In the June issue of Growing Business, Duncan Bannatyne says that “entrepreneurs don’t need help”. Everything that they need is there for them, he says, and there are in fact “too many grants available”. It’s an interesting proposition at a time when the government’s enterprise policy is coming under increasing scrutiny and, unsurprisingly, the Tories are attempting to steal a march.
At the British Library a couple of weeks ago, George Osborne outlined new proposals which he says would dramatically change the way small businesses get support. Doug Richard also spoke, hitting out at the regionalisation of support systems such as Business Link, highlighting the disparities in different areas.
“No two regions have the same support structures,” he said. “Of the estimated £2bn the government spends on small business support, at a regional level, more than a third is put into administration.” To be fair to the government, it has recognised the shortfalls in its Business Link system and is in the process of consolidating its offering. Whether the army of former accountants, civil servants and bank managers who man the service can deliver advice and assistance that is, to paraphrase John Reid’s contagious management speak, ‘fit for purpose’ is questionable.
Grants are one thing - Business Link does not give grants, though it might tell you where you can get one - but surely entrepreneurs want to be inspired and advised by other entrepreneurs who have felt their pain by building businesses of their own?
The private sector is probably better equipped to deliver the kind of advice that proves inspirational, hands-on and from a source that an entrepreneur will respect. Initiatives like Shaa Wasmund’s Smarta, where entrepreneurs can connect and learn from each other’s ‘business journeys’, offer an intriguing glance at how a network that does all three might look.
The wider question of whether the true entrepreneur even needs help is more difficult to answer. While entrepreneurship in the UK is undoubtedly on the rise, a glance at our start-up rates shows that, as Osborne pointed out, we still lag behind the United States, Canada and Australia in this respect. The right idea will always receive backing so perhaps it’s the enterprising spirit that we lack, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where the inspiration for that comes from. While risk taking and bloody mindedness are essential components of an entrepreneur’s profile, a source of education and support for those in the early stages of running an enterprise wouldn’t do any harm. But the advice would prove much more valuable if it came from people like you.
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