Business in the Community

How can we make Britain’s small businesses risk resilient?

The New Reality
SMEs are the backbone of our economy, but the most vulnerable to risk

SMEs play a crucial role in the UK economy and are the lifeblood of communities up and down the country. They account for 99.9% of all private sector businesses, 60% of all private sector employment and 47% of all private sector turnover. Yet they are also the most vulnerable to risk. Almost half have no continuity, disaster recovery or crisis management plans in place, and many admit that their business would fail if faced with unanticipated costs. At the same time, both traditional and emerging risks are increasing in number and severity – often with the potential to destroy businesses overnight. We needed to provoke SME owners to rethink their readiness for risk – achieving a shift from responding to damaging events like fire, theft or flood, to preventing and mitigating them before they even hit.

The Insight
You’ve spent years nurturing your business – don’t leave its future to fate

SMEs are built from blood, sweat and tears. Owners grow their businesses from the ground up, nurture them through countless challenges and proudly watch them flourish. Yet despite all that hard work and dedication, the unpredictable nature of today’s world means that owners are far from in control of their future.

The Idea
Would you be ready?

We created a campaign that dramatises the potential impact of a wide range of risks – from floods and fires to civil unrest and cyber-attacks – provoking business owners to ask themselves if they would be ready if the worst were to happen to them. Business in the Community’s network of corporate and public sector partners were critical for campaign roll-out, with communications focusing on owned channels including social media, email and in branch. All communications drove towards the Readiness Test – a short, interactive digital self-assessment questionnaire, designed to prompt businesses to rethink their risk-readiness and take practical action to improve it.

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