The Small Firms Association has launched a new three-year strategy aimed at prioritising the needs of small business owners to ensure they can “survive, grow, and thrive.”
The SFA said the document sets out a vision to “place small business owners at the heart of Government policy and Ireland’s economic success story.”
It said the aim of the strategy is to create an economy where indigenous small businesses “can compete, improve productivity and build sustainable enterprises that benefit communities nationwide.”
The “Putting the Small Business Owner First” strategy document was launched by the Minister for Minister for Enterprise, Tourism & Employment, Peter Burke, at an event for SFA National Small Business Award finalists at the Hodson Bay Hotel in Athlone at the weekend.
The SFA, which represents businesses that employ fewer than 50 employees, said the strategy states that “if the business owner cannot thrive, the business cannot grow which is why the strategy places owners, from startups and stay ups to lifestyle businesses and high growth firms, at its very heart.”
It has been divided into six key pillars, which feature various action points and work streams, across growth and competitiveness, access to finance, skills and talent, digital and productivity, representation and policy influence, and communication and community.
Speaking at the launch, Minister Burke said small businesses play a vital role across the economy.
“They are a critical part of the modern, innovative economy that Ireland has created. We can’t forget their impact and importance through the jobs they create, the families they support, and their role in communities,” he added.
SFA Director David Broderick said the strategy is “a blueprint for prosperity” for the next three years.
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“Small firms are the backbone of this economy, but the small business owner is the human with the backbone and they need all the supports that they can get out there at the moment,” he said. “That’s what this strategy sets out in terms of how we’re going to engage with government and key stakeholders over the next three years.”
He said cost and regulation had increased for all firms – but the impact of that was being felt more keenly on smaller firms. And while some had enjoyed significant growth in recent years, others had not.
“You’re talking about 98% of all businesses [in Ireland] and some are growing and thriving; and indeed Covid, for some of them, made them adapt and be flexible,” he said. “But some are a lot are still really, really struggling.
“The avalanche of regulation over the last few years, as well as the increase of costs, have just been extremely difficult.”
Mr Broderick welcomed moves at a European level to simplify some regulation and to focus more on competitiveness, however he said it would take some time before the impact of those changes would be felt by companies.
Some companies had turned to digital tools like AI in an attempt to cut costs and boost productivity, but Mr Broderick said, while some companies were seeing the benefits of thigns like AI, others “not ready to go on that digital journey”.
The SFA has called for more Government support to help small businesses to increase their use of digital tools, he also said the association and its members had a role in sharing knowledge and expertise with each other.