The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) held its 4th annual Local Authority Small Business Friendly Awards in October. The accolades were instigated by the Staffordshire & West Midlands region of the FSB, to recognise and celebrate the great – often unsung – work of the 14 local authorities across the region on behalf of its members and other small businesses. This year, they incorporated a special Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) recognition award to highlight the close working relationship the FSB has – not only with the councils, but also with LEPs in the region. The winners of the Local Authority Awards were: l Best Small Business-friendly rocurement Policy – Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council l Best Small Business-friendly Programme or Campaign – Stoke-on-Trent City Council. Highly commended awards in this section went to Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, Walsall Council and Wolverhampton City Council l Best All-round Small Business-Friendliness – Tamworth Borough Council. A highly commended award went to Walsall Council The LEP Recognition Award went to the Black Country LEP, with a highly commended award going to the Stoke & Staffordshire LEP. Karen Woolley, development manager for the FSB, said: ‘Yet again, we were put through our paces in judging the entries this year, such was the outstanding calibre of the projects and campaigns put forward. As a result, we awarded a number of highly commended awards – in addition to our winners – to enable us officially to recognise the truly excellent work that is being delivered by our crucial partners across the region. ‘This year, we also invited our three Local Enterprise Partnerships to put forward up to three projects each that had been specifically designed to encourage and support micro and small businesses; also that had not only considered – but positively succeeded in – supporting and developing the local small business community. Again, the calibre of the projects was staggering. ‘What has become clear through this awards process, year on year, is that – even though public sector budgets are being squeezed, and resources are diminishing – the FSB’s engagement with the local authorities across the region continues to go from strength to strength. Our relationship with the LEPs has also gathered momentum and we can confidently say we are pleased and proud to be in partnership with them. The commitment and drive among all of our crucial partners to help small businesses to survive and prosper has never been more evident than through these awards. ‘It is great to see that the projects awarded at this event covered four of the FSB’s five main lobbying priorities: procurement (celebrating the contribution made by small firms and encouraging consumers and commissioners to think small first); business support (creating the right onditions for businesses to start up and grow); employability and skills (ensuring local labour markets serve the interests of small businesses); and rural and town centres (developing the right local conditions to support businesses in rural and urban areas). This tells us that all of our partners understand the needs and barriers to growth for our members and other small firms – and it is incredibly reassuring to see the amount of work and effort going into these key areas. ‘It gave us immense pleasure to recognise the incredible hard work that goes on to ensure that the life blood of our local economies not only survive, but thrive. We thank all of the councils and LEPs that put forward nominations. We can’t wait to see what they come up with next year!’ winter 2015 Round-up Business-friendly councils crowned Success for Small Business Saturday Small Business Saturday (SBS) UK is a grass-roots campaign that highlights small business success and encourages consumers to support small firms in their communities. The day takes place on the first shopping Saturday in December each year, but the campaign aims to have a lasting impact on small businesses. This year, Small Business Saturday is scheduled to take place on 5 December. In 2014, the campaign was a huge success, with 16.5 million people shopping in a small independent business on the day. This represents a 20 per cent increase in footfall on 2013 – or 2.7 million more shoppers. Research shows that 64 per cent of UK consumers are aware of the day – a 33 per cent increase on 2013 – and the SBS Facebook page received 3.5 million views, with #SmallBizSatUK trending at number one all day on SBS last year. What’s more, 55 per cent of local authorities and hundreds of MPs also supported the campaign. The FSB is a big supporter of the campaign and works closely with the organisers to make each year bigger and better. Part of the campaign is SmallBiz100 – small firms from across the UK are encouraged to put themselves forward to be one of 100 companies chosen by SBS, with one company per day profiled nationally in the 100 days leading up to Small Business Saturday. We are pleased to say that 27 of the 100 chosen were FSB members. The SmallBiz100 campaign offers companies a great opportunity to benefit from huge, profileraising, free publicity. More information is available on Small Business Saturday online.