“Why Business Link’s Demise Could Be A Shot In the Arm For Small Businesses”

Big changes are on the way for regional development agencies, including Business Link, as detailed in this article.  Whilst I’m not about to devote this entire blog to negative comments about Business Link per se (especially as I value the mentoring and support I’ve received from my own adviser), I have come to the conclusion – along with 57% of people in a recent poll, that the general consensus is that scrapping the regional development agencies, will be, on the whole, beneficial to SME’s. 

Many SME’s have struggled to compete for contracts or have been edged out because they’ve come up against the same response from agencies funded by the government, when trying to promote their services to the public sector….”oh, the Government do a funded version of what you’re doing” or “we’ve got that covered” or “we’re already doing that in our XYZ SuperBloodyCleverBuzzWord Scheme”.

Personally, I spent 8 months collaborating with another small business on a programme, which was either stonewalled, ignored or when we did finally get in front of who we thought was the right person they ‘pointed’ us to yet another vague quango, purporting to provide what we were.  It transpired that their offering was vastly inferior to ours and had little or zero impact.  Of course there is the argument that with the funding being wiped out, it will have a negative impact on small businesses – but for a truly hungry entrepreneur I think it will only serve to make them raise their game.

You could even argue that we’ve been so bogged down by the bureaucratic sludge, that small businesses have forgotten how great they are and are settling for second best.  They could just turn around and say “hey let’s just talk and support EACH OTHER” instead.  For example, I had a very interesting conversation with an Inventor who’d received far more valuable support from his peers than any of the funded support he’d received anyway!

With this layer of funding disappearing, from my point of view this will give the private sector more opportunities, because it will level the playing field.  It could be a real shot in the arm for anyone who can spot an opportunity to introduce themselves and really make a name for themselves.  Unlike before when they couldn’t get their foot in the door.  With the shift away from the state control of more or less everything, we can breath.

My belief is that the business men and women of this country, whilst being in need of good advice and support – must know that there are plenty of extremely competent people available in the private sector with much to offer.  And the reason being is that they are ‘out there’ day in day out, striving for excellence at the cutting edge; not going to endless meetings, or sitting on panels and completely out of touch. 

Entrepreneurs and specialists should be demanding more; they should challenge more and make a lot more noise about what’s good advice and what isn’t.  If you demand excellence and are on a quest for constant improvement then you should demand this in those advising you surely!?  If you expect excellence in yourself and your business then this should be the norm in the support and resources you call on to achieve that.  Otherwise, there’s no point in it is there? 

What do you think?  Will these changes help you?   Will these changes actually make business men and women all over the land scan their own businesses, take stock and instead of settling for mediocrity – wake up tomorrow with an entirely new attitude with …

• The freedom to ask the best of themselves
• Listen to what’s actually going on in the real business world
• Get to grips with technology
• Work with someone who’s actually experienced the challenges that are being thrown you on a daily basis (New Media for starters!). 

My view (and please disagree if you feel like it) – is that to give cutting edge advice you have to BE at the cutting edge.  Thankfully these latest changes indicate that we’re beginning to catch up, but it’s long overdue. 

We need to demand more, challenge and ask questions of the agencies giving us advice – because the danger is that because we’re already out there solving these problems (because we HAVE to, to survive) – that we will in the end become more knowledgeable than government funded agencies put together to help us.  Are they already being left behind…? 

Now you don’t want out-moded, pointless advice that’s not relevant to your business do you?