Representing more than 2.1 million businesses and 33% of employment in England, microbusinesses have seen substantial growth over the last decade. However, their failure rate is high – due to lack of support and high initial costs in the first few years of a business starting.
In order to play a small part in supporting microbusinesses, in 2022 Lyreco launched the Lyreco Goodness Microbusiness Support Programme.
The Lyreco Goodness Microbusiness Support Programme is designed for microbusinesses only (less than 10 employees) and must also provide products or services that would support Lyreco’s output: general office products, furniture, catering, office technology, cleaning & hygiene or personal protective equipment.
The programme backs ambitious microbusinesses that align with Lyreco’s sustainability and environmental credentials. By participating in this programme, these businesses will receive a kick-start in the community and marketplace. Their products or services will be sold on Lyreco’s online webshop with no listing fees, opening their business to a wider UK and Ireland market. This means that over the year, their product or services could be seen by over 900,000 potential customers across 8 sectors.
Each microbusiness has a dedicated Product Manager to support them through the 12-month period, ensuring fluid stock replenishment, and to help raise a profile using our business’ platform.
Product Managers will arrange regular meetings, as often as they need to best support. Every microbusiness also has their own stand-alone landing page which means they are able to tell their story in more detail and showcase their products as best they can.
Lyreco are not charging any fees for this support programme. At the end of the year, they will review how many of our microbusinesses’ products are left in stock, and either send them back – or continue selling them until out-of-stock.
The overall support that Lyreco offer to microbusinesses equates to £20,000 support from Lyreco per supplier, with an additional £5,000 per year for Lyreco time management per supplier.
In reference to the National TOMs, the Lyreco Goodness Microbusiness Support Programme contributes towards the below measures:
NT15: Provision of expert business advice to VCSEs and MSMEs – Product Managers work with Microbusinesses to provide expert business advice, which equates to an average of 12 hours of advice a month across all of our PM’s.
NT51: Innovative measures to promote and support responsible business – Lyreco are investing £175k into the programme including webshop plans, external marketing, access to sales team and faster payment terms.
