It's almost impossible to run a small business in the UK nowadays

A letter in The Guardian has highlighted the sense of doom and despondency coming from the UK small business sector.

We all know it's tough out there and arguably it's never been easy, but what we now face is a very fundamental question, can small businesses in the UK survive and prosper?

Rosie Wolfenden, Managing Director, Tatty Devine, argued that under the current tax system, together with rising costs, traditional business models are no longer viable.

That is a damning view - a sense that small businesses are reaching that point when their very viability is in question.

Wolfenden was responding to a Guardian article on how the British food scene went from boom to bust.

This is what Wolfenden wrote:

"Your article about restaurants struggling to stay afloat resonated deeply with me because it mirrors what is happening in the independent retail sector, alongside the pressures facing food and hospitality businesses. I have run Tatty Devine for 27 years and like to think of us as the Michelin-star equivalent of retail: specialists in our field, delivering quality, creativity and consistency in design. Yet we too have hit a wall.

"The impact of rising minimum wages, increased national insurance contributions and higher business rates, alongside soaring material costs and a decline in customers’ disposable income, has created a perfect storm. Running a small business has become increasingly difficult, if not impossible.

"Niche independent businesses feel these pressures far more acutely than mainstream operators. As the chef Richard Wilkins says in your article, “it’s the smallest people who are hit the hardest”.

"Under the current tax system, traditional business models are no longer viable. Many businesses are now on the brink of disappearing unless they radically adapt. AI may help businesses evolve, but I am not convinced that our sector – or the small businesses that collectively employ nearly half the nation’s workforce – is yet prepared to use it at the scale required to prevent a domino effect of closures.

"If we value independent businesses for the creativity, expertise and character they bring to our towns and cities – and our economy – then we need urgent action before it is too late."

It's powerful stuff, right from the heart of the struggle and let's run that line again:

"Under the current tax system, traditional business models are no longer viable."

We need to see this as a clarion call for the very survival of small businesses.

Things need to change, the UK government needs to wake up to the fact that in these tricky times what small businesses need is support; not an onerous tax system or more burdensome red tape.

The government has to change its ways and appreciate that unless it takes steps to help small businesses grow, then the UK economy is going backwards, not forwards and things for everyone, will get worse, not better.

As we said in the headline, it's almost impossible to run a small business in the UK.

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