For Europe to prosper, small businesses need to thrive. The lead message of the European Commission’s “Relief Package” for SMEs epitomizes the importance of small businesses to the health of the region’s economy. This is no surprise, considering they form 99.8 percent of all businesses in the EU — which translates to 25 million enterprises and almost 100 million employees.
Traditionally during the festive season, shoppers focus even more on how they can support small independent businesses, whether they’re in their local festive market or online, and that’s great. Yet despite being so integral to Europe’s economy and local communities, many small businesses have seen their turnover decrease this year, even as we have emerged from the pandemic.
[SMEs] form 99.8 percent of all businesses in the EU — which translates to 25 million enterprises and almost 100 million employees.
At Mastercard, we recognize the challenges the region’s small businesses have faced — and will continue to face — because of the pandemic, geopolitical turbulence and economic uncertainty. We have worked alongside the small-business sector in Europe for over half a century and are committed to continue playing a leading role in supporting their short- and long-term survival, recovery and growth.
Over the past month, we are pleased to mark a key moment for our small-business support efforts across Europe: the launch of our Strive Czechia initiative.
Initiatives like Strive, which bring together industry and civil society, are vital to supporting SMEs grow. However, so too is more support from policymakers.
Small businesses must be at the center of any plan to boost sustainable economic growth and productivity across the EU.
We’d like to see EU policymakers expand schemes that offer digital skills training and mentoring opportunities, so they include the smallest-business owners; those most in need of support with digitization.
Secondly, late payments hold small businesses back, so we’re also calling upon the EU and its agencies to use digital payment technologies like e-invoicing and digital payments with their small-business suppliers, to free up vital cash flow for these companies.
We’d like to see EU policymakers expand schemes that offer digital skills training and mentoring opportunities, so they include the smallest-business owners; those most in need of support with digitization.
Finally, policymakers must think about what further support is needed to encourage, not stifle, innovation that can help unlock access to finance for SMEs, as well as encourage better use of data amongst SMEs, including to help them on their journey to net zero.
But not everything can be achieved by policy alone. Businesses like Mastercard have a role to play when it comes to supporting small businesses, whether it’s providing mentoring or technological solutions, or working with civil society to have real impact in helping unlock growth for SMEs.
The evolution of Strive
Strive is an initiative tailored for the modern challenges faced by small business entrepreneurs. Launched by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth — our philanthropic hub — Strive aims to strengthen the financial and digital resilience of small businesses by providing them with the resources and network to recover and unlock growth.
To build on the Strive initiative’s success in other countries, including the U.K., we have launched Strive Czechia to expand our commitment to Europe’s small-business economy and support an engine that generates almost half of the Czech Republic’s combined revenue and employs half of its people.
The goal of the program is to partner with the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, Czechitas, the Czech Chamber of Commerce, and the Association of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Crafts CZ among others, to bolster the digital and financial resilience of 250,000 Czech small businesses and enable their business growth over the course of a three-year program and beyond.
Providing the technology for small businesses to recover and grow
It is no secret that the events of recent years have incited an urgent need for small businesses to digitize. Almost half of firms in the EU invested further in digitalization as a result of COVID-19. On average, those that did so were more productive, more innovative, grew faster and paid higher wages than their slower counterparts.
Our network and technology combine to make the European digital single market a reality, and so we acknowledge the facilitating role we can play in small businesses’ digital journey. This year, we have worked across the region to foster partnerships and deploy technology that enables entrepreneurs to optimize recovery and growth efforts.
We’ve worked with PostePay in Italy and Czakó Farmers’ Market in Hungary, both aimed at making the lives of small-business owners more convenient and more profitable.
The journey of a small business will always encounter risk, challenges and opportunity. At Mastercard, we will always strive to stand alongside Europe’s entrepreneurs and enable them to take a path of recovery, growth and prosperity.
Small business can’t be left on the sidelines any more.
Only when we work together to unlock the potential of our smallest entrepreneurs can we also hope to supercharge growth and unleash the full potential of the European economy.
[i] Strive UK and Strive Czechia are part of Mastercard’s global philanthropic efforts to support small businesses around the world. For more information and to learn more about this work, follow @StriveCommunity
