Penny Power describes her vision for THE BUSINESS CAFÉ, a new community that brings together local businesses, youth, and digital skills. The BUSINESS CAFÉ will operate franchises across the UK and globally to create digitally-enabled SME communities. It will serve as a social hub matching youth to businesses and making digital skills available to small companies while connecting them to services and government resources. The BUSINESS CAFÉ aims to support local economies by aggregating stakeholders, fostering collaboration, and facilitating employment and skills development for youth.

1. THE VISION
In this paper, founder Penny Power describes her vision
of a new community that brings businesses together at
a local level. This vision assists in the matching of youths
to business while bringing digital skills into the lives of
every SME, serving UK, local Government and the supply
chain with a channel to this complex and valuable sector
of the economy.
The concept is to create the worlds most digitally
enabled SME community. Building a strong community
that embraces both the online and offline world and
utilises digital technology to create an economic
ecosystem at a local and global level. THE BUSINESS
CAFÉ is a bridge for business and skills, large and small
business across all generations.
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ MODEL
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ is a commercial organisation
with social impact. Each café operates as a managed
franchise and will roll out to towns across the UK and
globally. Membership for the SME is free.
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ is a social hub for business (not
a business hub) that will embrace the local business
community and our youths. Creating Business Friends,
adopting the social attitudes that we see at its best
online. It will make digital skills available for small
business while creating a channel for SaaS (Software as a
Service) and other B2B providers as well as government
schemes, and provide local employment for graduates,
youths and older learners.
This new community gives the UK its very own business
network and brings micro businesses a local offline
resource whilst building the concept of ‘A friend in Every
City’, a book written and published in 2006 by Thomas
Power. It will be a local meeting hub and a global
online community, giving the UK access to big data and
business relationships worldwide.
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ seeks to be an aggregator and a
collaborator in the local economy. Offering the café to
all local/regional networks that exist and bring together
local economic stakeholders:
„„ The local business man/woman and start-ups
„„ The mums returning to the workplace
„„ The bank(s)
„„ The colleges
„„ The youths and their parents
„„ The local council
„„ The local business networks
„„ The technology (Saas) and other business service
providers
THE SME LANDSCAPE AND
THE INTENTION OF THE
BUSINESS CAFÉ
Let’s look at the demographics of the UK business
population,itisimportanttoknowthereisagrowingneed
for this idea. I see THE BUSINESS CAFÉ predominantly
serving the Micro and Self Employed market. This is a
growing sector, the trend for growth is a long term one. I
will state however, that one technology provider did say
Spring 2016
Originally published November 2013
Penny Power, OBE

2. www.thebusinesscafe.co.uk
that they see this café as a great way for their employees
to spend time with their supply chain and can imagine
some element of home-working employees using this
café as a resource, whilst many other ‘brands’ may see
the café as a channel to market.
Statistics provided from Department of Business
Innovation and Skills:
„„ There were a record 5.4 million private sector
businesses at the start of 2015.
„„ This is an increase of 146,000 since 2014 and 1.9
million more since 2000.
„„ 3.3 million sole proprietorships (62% of the total),
„„ The number of employing businesses increased by
35,000 and the number of non-employing businesses
by 112,000, with the annual growth for both groups
being around 3%.
„„ Small businesses accounted for 99.3% of all private
sector businesses at the start of 2015 and 99.9% were
small or medium-sized (SMEs).
„„ There has been sustained growth in the total business
population, with increases of 55% since 2000 and 3%
since 2014.
„„ The majority of business population growth since
2000 has been due to non-employing businesses,
which accounted for 90% of the 1.9m increase.
„„ The combined annual turnover of SMEs was £1.8
trillion, 47% of all private sector turnover in the UK.
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ WILL
SUPPORT THE LOCAL
COMMUNITY USING FARNHAM
AS A CASE STUDY
Around Farnham there are 2,000 businesses. I can meet
them if I join various offline networks. I might even track
them down on an intensive search of Twitter with a
Farnham hash tag, or a database mining activity of my
LinkedIn.
If I tried to become their friend would they feel like I had
an ‘agenda’? Could I approach them in Café Nero for an
unconditional,open,randomandsupportiveconversation
where we could just be ‘friends’ and see what skills,
experience, connections we could swap?
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ will nurture, support and love
our youth’s, encouraging business to employ them.
