Publisher at Number Ten

Brian Smith, of Pop-ettes fame, joined a delegation of 20 business owners from the group ‘Enterprise Nation’ at Ten Downing Street to discuss the issues that small businesses face.

The group, led by founder Emma Jones, met the Prime Minister’s special advisor Daniel Korski and James Wild, principal private secretary to Business Minister Michael Fallon, to discuss issues affecting small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs).

Also taking part was Matthew Hancock, Further Education and Lifelong Learning Under Secretary of State.

Brian, managing director of Pop-ettes Ltd - producing the Popagami range of paper-folding characters - is also a member of Village Networking, a business networking organisation that stretches across Sussex.

He said: “It was a good opportunity to discuss many of the issues that affect us as small business owners.

“One area addressed was the apparent different rules that seem to apply to large companies compared with SMEs and also how the creation of ‘Crowd Business Lending’ (peer to peer lending) for SMEs can be sustained and developed - which would enable people to invest in companies by way of a loan with guaranteed interest.

“It could ultimately be a more stable form of financial saving and return for the public than the banks or stockmarket.”

Enterprise Nation Club, of which Brian is a member, is a modern membership scheme for the brightest and best small businesses.

Brian’s book ‘The World of Popagami’ (produced under his pen name Philip Craik) is available online and through good bookshops.

Pop-ettes Ltd is soon to release, under licence, a ‘World Wildlife Fund UK’ book with Popagami designs of ten endangered species.