Who Is Emma Jones, The New Small Enterprise Commissioner? 

Emma Jones CBE, founding father of Enterprise Nation, has this week been appointed because the UK’s new Small Enterprise Commissioner.

The Workplace of the Small Enterprise Commissioner (SBC) was first established in 2016. It was set as much as sort out the difficulty of late and unfair funds for SMEs, and its impression on money circulate. 

Jones will begin the function subsequent week. She takes over from Liz Barclay, who has accomplished her four-year time period as the present Commissioner. Barclay was Startups 100 decide in 2023.

Small enterprise minister Gareth Thomas described Jones as “somebody who has lengthy championed small companies and entrepreneurs throughout the UK. I’m assured that her ardour and experience will guarantee small companies have a strong advocate combating of their nook.”

Who’s Emma Jones CBE?

Startups might already be conversant in Jones’ work. After efficiently exiting her first enterprise referred to as Techlocate.com, a useful resource for traders, she went on to discovered Enterprise Nation, a help group of small companies and advisors, in 2005.

Over the previous twenty years, she has led numerous initiatives designed to kickstart UK innovation. She joined the federal government’s entrepreneur collective, StartUp Britain, in 2011, in addition to the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce final yr. 

Final month, Jones introduced she would step down as CEO of Enterprise Nation, presumably in preparation for her new function as SBC. The previous CEO of Saga Media Aaron Asadi, has since been confirmed as her successor.

Commenting on her appointment, Jones stated she understood the challenges dealing with the UK’s 5.5 million SMEs, having skilled them herself firsthand.

“I do know the dedication it takes to start out and develop a profitable enterprise. Founders inform me they’re time poor and spending too many valuable hours on non-productive work like chasing debt. That is limiting their capability to deal with development”, she stated.

“By means of the Workplace of the Small Enterprise Commissioner, we are going to make life simpler for small enterprise homeowners by leveraging expertise to hurry up funds and entry to help.”

What does the small enterprise commissioner do?

Because it was created 9 years in the past, the SBC has aimed to sort out late funds and unfair cost practices. Intuit Quickbooks analysis discovered that, on common, SMEs are presently owed round £21,400 in late funds.

It’s a selected difficulty for small companies. This group tends to have smaller money reserves to maintain them afloat. If a associate doesn’t pay them inside the typical 30-day window, this will have a knock-on impact when it comes to masking overheads, similar to worker wages.

The earlier SBC, Liz Barclay, arrange the Truthful Fee Code, a tiered award system for companies that exhibit honest cost practices. Firms that pay a minimum of 95% of all invoices inside 30 days are licensed Gold. Up to now, 300 companies have signed as much as the code.

Later this yr, Whitehall will publish the outcomes of a public session on further legislative measures to handle lengthy cost phrases.