How can small business owners get their voices heard?

For smaller businesses the consequences of political apathy are dire. If the legislators do not know what it is like to run a small business, manage a payroll, make cash go further, or satisfy the sometimes conflicting demands of customers, workforce and shareholders, they are much more likely to enact bad legislation.

Happily general elections do not happen too often. But one of the sad facts of the modern political era is that only one side seems to have a commanding vote: those who choose not to vote at all. Our governments are elected by a minority of voters. Why people choose not to vote is a matter for endless debate. Certainly the increasingly erratic behaviour of our elected representatives, as demonstrated in the recent expenses scandal, has not exactly provided a boost to the democratic process.

But there is another reason why voter turnout is now so poor. And that is the increasing professionalization of politics and the creation of a Westminster bubble. MPs appear out of touch with voters. Far too many of those who serve on their parties’ front benches have precious little understanding of the real world, having experience only in think tanks, research jobs and political adviserships.

Much legislation, especially in recent years, has been thoroughly bad for smaller enterprises.  And the outlook, at least in the short and medium term, is not favourable. The dreadful state of the UK economy makes it reasonably certain that at least one vital necessity is postponed: a slashing of penal tax rates across the board, especially iniquitous National Insurance Contributions (which have become the curse of small enterprise) and business rates. I was horrified to read that in my own London Borough of Camden, business rates are due to rise by an average of 30%, and this in the middle of one of the worst economic downturns in memory. So, more businesses will go to the wall leaving fewer businesses to pay for government’s massive and continuing profligacy.

So what should the owners of small enterprises do? Well one thing not to do is suffer in silence. A lot of politics is about noise - and he or she who shouts loudest can prevail. I am not suggesting that entrepreneurs chain themselves to the gates of Downing Street or throw themselves in front of horses at this year’s Derby. But rather they should, each and every one of them, lobby.

Now, contrary to the curious belief of some Labour ex-Ministers that you need to pay £5,000 a day to one of these characters to get things done, the British system is actually quite open to the voting public. Of course you can pay for lobbying firms to help you. But realistically for smaller enterprises you have a simpler option.  Anyone can communicate with their MP at any time and expect to get an answer. And, if you do not talk to your MP, how can you expect him or her to know your sensitivities, especially when, as I have pointed out previously, so many of them have so little experience of the wealth-creating sector?

If you are genuinely too busy to lobby your MP personally, then at least join one of the excellent organisations that will fight the good fight on your behalf: for instance, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Taxpayers’ Alliance or the Quoted Companies Alliance. Any joining subscription is money very well spent. New government, new policies perhaps? It is a good time to make yourself heard.