IT’S NOT easy being a small business owner. Even in a strong economy, it takes an incredible amount of hard work, focus and sacrifice to maintain a vibrant and profitable small business. Over the last 20 months, small business owners have worked through a pandemic, hiring and staffing challenges, rising inflation, supply chain issues, and other disruptions to typical business operations. 

As our communities and economies continue to recover and reopen, many business owners throughout the UK find themselves adapting to a new way of conducting business.

“We need to do more than just rebuild from the pandemic. We need to help strengthen small businesses, so they are more resilient against future disruptions,” said Nigel Motyer, SVP of Global Business Solutions for Fiserv in EMEA.  “Because a strong small business community strengthens the neighbourhoods where we live and work.”

Getting Back2Business

While Fiserv may not be a household name in the UK, it is a leading provider of payments and financial services technology solutions around the globe. It’s a globally connected team of more than 44,000 people, including 2,000 here in the U.K., that is deeply committed to building a brighter, more inclusive future for its associates, clients, and communities to help move the world forward.

Just a few months ago, Fiserv introduced its Back2Business initiative in the UK, which put words into action by providing crucial resources to ethnically diverse small businesses. This integrated programme includes access to capital in the form of financial grants, community engagement, subject matter expertise, strategic partnerships and leading technology solutions such as the Clover^® point-of-sale platform from Fiserv, at the request of the participants.

To date, the Back2Business programme from Fiserv has committed nearly £40 million and has funded more than 1,100 grants to ethnically diverse owned small businesses in the U.S. and the U.K. that have been disproportionally affected by the pandemic-driven lockdowns. In the U.K. Fiserv has already distributed more than £1.8 million to 174 merchants across different services sectors, from restaurants to beauty clinics to care providers.

“We believe that by working together, we can take meaningful action to help ethnically diverse small businesses in hard-hit communities move from survive to thrive, helping them emerge stronger in a very tough economic environment,” adds Motyer.

The Changing Consumer Experience

The pandemic changed the customer experience at boutiques, pubs, cafes, music shops and more. Consumer preferences shifted to more order-ahead, online and contactless transactions, leaving many small business owners struggling to keep pace. Small businesses keenly felt the economic impact of the pandemic. And those owned by ethnically diverse populations were hit even harder.

According to data from the Office for National Statistics, nearly 400,000 small businesses permanently closed their doors in 2020. And these closed businesses have an enormous impact on the communities where we live and work. 

“It’s important to recognise that a real person with a family, employees and an entrepreneurial dream stands behind each of these small businesses,” said Motyer.  “The financial and emotional impact of the pandemic on these individuals has been devastating.”

But we know one thing: entrepreneurs are tough and innovative, especially when they have a community around them.

Technology Empowers Growth

Small businesses are the key to economic recovery in the U.K., which is why it’s important to cultivate and nurture these businesses. The Fiserv Back2Business programme helps stabilise and grow small businesses, with access to capital to support things such as employee payroll, rent or lease payments, equipment purchases and additional resources.

Grant recipients including Faith Johnson of Caramel Rock, a fashion and creative arts education organisation based in Newham, and Parveen Ashraf of The Spice Queen are quick to point out how they have benefitted from the programme.

“The grant was such an amazing benefit for our organisation. We were able to use it to build the capacity of our IT and operations online,” said Johnson.

Ashraf adds, “When Covid happened the hospitality business suffered, and there was no real way of earning money. When you are a small business you don’t switch off. You represent your business. You are your business. And you have to keep going and believe in what you’re doing. The Fiserv grant came in at just the right time and due to the grant, I have just invested in my second cookbook.”

In addition to providing capital in the form of grants, the Back2Business programme provides access to the same technologies being used by the most sophisticated enterprises to enable in-demand customer experiences that will keep customers coming back. 

While many businesses select a point-of-sale (POS) system with payments in mind, modern-day solutions, like Clover, are capable of much more and have enabled merchants to pivot during the pandemic and create new streams of revenue while strengthening customer relationships.

Businesses can expand their Clover platform’s functionality with extra features that allow them to do everything from schedule staff and handle payroll to manage inventory, often through industry-specific apps that can be downloaded right onto the device.

“No two businesses are alike. Every single one has unique customers, suppliers, locations, hours, and staffing needs, so it’s important to build flexible and scalable technology,” said Motyer. “Clover offers small business owners a customisable solution that lets them find the right fit and seamlessly integrate their systems with a user-friendly platform.”

Our communities are filled with stories of small business heroes who faced incredible adversity and fought to keep their business afloat during some particularly tough times. These bastions of our communities have a deep and lasting impact on people throughout the UK and it’s vital that we continue to invest in helping small business owners follow their passion as entrepreneurs.