Step Back: Supporting Hospitality SMEs in a Major City Centre

A major city Business Improvement District commissioned Step Back as part of its work to support hospitality SMEs operating within the city centre.

Hospitality represented a significant proportion of spend within the BID area and was recognised as playing an important role not only in the local economy, but in shaping the identity, personality and experience of the city centre itself. The BID was already investing in hospitality through a number of sector initiatives, but wanted to explore what more could be done to support the owner-operators behind those businesses.

One of the challenges was that traditional business training had not always resonated with this audience. Hospitality SMEs operate in fast-moving, customer-facing environments where owners are constantly balancing people, costs, standards, customers and commercial decisions. Generic support, particularly where it is based on models developed for larger or more corporate organisations, can feel removed from that reality.

Step Back was designed to address that gap.

Based on the principles and framework developed in Cassie Davison’s book, Stand Out Hospitality, the half-day session created structured time away from day-to-day operations for hospitality SME owner-operators to reflect, gain perspective and identify what mattered most next.

The intention was not to teach experienced operators how to run their businesses. Instead, the session provided the structure and space to look at their own businesses differently, identify 1 issue affecting performance or consistency, clarify 1 standard they wanted to hold more firmly and leave with 1 practical action to take forward.

Pre-session responses demonstrated the range of demands operators were managing. Staffing, finance and VAT, rising costs, consistency, service improvement, growth and expansion were all occupying significant headspace. 83% said they were sometimes or often fixing or repeating the same things, while 67% said they sometimes or often put off decisions because there was simply too much going on.

The picture was not one of inexperienced businesses lacking ideas or basic business knowledge. These were operators who generally understood their businesses well. The challenge was finding enough distance from the operation to identify where their attention could make the greatest difference.

The immediate post-session evaluation showed a clear shift against the intended outcomes. 100% reported leaving with a clearer view of how their business was operating. 100% identified an issue affecting performance or consistency and a practical action to take forward over the following 30 days. All participants also identified, either fully or partially, a standard they wanted to hold more clearly.

The session received an average value rating of 9.2/10, while average confidence in taking the identified next step was 9.5/10.

The qualitative feedback reinforced those results. Operators repeatedly referred to the value of focus, perspective and the opportunity to think alongside other people who understood the realities of the sector.

“It made me more focused on the single issue I’m facing.”

“It’s worth it for checking your perspective on the industry.”

“Open discussions about issues facing similar businesses.”

“Re-igniting the ‘Belonging’ part of hospitality I love and believe in.”

Identity, pride and belonging emerged particularly strongly in the feedback. This was significant because the most valuable outcomes were not simply technical or operational. Operators described reconnecting with what mattered about their businesses, clarifying what they wanted to protect and gaining a stronger sense of where their attention should go next.

The intervention demonstrated that support for experienced hospitality SMEs does not always need to mean more information, more tools or more training. Sometimes the most useful intervention is the opportunity to step away from immediate operational pressure, look at the business as a whole and make a small number of deliberate decisions.

For the commissioning BID, Step Back provided a practical way to support hospitality SME owner-operators at leadership level, with measurable immediate impact in clarity, prioritisation, standards and action.

Step Back

Step Back is a half-day leadership session for hospitality SME owner-operators, based on the principles and framework developed in Stand Out Hospitality. It is designed for organisations looking to provide practical, sector-specific support that reflects the realities of running customer-facing SME businesses.