The spotlight was on the need to go beyond banking for small businesses and how it was instrumental in helping these entrepreneurs address the administrative challenges they face on a daily basis.

Today, TSB and Enterprise Nation have further strengthened their commitment to help small businesses across the UK by introducing regular drop-in advice clinics in 25 TSB branches. The clinics will deliver face-to-face advice and support to TSB’s business banking customers with its own ‘digital advisers’.

The initiative follows on from the success of our pilot scheme last year, where we found there was strong demand from small businesses for digital advice and face-to-face support. Our pilot scheme launched in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and Leicester, where we found a significant uptake in small business owners looking for advice and guidance, especially when it came to online accounting and digital admin tasks. We are now beginning to see the benefits of this much-needed service and the advantages it has brought to some of our business customers in helping their businesses to thrive and tackling everyday challenges head-on.

Unsurprisingly, small businesses are increasingly recognising the need for digital capabilities and the requirement for them to become a functional element of what they do to keep their businesses flourishing. We’ve already talked about the fundamental services such as tax moving to digital submission, and an increasing portion of sales driven from social media and online sources, which makes the digital skill set for small business owners even more valuable. Acquiring these skills is no longer a choice, but a necessity. 

Recent research tells us that 71% of small businesses are aiming to grow over the next three years — a sharp increase on 2017 when only 62% said that they intended to build the business further — so now is the perfect time to ensure small businesses have access to the tools and guidance they need. 

Our digital advisers in each of TSB’s 25 branches nationwide will be able to provide advice on marketing, digital and growth strategy. Not only are we providing support to our business banking customers to help boost their productivity, but we’re also making advice and support accessible through 25 high streets across the country. 

The partnership offers our business banking customers a year’s free membership of Enterprise Nation and a ‘digital MOT’ to determine what advice and support will best help them start, run and grow their business. Appointments will be available every second Tuesday of the month and can be arranged in one of the 25 branches. Branches include Edinburgh, Liverpool, Clapham, Newcastle, Northampton, Perth, Cardiff, Plymouth and Cheltenham. 

Enterprise Nation shares our ambition of bringing vital services to our customers that are beyond banking. As our partnership continues to go from strength to strength — and we make significant steps to providing the tools small business owners need to start, run and grow — we are confident that we will continue to boost the capability of small businesses and entrepreneurs up and down the country.