#MicroBizMatters Day

 

#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.   

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.

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.

Production

With Yorkshire in Business Madame Zucchini2015 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).