Quick update for all those who supported the idea of an SME Alliance to get some political support (in exchange for a potentially massive vote). I was quite amazed at how many people wanted to get involved – a very positive start.

Today I have spoken to Jon Welsby who is happy to organise a meeting place. So far the suggested dates are either 17th or 24th September. Please let me or Jon know which of the two dates (if either) are good. The meeting will be in London at a barristers chambers (start how we mean to continue)!

I just wanted to make one thing very clear. My intention, when suggesting this, was never to compete with other organisations like Bully Banks who help SMEs fight banks – and I hope Bully Banks and others will want to get involved. Also, although we do have the support of the excellent Nick Gould who is a lawyer, this initiative was never about legal advice or solutions and no lawyer could advise 4M SMEs! Neither is is about our individual cases – although I envisage we may want to collate our collective experiences in the future in order to fully exhibit how Government and the regulators have allowed SMEs to be mugged (I tried to think of a more politically correct description – but the word mugged seemed most appropriate).

The overriding objective of an SME Alliance is to point out what is, quite frankly, the beedin’ obvious: There are 4.9M SMEs in Britain (at least); Approx 25M people work for SMEs; we are crucial to the British economy and British society; we have been ignored. We are fed up being ignored and while, individually, Governments appear to have no interest in us, collectively we will have a very loud voice – and we will represent a very large vote.

Many of us have been totally abused by banks and, sadly, we have all had to come to the conclusion we can’t rely on any authority to protect our interests or the interests of our employees or shareholders – which is madness because we are the life blood of British business. And while we obviously can’t lobby or compete with the multi-billion pound banks or corporations in a financial sense, we have something they don’t have – numbers and voters. And running up to an election, I think it’s entirely possible that the votes in the ballot boxes will be every bit as important as the ballots in the board rooms.

I should know by the beginning of next week, which date is best for our first meeting and who will be attending. And BTW – I am organising this at the moment (I always knew my bossy side would have its day) but that is only until we decide how best to go forward and who best to take this forward.

I am incredibly enthused by the idea we could collectively bring about change for SMEs – not sure our political leaders feel the same. I tweeted the letter to Ed, Dave and Nick today. No replies – but then again, we haven’t even reached the end of Day1.

Watch this post – will do an update every time we have news.  All ideas and contacts gratefully received. Spread the word. #SMEalliance