Thank you! I’m very honoured to have been invited the event and I’m sure I will enjoy it - but right now the imposter syndrome is strong!
I got the attendee list yesterday and I won’t lie, it’s a little intimidating and far more “intimate” than I was expecting. There’s only 14 people at the event.
This includes 3 MPs, 1 Director General, 2 CEO’s, 1 MD. There are 3 business owners too - including me!
(My big girl pants are being washed and dried this weekend! LOL)
Thanks for trying!
10 years ago I used to export a lot - probably 25% of my sales. Not being great with languages I confined myself to English-speaking countries plus EU. I spent time wading through the tariff codes to find the correct ones for my items, and nothing had any charges - phew! All I had to do was put the code and item description on a sticker, and post the parcel tracked for my own protection.
Then it started. First some US states introduced their own sales tax, then Australia created a 10% import duty, then the multiple VAT rates throughout Europe even though I’m many thousands below the UK VAT threshold, then the German packaging fiasco.
Register for this, register for that, fill in this form, pay this fee . . .
I gave up, and changed all my listings to UK only. And of course changed them all again now that Northern Ireland has effectively been forced to leave the UK with GPSR setup.
What you need to make clear is that we are sole traders - I don’t have an export department, it’s just me. Every hour that I’m trawling through the latest red tape is an hour I’m not making my products. A sensible de minimus so micro-business is exempt from all this stuff is the only way I would consider going back to export.
Good luck with your meeting, and thank you.
Absolutely, I don’t think there is any recognition of just how disruptive trying to deal with these challenges actually is.
It takes time away from all the things that need to happen to grow a product business: product design, testing/sampling, pricing, marketing (listing, photography, social media, emails etc)
And when it’s just you, on your jones, that is a LOT of work, just to get it to market… never mind the final step of actually getting it to a customer!
I’m sure these people all understand the concept of time though - I bet their hourly rate is WAY more than mine 
I would just like to add that you are given a great opportunity and I do hope it goes well. At least, there is an effort to put forward the concerns. So many obstacles to small businesses that I find unecessary.
A few years ago it was so easy to sell abroad, in fact a huge majority of my sales were abroad! What started to put me off is the invoice I was required to put in front of the envelope that will give others the full picture of who my customer is, where they live, what they purchased and how much they paid. In other words, no privacy for my customers, but at the same time businesses are required to be GPSR compliant.
Then I had to go through all kinds of codes for materials when I am not making anything complicated and it is too time cosuming.
Another thing has been the VAT rules for selling online products to EU. I sell Knitting Patterns online and I can only send them by email which I don’t mind, but I have stopped offering that option for EU destinations. The great thing is that a platform where I sell them as digital downloads takes care of that, but I would not be able to do that on another site without me spending so much time and effort to figure this out.
As for the Product safety information…I had a good laugh with the Authorised Representative requirement and the risks!
Complex and confusing customs rules mostly. Just easier to say, ‘I don’t post outside uk’
Thank you so, so much to everyone who participated in this thread. Your insights were incredibly helpful, naturally, they cemented my own experiences as a much more widely shared experience. More importantly, they brought nuance to these challenges based on your individual circumstances.
I promised I would feedback, so here’s what came out of the event, and my follow up actions so far.
I participated in a round table discussion on Women in Exports, having been invited by the Chartered Institute of Export and International Trade. The event was hosted by Alison Griffiths MP at the House of Commons with 14 representatives from variety business and export backgrounds. Also in attendance were Marco Forgione, Director General of the Institute, and Tim Reid, Chief Executive of UK Export Finance.
LinkedIn post from the Institute
The discussions were earnest and the goal laudable - to support women-led small businesses to export more.
However, quite quickly, it became abundantly clear that the needs of micro-businesses, such as ours, would be completely ignored in this goal and support would be withheld from those who cannot grow without it.
Previous empirical and quantitative research indicates that women are disproportionately represented within this sector, and therefore, will be disproportionately affected by the recent exporting challenges brought by GPSR and US tariffs.
