• Ed Molyneux, CEO and co-founder at FreeAgent


• 29.03.2017 10:15 am
undisclosed

The triggering of Article 50 is a decision that the UK’s micro-business owners will have great concerns about, so I hope that the government will take their views into consideration as it negotiates our exit from the EU.

There are currently have more than five million micro-businesses in the UK, comprising around 95% of the country’s total number of businesses. But despite forming the backbone of our economy, they are rarely taken into consideration when it comes to big changes in legislation or policy - and many of them are disheartened by the looming prospect of a hard Brexit.

We recently carried out a survey of micro-business owners and found that the overwhelming majority were not happy with the result of the referendum, while nearly three quarters of them thought that Brexit would have a negative impact on the UK. In addition, 84% of respondents said they didn’t think they had been given enough information about the impact that Brexit would have on their businesses.  

It’s therefore imperative that the government properly engages with the micro-business sector during its negotiations with the EU and ensure that their concerns are listened to in the years ahead. We need to consider the impact that Brexit will have upon every business in the UK - not just larger enterprises and corporations - so we can build a post-Brexit economy where everyone is given the opportunity to flourish and grow.