ERC State of Small Business Britain Conference 2025

We were back at University of Warwick – Warwick Business School‘s offices at The Shard  on December 2nd 2025 for the 10th annual ERC State of Small Business Britain Conference… and what a day!

The focus this year was on small business support, inclusion and growth. Earlier this year, the government published a new small business strategy that set out a long-term direction for small business support. The strategy aspires to create a system that will support businesses in every community. But how can we ensure that it meets the needs of the diverse entrepreneurial community, and creates growth?

The ERC’s Stephen Roper and Mark Hart set the agenda with an opening presentation on growth for all: a positive policy agenda. They were followed by Monder Ram, of Aston University, who spoke  powerfully about why we should back the everyday economy. Kelly Bewers spoke on the theme of reimagining entrepreneurship and how might we build a more inclusive start-up ecosystem drawing on her work on social mobility with CityVentures.

Mark Hart led a discussion with Angelina Cannizzaro of the Department for Business and Trade focusing on the measures in the small business strategy and the budget. Dr Lorna Treanor FRSA, of the University of Nottingham presented insights from her wide-ranging research on supporting innovation and growth in female-led businesses.

In the afternoon a business panel discussion explored the priorities for small business support in uncertain times, chaired by Liz Barclay, of the Institute of Directors (IoD), with Emily Whitehead, Lisa Pogson, Darren Joint,and Damini Sharma. This was followed by a presentation by Steven Furnell, of the University of Nottingham focusing on cybersecurity challenges faced by SMEs.

Greg Clark of Warwick Innovation District spoke with Steve Rigby, of the Rigby Group plc on the theme of building a strong local entrepreneurial ecosystem, and Alex Till of the National Enterprise Network talked passionately about the contribution of the many organisations providing enterprise support for start-up, small and micro-businesses. Our closing keynote was from Rachel Doern, of Goldsmiths, University of London, who presented some highlights from her book, The resilient entrepreneur: from crisis to enlightenment.

Several overarching themes emerged during the day, including –

🔵 The importance of microbusinesses to the economy: their ‘quiet innovation’, adaptability and resilience;
🔵 The need to meet businesses and entrepreneurs ‘where they are’ rather than providing off-the-shelf support that makes assumptions about their needs;
🔵 The importance of trusted community and local enterprise support organisations in business growth;
🔵 The need for stability in funding and an end to ‘cliff-edge’ approaches;
🔵 The importance of evidence-base policy… and much more!

Thanks to our Chair Jane Galsworthy as well as to the speakers and participants today.

We’ll share more insights from the event soon and the presentations will be available via the ERC website.