What can Small Businesses Expect After the Election?

Our partners JournoLink spent the night tracking the election, speaking to the influencers and businesses as the results came in.

So what are the issues that they honed in on and what can we expect the winning politicians to focus on for small businesses and start-ups?

Stability. With the same party in power, policies will go unchanged. although there are some promises they will need to follow through on this time around. Most importantly, more focus on funding start-ups will be required. The Conservatives have committed to help 75,000 new start-ups by way of loans, probably through the Start Up Loan Company.

Apprenticeships will be a key policy in the tory manifesto. There will be a real push on giving opportunities to schools and university leavers and so small businesses will be encouraged to take them on. There will be grants and support available to help with the costs. There is likely to be more help for working mums in the future and minimum wage levels are likely to remain manageable.

Business Rate Relief will be on the agenda to help businesses looking for high street premises. During election night, there was increasing debate on attaining quality employees, meaning there may well be a push to see business studies included in the school curriculum at an earlier stage.

We can expect tax to remain at its present rate with no VAT increase and can expect tax encouragement from investors who are willing to invest in the SME community.

To conclude, the future for entrepreneurs should see a good supportive environment for those looking to establish their own business. Within that environment, you will find JournoLink, an online PR platform specifically tailored to suit time-constrained start-ups.