll soon get the hang of what people are doing on the day. All of them, always over one million, are giving a little time to help other business owners. There are many offline events organised too – business owners getting together for a coffee and to watch the live streaming on their laptops or phones.
History
In January 2012, Tina Boden and I co-founded and launched an informal online community to make life better for micro business owners everywhere. We initially called our informal, free, no contact details required, movement the Enterprise Rockers. The informal community, a network of networks, and movement is based on 4 campaigns which are: #NotAnSME, #PayIn30Days, #Indie25ER and #MicroBizMatters.
In January 2015 we held the first annual #MicroBizMatters Day and subsequently retitled our movement #MicroBizMatters. The host events for famous and successful business owners to attend and broadcast on YouTube and Facebook have been as follows:
2015 Google for Work/Sage – London
2016 Portobello Business Centre – London
2017 Pimlico Plumbers – London
2018 XYZ Works – Manchester
2019 Hull City Hall – Hull
2020 EKM – Preston
2021 -Yorkshire in Business – Scarborough
2022 – Friday, March 25th designed, hosted and produced by Yorkshire in Business – Scarborough – with Ireland and UK Micro Business Awards on the afternoon of March 24th.
Starring Our Celebrity Entrepreneur & Business Owner Guests – Virtually and In Person.
The Small is Beautiful Roll of Honour lists all of these kind entrepreneurs that have freely given their time to #MicroBizMatters Day. You can read profiles of most of them in the PDFs of the souvenir programmes for 2016, 2017 and 2018.
YOU CAN WATCH ALL THE INTERVIEWS AND LEARNING SESSIONS FROM 2019 TO 2022 ON OUR MICROBIZMATTERS FACEBOOK AND YOUTUBE PAGES.
MicroBizMatters Day on Facebook; Watch the interviews
and from the early years on these three playlists:
2016 : Star Interviews 2016
2017: Star interviews 2017
2018: Star interviews 2018
Special thanks are due to the multiple contributions of Kanya King CBE (our inspiration), Charlie Mullins OBE (our Tsar), Tim Campbell MBE, Chris Percival, Kate Hardcastle MBE, Penny Power OBE, Sway, Naomi Timperley, Tom Evans, Janice B Gordon, Laura Henry and Elaine Clark. Thanks also to business membership organisation CEOs, particularly, Ian Cass Forum of Private Business, Emma Jones MBE of Enterprise Nation and Janet Jack, CEO of IAB.
Networks and Small Business Membership Organisations
Hundreds of local, regional and national networks of business owners get involved but a special thanks are doe to the following national membership organisations:
Forum of Private Business; Enterprise Nation; Federation of Small Business; Design Trust, Centre for Entrepreneurs; RSA and Freelance Heroes.
Production
2015 to 2019 Paul Lancaster supported the co-founders, Tina Boden and I. 2020 Production was by EKM with Yorkshire in Business. 2021 onwards is by Yorkshire in Business.
#MicroBizMatters Day would not exist without all the business owners and enterprise supporters giving their time and resources to run the Day. Our 7th Annual #MicroBizMatters Day was sponsored by Yorkshire in Business partner, SAGE UK.
I cannot list them all but special thanks to:
Antony and Alison Chesworth, Jenn Crowther, Tripp Braden (USA), Paul Lancaster, Gaynor Carr (design), Ed Goodman, Charles Cracknell; Elaine Clark; Marianne Whitfield; Michelle Dorrell; Adrian Ashton; Jo Harrison; Neal Boden; Sinead Robinson, Clare Francis; Sadie Skipworth and Martin Mullen. Thanks also to many companies that have donated time and money to the Day including EKM, Yorkshire in Business, Hull City Council, 123 Reg, Pimlico Plumbers, Jigsaw Medical; Microsoft, Google for Work; Sage, KCOM and ScanSnap (Fujitsu).
