The Importance of Small Businesses for the UK Economy

According to a House of Commons report, there were 5.2 million SMEs in the UK in 2014, which was over 99% of all businesses. SME's usually means any business with fewer than 250 employees. 5 million of these were considered Micro-Businesses which is any business with fewer than 9 employees.

Lord Young calls this growing number of small and micro businesses 'The Vital 95%' because SME's and Micro-Businesses contribute so much to the UK economy in terms of employment, growth and turnover.

With over 95% of all UK businesses represented by companies with fewer than 9 employees, it's easy to see why business owners are increasingly turning to the internet, including social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn, to seek 'guidance and encouragement' in a cost effective way.

How Are We Supporting the Vital 95%?

LCFwant to support and guide this growing number of small and micro UK businesses by providing a huge amount of free value in the form of a legal library and a live legal Q&A we host on Twitter.

Legal Library

The Legal Library has thousands of completely free answers to commonly asked legal questions. We have everything from Wills and Probate to Rent Reviews and Finance and Funding.

For business owners there's a huge corporate section and even a free Tax Library. All of these questions are on our website and regularly updated to meet latest legal changes. We also tweet them to our thousands of Twitter followers. The questions which were the most popular on Twitter in June included:

• How do you set up a partnership and what should be included in the agreement?
• What products and services are covered by product liability laws?
• How do I start a new company?

These questions generated hundreds of engagements which included link clicks and retweets.

#UKLegalHour

Something else we're very proud to provide is #UKLegalHour. This our free and completely live legal event which we host on Twitter. You can find out more about this in our post about it here, but here are the key things you need to know.

Every couple of months we host a live Twitter event called #UKLegalHour. Often referred to as a Twitter Chat or Twitter Hour, this is a brilliant way for us to answer your questions in real-time. We've previously answered questions on Property, Employment, Wills and the upcoming #UKLegalHour is aimed at supporting small and micro businesses with any question they have.

During #UKLegalHour, you can tweet us your legal questions and we'll answer it live on our blog and tweet the answer back to you, usually within minutes. It's all completely live and completely FREE.

The next one will be on the 8^th July at 1pm so if you have a question for our lawyers, all you need to do is tweet us with the hashtag #UKLegalHour and we will get back to you with an answer. Simple and easy as that.

So what next?

The Legal Library and #UKLegalHour are part of a larger company rebrand which has been taking shape over the past 18 months. This rebrand along with the relocation of our headquarters has resulted in a 15 per cent increase in turnover, but we're not resting on our laurels. We recognise that to continue to grow, we need to continue to serve more people, add real value and keep ahead of the changes in the industry and in technology. In a recent Yorkshire Post article, our Managing Partner, Simon Stell said, "These days lawyers need to be more responsive and more available to their customers than they've ever been..."

We are responsive and we are available every single day in our offices, on the phone and unlike many firms on our website and social media. In fact, you can tweet us right now if you want to. You'll find us @LawFairSquare and if you do have a legal question, make sure you ask using the hashtag #UKLegalHour.