Small businesses need all the help they can get. The fact that this help sometimes comes from would-be competitors suggests cut-throat capitalism may be on its way out.

Capitalism as we know it tends to involve a little competition. Start a business and you can expect, at some point, to run up against another party vying for your revenues. Whether the response is a ruthless, Gekko-esque underhand strategy or an outside-the-box, innovative brainwave, the response is likely to put your competitor right in your cross hairs.

Modern businesses face challenges from competitors, along with other factors such as rising rents and higher supplier costs and direct combat may not be the answer. Some smart businesses are working on alternatives, putting aside their differences to instead work together for the overall good of the group. We have people to celebrate success with, and shoulders to cry on when things don’t go so well.

A good example of this is Lily + Skinner, a female collective based in the borough of Hackney in London, whose members all own or manage restaurants in the area. Taking its name from Lilley & Skinner, the cockney rhyming slang for ‘dinner’, Lily + Skinner was founded when Emma Reynolds and her friend Missy Flynn, co-owner of the restaurant Rita’s, were talking about how they could help one another. Word soon spread and there are now 10 members of what they refer to as the “family”.

Reynolds, who also co-founded the Soho ramen restaurant Tonkotsu, heads up the group, and the benefits of the collective range from sharing CVs from job applicants and details of property agents and suppliers to taking advantage of each other’s experiences and sharing knowledge.