Back in October I spoke to Caz Yetman of Nixon McInnes about a project they are running for the UK’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Caz initially got a hold of me via the writing I do on the Small Business Blog. What she had been charged to do was to find people and organisations who represent businesses in the UK and who might be interested in helping them with some research.

Through their research, BIS wanted to better understand the small and growing business audience better, understand their aims, their challenges and whether the Department of Business Innovation and Skills could help me and others help them.

Anyway, I shared a few ideas with her and after a couple of weeks she got back in touch. Through her research, lots of people (including me) had said that business owners would like to see more stories about other people’s experiences of business etc, as opposed to the normal and dry stuff (ie. you should do this and then do that with a bit of theory and policy thrown in) that you often find on many business advice related websites.

You see stories are useful and powerful things, particularly when it comes to learning, motivation and growth in business. Why? Well, I believe, stories provide context to some of the decisions and challenges that we face and we can gain motivation, insight and courage from another’s experience.

With this in mind, BIS have decided to launch an initiative, Business in You, to collect stories from small and growing businesses, by asking them to share theirs in various ways. They will then be selecting the best one’s to be published on the website as case studies.

This is where you come in.

If you share your business growth ideas and your stories, you will be helping others and you may also get to help (market) your own business.

Here’s what you need to know and do:

1. Check out the ‘Business in You’ website
2. Think about the following questions:
• “What business advice can you give to others?”
• “What good advice have you received before?”
• “Was there a key turning point for you and your business?”
• “What sort of advice would you give someone in a similar position?”
• “Where did you receive that advice and where would you recommend others to seek advice from?”
3. Once you’ve done that and you think that you would like to share your story then you have a number of options:
• Share your story using this email address: businessinyou@bis.gsi.gov.uk
• Share your story publicly on the “Business in You” Facebook page
• Join the conversation on Twitter and share your story using the hashtag #businessinyou; or
• Share your story on the “Business in You” LinkedIn group
• Alternatively, leave a comment below and that will get picked up by the “Business in You” team.

The submission of stories is now open (it opened on 10th December) and will close on 20^th December.

BIS will then be selecting some of the submitted stories which will then published on the Business in You website in the New Year. A bit of free PR anyone?

So, get sharing your ideas for business growth so that you can help others and, maybe, help yourself too 😉