Etsy’s 2024 Seller Census – UK Sellers, pages 10-14
The Crafts Council Makers Survey: published in March 2025
Earlier this month, a new package was announced giving UK Export Finance (UKEF) the power to expand financing support for British businesses by £20 billion, with small businesses also able to access loans of up to £2 million through the British Business Bank’s Growth Guarantee Scheme.
This was proudly referred to in Tim Reid’s speech at the event. However, the only businesses that will be able to apply for this support, will be those registered with Companies House.
No sole-traders will be eligible in any capacity.
In the spirit of support and potential collaboration, I shared details of the Etsy and Crafts Council reports with representatives of both the Institute and UKEF at the event. (I further emailed them to my contact at the Institute on Thursday)
The core reason that women-led micro-businesses will be excluded from ANY action taken by these organisations is because we are invisible.
There is no “official” record that we exist, let alone acknowledgment of the value that we bring to our local economies and communities, or to society as a whole.
With no benchmark data, this is a massive knowledge gap. Unless that is filled, it is impossible to set goals, targets, or KPIs for activity.
There is simply no way to make any meaningful assessment of the current situation and what action will be beneficial or measurable in the future.
I have recommended that both the Institute and UKEF contact with a number of leading figures and organisations in the craft/design/creative business sphere.
I did so in the hope that through their shared goals, opportunities for collaboration, learning and support may arise.
These include:
A key challenge that was raised by other attendees was the fear of a “lost generation” of potential exporters.
It was widely acknowledged that the regulatory landscape is now so challenging that many businesses, of all sizes, simply do not even attempt it.
This means a lack of in-house knowledge around exporting processes, and an overall decrease in confidence to commit to this form of business growth.
This fear highlights not just how valuable our efforts as low-level exporters can be, but also how easy it would be to support us much more effectively.
My apologies if this update is a bit “report” like – to save time, I have amalgamated a number of the follow up emails that I have sent since the event.
I fully appreciate that the overall tone of this update is somewhat negative, however I am optimistic that we are now less invisible than we were previously.
The fact that the solutions we require are relatively straight forward, and low cost, gives me hope that they may emerge at some point.
My contact at the Institute has told me that they are already working on some tools and I have offered to be a tester. When I can share anything further about these developments – I will!
These solutions would not only offer support to our sector, but other micro-businesses within the broader ecommerce sector and potentially beyond.
Individually, we may be tiny, but collectively, we are many!
Thank you for such an insightful report and for representing the interests of micro-sellers and women in business. Let’s hope our existence is acknowleged and valued more as a result.
Was no mention made of the Theo Paphitis Small Business Sunday Award Group. This is very much majority women run small businesses and many are micro. Maybe Theo should be invited to the table for his input.
I’m afraid not - Having had no interaction with the SBS programme, I’m afraid it was not top of mind for me.
(If contact is made with Dottie - as I have recommended - I’m sure this will be near the top of her suggestions lists)
I used two criteria to make my recommendations:
I have no doubt that there are potentially more, however these represented the top opportunities for wider scale data gathering. Without better data about the number of women at risk of being excluded, and the reasons why, the support being proposed or planned can never reach it’s full potential.
I wanted to focus on the business community that I belong to, and identify most closely with. Mercenary, possibly, however this is the core of my knowledge base. I only have capacity to advocate for those whose challenges I both understand and share.
However, widening the small/micro-business net further, it would make sense to collaborate with SBS, along with other organisations such as Small Business Britain, Small Business Saturday and Enterprise Nation.
(When I have a follow up chat with my contact next week, I will put forward these suggestions)
Thanks Sophie.. Sure Dottie will be doing what she can within our SBS group and she is well aware of the ridiculous situation where Micro businesses are just ignored. Sooooo many successful ones too but posting internationally… well I’m not at the moment anyway..
Thanks for the update Sophie and for all your efforts - one small step at a time! 
Thank you again for doing this, Sophie. Hugs.