As
part of the Budget announcement today, the Government made a promise that public
sector procurement from small firms would rise fivefold. As a small business owner I’m not going to
hold my breath before diving in to swim with the big fish. We’re a 10 person PR agency that would like
nothing better than to help promote the important programmes and projects that
are kicked off each year, and have the track-record to compete against the
bigger players. But access to the
tax-funded pounds remains a difficult struggle based on our size. There are three areas that make the
Government’s promise more hot air than warm revenue. Firstly, access to information about tenders
often comes at a price. Online services
that conveniently collate relevant opportunities require paid-for-subscriptions,
an expense prohibitive to small businesses.
Secondly, the time it takes to complete a full scale tender could engage
half a small company’s workforce to research, draft and illustrate, especially
with the often short deadlines. And
finally, the big fish suppliers in the public sector are able to keep costs so
low that they can almost ensure a monopoly.
As a reasonably priced agency that has bid for work through formal
tendering, we’ve been told our fees can be double the price of other bids that
come from larger suppliers. Big fish
able to use economies of scale on other clients to win high profile work. It’s a big pond of opportunity perhaps? But while the processes favour the larger
sharks, it’s unlikely the little fish will get a bite.
By Lucy George
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