Emma Jones is Founder of business support platform and provider, Enterprise Nation.
The company supports over half a million founders each year through connecting them to support, training, and mentorship. Business owners come to Enterprise Nation to self-learn or to find a trusted expert or adviser to guide them.
- Tell us a little bit about your business…
Enterprise Nation exists to help small business owners get access to the support they need to start and grow a successful business. We do this through delivery of small business support programmes like the Amazon Small Business Accelerator and Vodafone’s business.connected and also through our smart platform which we’ve developed over the past six years to help a business owner assess the part of the business that needs help and to then match them to the right support at the right time. This activity generates lots of data and insight on what small businesses want and how they are feeling which we then play back to policy makers and society at large.
- How did you get into the industry?
I’ve always been in the industry! My first job was setting up an inward investment unit for Arthur Andersen which was a large professional services firm back in the late 90’s. This brought me into contact with Regional Development Agencies and government support schemes for business. I then started a dot com company that put the inward investment process online and successfully sold that business within a couple of years. The experience of doing so gave me the idea for Enterprise Nation which continues to this day to work with enterprise agencies and organisations and to ensure small businesses know about the support available to them and the impact it will have.
- What are the biggest opportunities and challenges in your industry?
The biggest challenge is helping small businesses navigate what can be a complicated and fragmented market of support which, in turn, is the greatest opportunity. That opportunity is to leverage technology to help a business quickly understand the support interventions that will have the greatest impact so business owners don’t have to ‘waste’ time looking for support as instead they are notified when relevant support for which they are eligible becomes available. This is what we are working to build at Enterprise Nation – personalisation of support – so we can show the impact support will have depending on sector, region, and stage of growth.
- How would you describe your leadership style?
Work in progress! I have led the business over the past three years as we have scaled and built a bigger team. This means I’m constantly learning! I would say my style is one that enables the team to be entrepreneurial ie my job is to set the strategy and direction of the company (and ensure that we are sufficiently funded) and then the senior management team operates within this framework to deliver on their objectives in the best way they see fit.
- How do you get the most out of the people who work for you?
Great question! Through trusting them. I would also like to think Enterprise Nation has built a culture where everyone supports each other. Many of us have worked together for a fair few years and with that comes the understanding of our respective skills and strengths. This steadies us as we continue to grow as a business and manage the constant change this brings.
- What are the most crucial elements to your business running smoothly and being successful?
Having a clear strategy, strong values, and a happy and motivated team. It also helps that everyone in the team is committed to the mission of ensuring small businesses get the support they need. This gives us all the reason we need to get up each day and to keep going and growing.
- How has the past 12 months been for you?
In some respect, it’s been no different to other years in that we remain constant in our reason for being which is to support small businesses but in other ways, it’s been a period of constant change. That change comes from hiring more people, taking on new partners, and delivering support in different ways based on what the community tells us. So a strange mixture of change whilst remaining constant!
- What will the next 12 months look like for your business?
It will hopefully involve more platform innovation and international expansion. We continue to make significant investment into the platform to realise our vision of it saving time and money for small businesses by serving founders the right support at the right time. We want to deploy this technology and solution in new territories. Over the past 18 months we have expanded in Ireland with now a team of five on the ground; delivering programmes and the platform – we want to get the model right in Ireland and then scale support across the EU.
- What are the highlights of your career so far?
I’ve been fortunate to have sold a business, been involved in a national start-up campaign, and to have been at the helm of Enterprise Nation for more than a decade so there have been many highlights but if you were to ask me the reason I remain motivated, then that would be hearing from small businesses that we have helped to get started, seal a deal, hire a new person, build a website, go global etc. Every one of these is a highlight.
- What’s the biggest business mistake that you’ve learnt from?
To right a wrong hire as fast as you can.
- What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve been given?
To base a business on doing what you love.
