{"id":72429,"date":"2016-07-17T11:00:02","date_gmt":"2016-07-17T11:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=dbc8518fdd685bee13e43f1e794ee53f"},"modified":"2016-07-17T11:00:02","modified_gmt":"2016-07-17T11:00:02","slug":"news-story-meet-emma-jones-our-new-small-business-crown-representative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=72429","title":{"rendered":"News story: Meet Emma Jones, our new Small Business Crown Representative"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Leading entrepreneur <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.enterprisenation.com\/about-emma-jones\">Emma Jones MBE<\/a>, has been appointed as Small Business Crown Representative.<\/p>\n<p>In her new position, working with government departments and the Crown Commercial Service, Emma will help smaller businesses in the UK bid for and win important government contracts.<\/p>\n<p>This supports the government\u2019s manifesto commitment to spend \u00a31 in every \u00a33 with SMEs by 2020.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"what-exactly-does-the-crown-rep-do\">What exactly does the Crown Rep do?<\/h3>\n<p>The Crown Representative for SMEs is the voice of smaller businesses, at the centre of government. Their aim is to support the government\u2019s target of one third of procurement spend flowing directly or indirectly to SMEs.<\/p>\n<p>Working with both government departments and small businesses, the Crown Rep will:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>raise awareness in government of the value that small businesses bring<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>bring both sides to to break down barriers and encourage ongoing communication<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>ensure that small firms understand the changes government is making, so that bidding for and winning opportunities is easier<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>act as an intermediary, working with the Crown Commercial Service and other departments and crown reps, to identify opportunities to drive up direct and indirect spend with small businesses<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Speaking about her new appointment, Emma said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">I\u2019m delighted to be working in the role of SME Rep and helping realise the target of \u00a31 in every \u00a33 spent with small business by 2020. Entrepreneurs and founders are always on the look-out for new contracts and markets, and government represents a large one!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Over the next 12 months, I\u2019ll be supporting small businesses in getting tender ready, connecting them with buyers from central government and tier one suppliers, and shining a spotlight on those who have successfully made sales.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Contact Emma with your stories or questions via <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SMECrownRep\">twitter @smecrownrep<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crown Commercial Service welcomes entrepreneur and author Emma Jones MBE, in her new position as Small Business Crown Representative<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}