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ will be supported by a technical
platform, for management of data, relationships, and
workflow.
AtTHEBUSINESSCAFÉrandombusinessconversations
could take place in an open and supportive culture.
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ will welcome mums with
incredible ideas to bring to market, or those who are
looking to return to work locally.
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ will welcome young and older
entrepreneurs who desire interaction with like minded
professionals.

3. www.thebusinesscafe.co.uk
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ will welcome the retired
generation still with a zest for learning and with much
experience of business to share
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ is a haven within the satellite
towns, drawing information nationally and globally,
and sharing it locally to ensure the local community of
traders and retailers benefit from it’s presence.
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ will use local suppliers of coffee,
cakes, and foodstuffs, it might hold art exhibitions, or
support a local author who has published a book.
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ would be the centre of a thriving
business culture.
WHAT ABOUT OUR BORN
DIGITAL YOUTHS? THEY ARE
A CRITICAL PART OF OUR
LOCAL ECOSYSTEM
Today young people are Born Digital. They understand
so much about modern communications and motives.
Sadly their skills are not yet commercialised.
Under a managed service THE BUSINESS CAFÉ
franchise will employ a manager and assistant manager,
as well as two catering apprentices or learners. THE
BUSINESS CAFÉ HQ will employ a team of Digital
Friends to help customers with their digital needs.
“Hey, Joe, can you show me how to use Xero, or Sage,
or FreeAgent?” There would be enough of them in THE
BUSINESS CAFÉ to ensure that they had the time,
patience and motivation to coach the digital tools that
are evolving. Imagine our local companies learning so
much from the youths of that town, who are known for
their bright t-shirts with ‘I am your Digital Friend’ printed
on them.
They will offer a modern publishing service of social
and digital marketing. They would set-up and run
social media campaigns on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,
Google+ spending time face to face with their ‘clients’
whenever they pop in.
Digital Friends will be educated to provide support on
a range of digital apps – from CRM and social media,
to email marketing, supply chain and document
management to book-keeping and banking. Their
support in helping the business community to operate
these themselves will always be free of charge.
THE CULTURE
There is a vibe in THE BUSINESS CAFÉ. The
culture of THE BUSINESS CAFÉ is critical. An
experienced and well networked Community
Manager, who knows the importance of the culture of
friendship in business will be responsible for driving
awareness of the cafe and building the community
as well as promoting our values and culture.
People are laughing and sharing, introducing one
another to each other. There are clusters of people
discussing problems and finding solutions. There is a
group of 10 people sitting in a quiet area, they are having
a 2 hour ‘MENTORING’ session, sharing an issue and
collaborating to help one another to solve it. Everyone
in this café has value, no one feels inferior or a failure,
business is acknowledged as tough, a life style decision,
but while you work alone in your business, you are never
alone in THE BUSINESS CAFÉ.
HOW CAN THE BUSINESS
CAFÉ HELP SMALL BUSINESS
GROW?
I have taken an excerpt from Lord Young’s report on
Growing your Business – this report focuses on the
sector that THE BUSINESS CAFÉ will support, the
sole trader and micro business (under nine employees).
Encouraging local trade between local businesses will
reflect Google’s research that 97% of consumers search
for local business online yet only 33% have a website.
Our Digital friends can build these first-stage websites
for a small fee.
Supporting local FE colleges and Training Providers
with employer engagement a big topic during periods
of skill scarcity THE BUSINESS CAFÉwill support their
skills agenda to match the needs of local business.
LORD YOUNG “MORE
EFFECTIVE USE OF THE INTERNET
AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY”
“Today the business environment is going through revolution
rather than evolution largely due to the use of the internet.
The web and associated technology is not an optional extra,
but a key driver to growth.
Despite many online opportunities, the small firms’ use of
technology still falls short. 82% of small businesses have not
adopted anything new in the last 12 months and still spend
an average of 11.4 hours per week on administrative tasks
which could be more efficiently managed using technology.
By increasing their use of technology they could significantly
improve their productivity. This includes the speed and
efficiency of payment. I am pleased to see Government
increasingitsuseofe-invoicinginitsprocurementwithSMEs,
and I hope this can be adopted more widely in business-to-
business transactions, including supply chain relationships.”

