Support Creative Businesses this #Nanovember
Nano Awareness Month · November
Nanovember
Think Nano. Grow Opportunity.
The creative economy is full of nano enterprises. They do mighty work with their small 1–4 person teams, and the creative economy relies on them.
But they are fragile, and they need support to survive and flourish. Our research shows they operate below the radar.
So this #Nanovember, we're shining a light on these brilliant creative businesses, and we need your help.
- If you're a creative nano business, tell your story.
- If you're a policymaker, recognise the gap.
- If you're a funder, back the creative businesses that make the whole ecosystem possible.
What is a nano?
Are you a creative nano?
Creative nano businesses are the smallest enterprises in the creative industries, and often the least visible. You're a creative nano if your creative or cultural business has:
1–4
employees
<£500k
annual turnover
<£250k
on the balance sheet
Take the 10-second nano check
#Nanovember
The Nanofesto
We can't grow the creative economy by overlooking its foundations.
Creative nano enterprises are everywhere: the studios, the makers, the designers, the producers, the publishers, the cultural entrepreneurs.
Yet too often nanos carry the weight of regulation, administration and risk without receiving support designed for their reality.
Our research shows they face a 10% annual closure risk, regardless of age. But once they cross the five-job line, that risk roughly halves, bringing their survival odds in line with businesses employing around 50 people.
#Nanovember
The Five Nano Commitments
-
See Nano
Recognise and support creative nano enterprises (with 1–4 employees) as a distinct part of the creative economy.
-
Count Nano
Measure the social and economic contribution of creative nano enterprises, and how this can be expanded by unlocking their growth potential.
-
Grow Nano
Introduce new policy interventions that help creative enterprises build their organisational capacity and resilience by crossing the five-job line, moving from “nano” to “micro”.
-
Back Nano
Provide affordable access to practical, sector-specific business support programmes that help founder-led creative enterprises develop and grow.
-
Champion Nano
Celebrate and support sustainable micro-growth as a new industrial strategy for the creative sector, reflecting the strength and diversity of this essential part of the UK's creative economy.
Get involved
Join #Nanovember
If you're a creative nano business
- Stand up and be counted! Like and share our campaign.
- Take the Nano Growth Check-Up
- Share your creative nano story with #Nanovember
If you're a policymaker
- Help make creative nanos visible
- Download the Below the Radar report on unlocking the nano potential in the UK's creative industries
- Sign up to our newsletter for updates on our nano research and policy work
If you're a funder
- Help create the conditions for creative nano businesses to grow
Because nano isn't niche.
It's the foundation.
#Nanovember