{"id":19997,"date":"2023-04-27T14:56:31","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T14:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/?p=19997"},"modified":"2023-04-27T14:56:32","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T14:56:32","slug":"better-business-day-and-what-it-means-for-start-ups-and-smes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/better-business-day-and-what-it-means-for-start-ups-and-smes\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Business Day and what it means for start-ups and SMEs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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New start-up businesses in the UK are as abundant as ever, but issues within society, climate change, and the cost of living have proven tricky obstacles to navigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday marked \u2018Better Business Day\u2019 \u2013 the launch of a campaign by The Better Business Act, which is calling for an amendment to Section 172 of the Companies Act in order to benefit start-ups and small businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A growing coalition of over 2,000 UK businesses is now involved with the campaign, which will today see the Better Business Act speaking with MPs, policymakers, and business leaders in Westminster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is change being called for?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Section 172 of the Companies Act sets out several duties that directors owe to a company. It requires directors to promote the success of the company so that it benefits the shareholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This legislation does not consider other responsibilities that a company has, including societal and environmental. The Better Business Act wants to see this amended, so it aligns social and environmental impact with shareholder returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change is under the microscope like never before, so it is a widely popular view that the interests of people and the planet are given as much concern as those of shareholders when boardroom decisions are made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does this affect start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Section 172 of the Companies Act, larger companies are profit driven and often prioritise quick returns for the shareholders. For start-ups and SMEs, these methods are not as feasible as they usually lack the investment and funds to achieve these short-term goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above is just one example of the stumbling blocks these businesses face when being forced by this legislation to act in similar ways to much larger, wealthier companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amendments to the legislation would level the playing field for start-ups and SMEs and see a greater balance between profit and purpose across all businesses around the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), SMEs account for 99.9 per cent of the business population, while in 2022, a staggering 774,420 start-ups were created. These figures show the need for equality, as these smaller companies are vital to the overall business landscape in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Need advice about your start-up or new business? Contact us today.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New start-up businesses in the UK are as abundant as ever, but issues within society, climate change, and the cost … Better Business Day and what it means for start-ups and SMEs<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-smes-business"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19999,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19997\/revisions\/19999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}