4. The intention I have is to increase the skills, digital and
otherwise, of an SME while increasing the employment
of youths in the local economy. The agenda I carry is:
„„ Youth employment and celebration of their Born
Digital Skills
„„ Growth of Micro Businesses (includes sole traders
and start-ups)
„„ Digital Skills for non-digital companies
„„ High street regeneration as we bring new life to
empty spaces
„„ Creating a collaborative and open channels for all
local stakeholders in the community
„„ Bring back the offline world to our everyday lives
while celebrating the connectivity of the online
world
„„ Build local trading opportunities and a global
exporting agenda
„„ Help businesses see the growth opportunities that
digital gives them – transforming their services and
products to the online world
„„ Creating a channel for Government and partners to
work with the culture of being open, random and
supportive toward their clients
In the UK, start-ups and micro businesses have a
number of limiting beliefs that are hard for government
and coaching/mentoring organisations to break
down. These beliefs can stunt economic growth and I
believe that the environment and the culture of THE
BUSINESS CAFÉ could help to break these down.
“Understanding Growth in Micro businesses” Report
highlights the following reasons that a business ‘fears’
hiring a second employee.
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ seeks to address these fears
and perceptions by making the employment of our
youths easy and trusted.
A study conducted in 2011 of Ecademy members
found that 45% of members exported, this is because
Ecademy worked at a local level for offline events but
a global level for the Virtual Community. Members
gained a global perspective and also a set of skills and
a Mindset for Digital, the culture and communication
was digital and the benefits were seen through the
growth of the businesses and their exporting assets.
I authored a Manifesto in 2011 The Digital Business
Britain Manifesto www.digitalbusinessbritain.com with
the support of Mark Prisk MP, the Business Minister. The
Manifesto was created to ensure that our non-digital
SMEs were not ignored while the ‘digital sector’ was
being supported. The Manifesto has since become a Not
for Profit and has one ‘client’ Surrey Connects’ that has
created a localized Manifesto and hub for SMEs in Surrey.
This local project highlighted the desire for early digital
adopters to outsource the digital skills while they
learned the ROI. A report commissioned by Telefonica
and published in Autumn 2013 stated that there was
a need to skill up 750,000 workers in the UK to take
advantage of the Digital opportunity by 2017.
They stated that the loss if this is not achieved will be
2bn to the UK economy. They also state that 250,000 of
these jobs are ideally suited to young people.
This is why THE BUSINESS CAFÉ will bring young
people into the lives of the local business ecosystem.
CREATING THE TECHNOLOGY
PLATFORM
All members of THE BUSINESS CAFÉ will be required
to complete an application form and their usage of each
cafe will be tracked using both q-code (via membership
card)andgeo-fieldtechnology.Theplatformwillbeused
to assist with digital learning both of the community
and the Digital friends. It will also form a critical part of
our data collection and diagnosis of business growth as
a result of improved digital skills.
THE BENEFIT TO UK
GOVERNMENT OF THE
BUSINESS CAFÉ
It is the aspiration of THE BUSINESS CAFÉ to support
communication and therefore use of government
schemes for SMEs. Since 2006 there as been a huge
growth of 1.4million business in the UK with some
600,000 being started in 2015 alone. This shows the
growth of opportunity that the Internet has given and
also the effect of the recession on people’s behaviour to
find new ways to achieve the income they need.
The 5.4 million companies are made up of 73% sole
traders and one million having between one and nine
employees – the micro business. Another 600,000 are
expected to add to this number in 2016.
The goals and mission of THE BUSINESS CAFÉ are in
line with the aspirations of Lord Young. Improving skills,
providing mentoring, accessing youths and the creation
ofamarketingchannelforgovernmentcommunicationof
changesinregulations,fundingschemesandinitiatives.In

5. Lord Young’s report he suggested that 5% of the budget
for new initiatives should be put aside for the marketing
and communication of them to this sector.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF
MICRO BUSINESS’ TO THE UK
At the start of 2012, 95.5% (4.6m) of UK Private
Businesses were Micro Businesses (0-9 employees).
These businesses accounted for 32% of the private sector
employment and 20% of the private sector turnover.
Two factors were stated as influencing the growth of our
micro businesses.
1. Increasing adoption of technology to innovate, raise
finance and find new customers
This is the primary role of THE BUSINESS CAFÉ–
providingavirtual/digitalcommunityandalsoproviding
the culture and access to digital skills within the café.
