Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk today began a week-long initiative visiting and working with small businesses to gain better insight.
Mr Prisk is spending Monday with Bethnal Green-based DIY Kyoto, which makes wireless electricity meters to help consumers save energy.
The ‘Week in Small Business’ initiative was introduced by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to gain a deeper understanding of the specific needs of small and medium sized businesses.
SMEs account for more than 99 per cent of private businesses and their performance and activity is a key driver of the UK economy.
Mr Prisk, who used to run his own business, is also encouraging employees working on enterprise policy at the Department to participate in the initiative over the next year to help boost their understanding of the real-life issues faced by smaller firms, and to bring SMEs and government closer together.
“This initiative is a great opportunity to gain real-life experience and understand the issues small businesses and entrepreneurs face,” said Mr Prisk. “This will enable us to capture ideas where Government can remove barriers to enterprise and test policy assumptions with real businesses.
“This experience will give me even stronger insight into what small businesses need from Government, particularly as they prepare for the economic recovery.
“DIY Kyoto is a great place to start my work experience. It is a thriving company producing a revolutionary product. I am really keen to roll up my sleeves and understand exactly how the business works, and what issues they may face in the future.”
DIY Kyoto designs and manufactures wattson, an energy meter which consumers use to monitor their electricity usage by the minute. The company was set up to encourage and help people to measure the amount of energy they consume on an everyday basis.
The founders now act as consultants and experts within the design, energy and environmental sectors, as well as developing additional features for wattson and continuing to grow their company.
Richard Woods, co-founder and director of DIY Kyoto, said: ” We are about to launch a new investment round in order to fund a number of new products in the UK, so we will be talking to Mark about these opportunities, and other ways the Department for Business can help and serve small businesses such as ours.”
