Bill Fox wants to change things – quickly.

The new FSB Kent and Medway chairman wants to change things so quickly he can barely get his words out fast enough.

“Historically we haven’t connected with businesses as well as we should have done,” he said over a coffee at the Hilton Hotel in Maidstone, at the speed of a man who had drunk four of five espressos before the interview.

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“We are very good at lobbying and very well connected in Westminster but we haven’t relaid the benefits of being an FSB member to other businesses in Kent.”

Mr Fox, who took over from chairman-of-13-years Roger House in October, has been involved with FSB for a decade, more than six years of which has been as a manager of the south Kent branch.

The first thing he did on becoming regional chairman was to scrap the branches system because “we never spoke to each other,” setting up a central team covering the whole county .

He said: “We are trying to break up mentality which said ‘I’m only in south Kent and can’t go into east Kent’.

“Some of the negative comments we have had in the past is ‘the FSB is full of stuffy old men’ so we need to change our image in the UK.”

Providing Mr Fox does not ruffle too many feathers, he will be in his regional role for three years, after which he has to stand again for re-election.

The FSB is the largest member-led organisation in the UK, with 6,000 members in Kent, dwarfing Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce and the IoD.

Mr Fox runs Ashford-based advice firm Kent Business Academy and was named one of Britain’s top 10 business advisers by Enterprise Nation this month. He wants to get FSB membership in Kent up to 10,000 and to highlight the services businesses can use for their membership fee.

He said: “The FSB is a sleeping giant. We are now getting our act together and you will see what we are doing to raise the profile of the FSB in Kent.”

Is small business on the political agenda going into the general election?

“I don’t think MPs understand how small businesses work. They are very good with the big businesses but someone working from home who has to deal with auto enrolment of pensions is going to find that a problem because someone has got to manage it. If you are a one-man business you have got to do everything and red tape distracts you from doing the day-to-day stuff. If you’re on your own you don’t need it. All big businesses started small so we need to put support in place to help them grow and develop.”

What is the most common mistake small business owners make?

“I have met people who have been made redundant, got a nice payoff and then lost it all in less than a year. Just because you have an idea and you love it that doesn’t mean it’s a business. You have got to do market research to see if there’s a need.”

How can we make it easier for people to run small businesses?

“Most people drift into business without any planning. They are starting from a bad position. A lot of people I meet don’t know what it costs them to run their business. They need a place, maybe at school, where they can be taught some simple business skills. What support is there for teenagers leaving school and starting their own business? If we can get a small business team in government that understands how small businesses work, then we can get an understanding that small is the new big.”

You’ve launched a campaign with politicians called #ibacksmallbusiness but what does that really mean?

“It’s not just a soundbite. It is something we are going to make happen. I’m meeting every MP and candidate in Kent to ask them to back our manifesto, highlighting problems like business rates and lack of broadband. They often don’t understand lots of the challenges. We are doing a lot of stuff to let people in business know we are there and want to help them.”

Is your average small business owner aware of the help available to them?

“If you don’t connect then you can’t moan. People are quick to give you reasons why things are not going well but are very slow to take up the opportunities there for them. As a business coach I tell people ‘if you’re going to bury your head in the sand you are going to miss the boat’. There are huge opportunities out there and that is why it’s important that businesses in Kent are told by as many organisations as possible what is available to them.”

What is the role of small businesses in the growth of the UK economy?

“They are the future – I don’t think we will have many more big companies like Apple come along – but they need the right support. It’s important that people in business have got someone to talk to who understands what they are going through. The government have provided a huge amount of funding but not necessarily focused on the right things. They want to help but I’m not sure they know how to.”

CV

Born: 4/12/1956

Live: Ashford

School: Park School in Essex

Family: married with three grown-up children

First job: Worked in a wooden pallet factory in Grays, Essex

Salary of first job: £9 a week

Salary now: “I don’t know. It varies.”

Car: Jaguar X-Type

Favourite book: The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

Film: Zulu

Music: Any soul or funk from the 1970s or 1980s. “I have a huge collection of more than 20,000 CDs and vinyls.”

Charity: “I tend to support cancer charities because my mother died of cancer.”

Typical day

On the day of the interview Bill Fox arrived at the Kent Business Academy office in Ashford at 8.30am and dealt with some emails before driving to the Hilton Hotel in Maidstone for our interview at 10.30am.

He then returned to the office before popping out to see his accountant at 2pm to sign off his company’s end-of-year accounts.

He then had two client meetings back at the office at 3pm and 4.30pm. He went home at about 5.30pm.

In his downtime he likes to listen to music. He was a DJ for 25 years at venues around Ashford.