2. Increasing use of shared services and outsourcing
specialist functions, enabling business owners to
keep costs down, stay nimble and respond rapidly to
new opportunities.
We agree that outsourcing of digital will become
essential for many small businesses and see the
Digital friends and apprentices that we provide as
providing a modern day ‘Kall Kwik’ on the high street,
a ‘Digital Publishing’ resource as opposed to the print
publishing that Kall Kwik provides.
GOVERNMENT SCHEMES AND
ENSURING THEY ARE KNOWN
There are a number of current schemes to help micro
businesses, start-up loans, growth funding calls,
Seed investment scheme (SEIS), yet in my experience
few existing businesses can access these and hear
about them.
I have highlighted Lord Young’s ‘Package for Support’
here. I am very excited by the way THE BUSINESS
CAFÉ addresses the needs and insights of Lord
Young’s report.
GOVERNMENT COMMITMENT
TO MENTORING
TheGovernmenthascommittedtothementoringagenda
for small businesses, knowing that few businesses ask
for help, the Get Mentoring and MentorSME portal was
created to encourage more business owners to ask for
help. I have been an Ambassador for this program and
there is a video of me on the portal celebrating Peer2Peer
mentoring at a mentoring group I ran for women in 2012.
I know from Ecademy that Peer2Peer Mentoring is the most
powerful way to share information and grow with relevant
and trusted advice from a business friend.
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ would provide this culture
but would also run regular group based Peer2Peer
Boardroom events, run within Ecademy for over six
years these are powerful sessions where confidentiality
and friendship is celebrated while the attendees help
and support with experiences, connections and advice.
Referred to by one company, called ACE (Academy of
Chief Executives) as ‘the board you can’t afford’.
Additionally, the virtual community provides the same
trusted environment in real-time for questions and
advice to be exchanged. Lord Young highlighted the key
needs for mentoring are:
„„ Managing the first employee
„„ Understanding cash flow
„„ Mastering technology
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ would manage this as a matter of
priority and is built into the fabric of the business model.
„„ The work experience youths and Apprentices would
be offered as full-time employees to the member
once the member feels confident about the skills,
work ethic and value of the youth. We would have
the youth employment ready and experienced
„„ Cash flow and book-keeping apps would be taught
to start-ups and existing businesses that expand and
we would encourage a relationship with the local
banks, hoping that the business bank relationship
managers come into the café to mix with the business
community
„„ Technology is the theme and embedded culture of
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ and we hope to encourage
Technology companies to become partners and
run events and utilize THE BUSINESS CAFÉ as a
channel to market and knowledge sharing
LOCAL EMPLOYMENT FOR
GRADUATES
Lord Young states the importance of the relationship
between business and our youths. This is clearly
something I agree with having founded Digital Youth

6. www.thebusinesscafe.co.uk
Academy in 2011 to bridge the gap between our ‘digitally
disadvantaged’ SMEs and our Born Digital Youths.
Having spent three years seeking to bridge this gap
I have seen little evidence of a national, sustainable
initiative that has proven methods for this to occur.
I have spent time in the Further Education sector with
their Employer Engagement Teams and with SMEs,
Local Authorities and LEP’s debating this subject. The
silos are strong and the agenda’s each carry on a day to
day basis is not complimentary to finding a solution that
is not forced or artificial. Strategic conversations take
place but tactical implementation appears difficult with
this range of stakeholders.
Lord Young also states that graduates are not
encouraged at the 130 Business Schools to work for local
small businesses, the ‘milk round’ forces the aspirations
of the ‘student’ to a level that is not always attainable.
Graduates are perceived by their peers as failures if they
join a small, local company. A huge misconception and a
terrible culture.
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ will encourage the local business
ecosystemandtheyouthsoftheareatorespectandwork
for with one another. This will happen in a relaxed and
unforced way by the Youth serving and supporting the
businesses in the Café and by showing their innovative
and Born Digital Mindsets.
Lord Young speaks highly of the Association of Business
Schools and I suggest that THE BUSINESS CAFÉ
should work closely with them to achieve our goals
and shared values.
WHO CARES? BRINGING THE
LOCAL ‘SILOS’ TOGETHER
The advent of the Internet has created a disconnect and
a set of challenges for anyone seeking to communicate
with the SME channel. Membership of The Chambers,
IoD and others have not grown in line with the growth
of the private business sector and the various choices
of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn they have which
has added to the disconnection of a local business
community. THE BUSINESS CAFÉ seeks to support all
existing networks.
