Why grit will be the key ingredient to Sheffield's economic success - Michael Hayman

That grit is an attitude on display not only at Bramhall Lane (and yes, much as I would rather use my word count on something else, Hillsborough too), but the city’s entrepreneurs.

I met a number at an event hosted by Sheffield Hallam University last month and if there is a story here, it is the reality of living through tough times, facing down disasters and turning them to triumphs.

At the end of 2022, the Collins dictionary picked its word of the year: Permacrisis. The notion that everywhere we look, we see never-ending problems.

Pandemic, Putin, Prime Ministerial churn, and much in between, the 2020s are not turning out to be quite as roaring as predicted.

And yet in this context, to look at Sheffield today is to see a massive bet on the future. Preparing the city for a digital age and a new era for business.

How that looks is a question for tomorrow. More pressing is about progress today.

The UK’s small firms are a big part of the answer. Realising their potential through the highs and lows of their journey is imperative.

The Sheffield businesses I met were all alumni of a 90 per cent government funded course called Help To Grow. It’s a 12-week course and mentoring programme that helps businesses supercharge growth, delivered by business schools the length and breadth of the country by the Small Business Charter, which I chair.

To meet those who have been through the course is to meet the full, brilliant diversity of our growing businesses. From retailers to manufacturing and technology innovators, these are the firms that give the UK its economic heartbeat.

Every year, people around the country register 800,000 new firms. Not all of them go on to trade, but each is a bet on the future.

And each shows grit: the guts to grow, the resilience to persevere, the innovation to prosper, and trust from customers and teams alike.

But while we are world class at starting firms, we must do better at scaling them. The latest data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor shows the UK has taken a step back as a place for our ambitious firms to grow; slipping seven places to 25th out of 51 countries ranked against the quality of their entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Help To Grow was cited as part of the answer, ensuring businesses live up to their potential and contribute to the productivity challenge as a result.

I have always felt that Sheffield is a bell-weather for the rest of the country. Many of the city’s obstacles and opportunities are emblematic of the wider UK.

Take the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. The original site sits on the former Orgreave Colliery. Today it is an incredible centre for the makers of the world to bring their challenges and to find solutions – with all businesses under its roof able to take advantage of world class R&D from the University of Sheffield. It breeds a culture of innovation that can supercharge growth. Little wonder that Forbes describes it as the North of England’s answer to MIT: “an ecosystem, with universities at its heart, that will promote technological innovation and entrepreneurship”.

To step onto the park is to take a glimpse into how bright businesses are playing a defining role in developing solutions for the next generation of air travel and automotive. With it, inward investment from global giants such as Boeing and McLaren, as well as inspiring satellite centres in the North West and East Midlands.

And that was all before the AMRC’s latest triumph, Factory 2050 – a pioneering state of the art factory that is home to the AMRC’s Integrated Manufacturing Group, where companies collaborate on the seemingly insolvable. Formerly a terminal building for the airport, today it is a runway of ideas.

Meanwhile, to visit Kelham Island is to see how well thought through regeneration can stimulate a new generation of hospitality entrepreneurs. And to see the new Sheffield Hallam business school being constructed opposite the railway station offers a tantalising glimpse of a resource that more and more local businesses will benefit from in the future.

The grit and determination of your attitude in these times shows much. It’s a character that our football teams are exemplifying and with them, the growing firms creating a new chapter for the city.

Michael Hayman MBE is the co-founder of Seven Hills and Chair of the Small Business Charter.