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My career started as a buyer in retail for big companies. After a while I felt comfortable with shipping plastic and non essential items from China and the far east. It didn’t sit well with my values and I became increasingly uneasy about my experience of how business is done.
The company I was working for went into administration and I set up ‘A Rosie Life’ - working with small UK designers and brands and creating pop up shops.
I found that there was no tangible support for small businesses out there. The network meetings I went to involved lots of men in suits pushing business cards around with the emphasis on selling to each other, not supporting one another. I was longing for something more vibrant and active for others who were like me - setting up a business but wanting to do something more creative with others.
I co-founded Independent Oxford in 2015. The thing that motivated me besides the peer support and connection was the members who joined the network - all with interesting stories about what was driving their independent alternative business model. Indie Oxford’s mission is to support independent businesses across Oxfordshire. Being part of the network makes us feel less alone and isolated in the journey. I also work with Oxfordshire Social Enterprise Partnership.
Until the Covid-19 pandemic, Independent Oxford was growing organically. We added a website as a platform for people in the network to promote their business to the public. We created Christmas markets. The first one at Turl Street Kitchen attracted 2,000 people. For a while the City Council let us have a shared pop up shop in the covered market. When Covid hit, Independent Oxfordshire went bonkers. Every business needed a support group - whilst working out how to go online, and navigate all the rules. We became a much larger entity quickly. Our collective vision was to promote independent business in Oxford and to enable people to see the value of local businesses in so many different ways.
We have a growing loneliness epidemic in our county, and one way of changing that is creating places where people feel like they belong and have relationships. Places that feel like this in “their neighbourhood”. This is where they belong. Independent businesses are a fundamental part of the solution to creating a sense of place.
Currently Independent Oxford has 180 members ranging from those setting up at their kitchen table to more established local businesses like Tap Social and The Missing Bean. We include retail, hospitality, health and wellbeing, creative businesses, and some B2B services.
We facilitate an open dialogue through WhatsApp groups, and encourage people to connect and share knowledge and experience. If you are living through that experience of running your own business you are keen for connection and overjoyed to find a space with peers. The “I am not alone on this journey’ - feeling of being a member of something.
Smaller meet ups can be a space where you can let your guard down and be vulnerable. Talking about how to maintain resilience and keep going when things are tough is a common theme. We also run some learning sessions and sector specific groups. It's a place to find allies.
We have had support from Oxford City Council, Oxford City Managers and Blenheim Palace. Additionally the larger businesses in the membership, like Missing Bean, often support or help incubate new businesses. We are well networked through the Oxfordshire Social Enterprise Partnership (OSEP) and Oxford Economic Steering Board and other local groups in the county.
People really see the value in collaboration and there has been a shift over the last 10 years from businesses being protective of their space to being more ‘open source’ with how they run and support others.
We are moving from ‘this is mine’ and being opaque towards greater transparency and trust.
We know that a neighbourhood with one cafe does not create a ‘coffee scene’. Many similar businesses in one area adds to the tapestry and the richness that our city contains and creates more community wealth. They breathe life into neighbourhoods. By contrast the likes of corporations like Amazon and Costa take the wealth out of communities.
Property
The colleges have a stranglehold on property and development in Oxford City in particular. It would be really good if the Oxford College bursars were more involved in this discussion about community wealth building. They are the ones that own and manage a lot of the retail property in this county. The rents are unaffordable to indie businesses and we end up with City and town centres with empty spaces or occupied by global chains.
Incubation
A Box Park for Oxford? It would be amazing if we had a ‘box park’ (a food and retail park made out of refitted shipping containers) in a location somewhere in the city with good footfall that could be an incubator for independent businesses. The business park by the Oxfam superstore for example?!
Local Government Leadership.
Local authorities could provide some leadership and engage with the colleges on the rents issue. Most town centre buildings are owned by colleges and are unaffordable to independent business or communities. We need to create cultural hubs in Oxford that are decentralised, that are local to the communities that need them. What might Templar Square become when there is a rail link?
Year round cultural offer
There is so much life and diverse culture in Oxford which doesn’t really have a home. How can we harness the energy of Cowley Road Carnival, Rusty Bike Street Party, Flo Fest and The Canal Festival from one off events to year round infusion of culture and enterprise? Liverpool has ‘Culture Liverpool’, a hub for culture in the city - could Oxford have something similar?
Finance
We need a local fund for small growth projects - at any stage. Some money to pay a photographer for example, so that that small new independent clothing company has a better chance of launching its new range.
Business support
We need fewer ‘cut and paste‘ online webinars and workshops. We need to support membership organisations to be able to offer more and direct support - wherever possible in person.
This case study is part of the 'Community wealth building: big conversations' project. These case studies are in the voice of the people who gave them. They seek to honestly present their successes, as well as the challenges of trying to build a more just, sustainable economy and community. We encourage conversation - so if you want to get in touch and talk more to any of the groups, please do.
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