THE BUSINESS CAFÉ
BUSINESS PLAN
The financial model for THE BUSINESS CAFÉ is
available for further study, covering:
„„ Market opportunities
„„ Scale and operational plan
„„ Revenue streams for the cafe
„„ Revenue streams for head office
„„ Financial headlines
„„ Team and progress to date
SCALING THE CONCEPT
ItisourintentiontoscaleTHE BUSINESS CAFÉthrough
a roll out programme across the UK. The opportunity will
be offered in the main to councils and colleges whose
aligned desire to reduce their financial dependence
on central government by developing independent
commercial revenue matches the positive social impacts
that each cafe brings.
Within the next five years it is our intention to achieve
a network of some 250 cafes across the UK and also to
have explored international opportunities for the group.
NEXT PHASE
We are discussing purchase of a Business Café franchise
with a number of councils, colleges and individuals. It is
our intention to open a pilot group of three cafes within
the year in order to prove the concept and perfect the
proposition.
We have a seed investment proposition available in
the first half of 2016 and anticipate a further investment
round in 2017 to enable scale up.
Gail Thomas

7. www.thebusinesscafe.co.uk
PENNY POWER OBE
Penny and Thomas Power founded Ecademy in 1998. It
was the world’s first social network for Small Businesses
and grew to a valuable community of over 600,000
small businesses, the majority being micro and sole
traders. Ecademy traded for 14 years and in that time
it brought to market the concept of blogging, online
event systems and brought the micro community of
businesses together in over 5,000 offline events. Penny
describes Ecademy as a Peer2Peer community where
digital skills were learned by osmosis and where the
members truly cared for and mentored each other.
Ecademy’s challenge was its timing. Ecademy came to
market 4 years before LinkedIn, 6 years before Facebook
and 8 years before Twitter.
In 2011 Penny noticed that the UK Government were
committed to the Digital Sector (estimated at 11% of the
UK GDP) but there was a market failing with regard to
supporting the large number of non-digital SMEs that
needed to adapt to the globally connected and digital
world. Penny authored the Digital Business Britain
Manifesto with the support of BIS and Mark Prisk MP, the
Business Minister at that time.
The Digital Business Britain Manifesto gave birth to a
Digital Coaching Business
and critically to a new
Apprenticeship called the
Digital Youth Academy
Apprenticeship, bringing
Social Media and Digital
Skills to SMEs via a low-
cost employee, a Social
Digital Apprentice.
This concept took Penny
into the education sector
and working with the
Further Education Colleges
and Training Providers.
This highlighted to Penny
some of the issues that
face the UK with regard
to employing Apprentices
within the companies that
would most benefit from
this resource, the micro and
small businesses.
In the 2014 New Years
Honours list Penny was
awarded an OBE for
‘Entrepreneurship in Social
Digital Development’.
GAIL THOMAS
It was following a successful corporate career that
included household blue chips such as Thomas Cook
and Boots the Chemist and culminated as Ecommerce
Director at Whittard of Chelsea, that Gail embarked on
her first start-up business venture.
Starting within the brochure production team at tour
operator Thomas Cook, Gail first spotted the potential
for growth and cost saving through technology with the
introduction of a desk top publishing system and ended
up with the publishing team that produced upwards of
a million brochure pages each year. She then moved in
to the embryonic ecommerce sector launching Boots
online and then scaling the Whittard of Chelsea direct
channel offering.
Her first business was a virtual PA company to support
small and growing businesses nationwide with their
call answering and business administration needs. Since
then her various businesses have continually employed
local people for some 14 years.
In addition to her corporate experience and business
support company, Gail has started, bought and sold
retail businesses, set up online businesses and recently
invested into a brand new manufacturing business in the
UK. She spent many years as small business mentor for
the Prince’s Trust and still mentors and invests in local
businesses today.
Gail has an MBA in Business Finance, Strategy and
Creative Management and is author of The Gift of Time
(Wiley January 2015) – how delegation can give you the
space to succeed.
THE FOUNDING TEAM:
Penny Power

8. www.thebusinesscafe.co.uk
Copyright Penny Power 2013
The Business Café Ltd incorporated on 6th November 2013.
Company Number 8763531
The Business Café® is a Registered CTM of Penelope Frances Power
European Community Trademark