I was at the inaugural meeting of the Thames Valley Berkshire LEP SME Forum yesterday – more of that anon. But, interestingly, there were a number of people who felt that Business Link had left the stage prematurely.
I have mixed feelings about the demise of the physicality of Business Link – as you may know they’re now moving to a providing a web based service only. I guess I have a less than positive view of their impact based on impressions rather than direct evidence. Yes, I admit it’s an outright prejudice! I have no right to be sniffy – as a business consultant, coach and mentor I trade in the same space and probably have many of the same competencies and characteristics.
Were they doomed to failure? I think they were. Why?
1. It’s all about money
We’re in an age of austerity. It’s not quite back to the ration books and coupons of post Worldwide II but it might just as well be. The only problem is that you have to be of a certain age to recognise the reference – as in Saga you’ve guessed! It doesn’t matter that it’s our money governments are playing with – after all we provide the votes and the hard cash from the taxes we pay that gives them their authority. So against the National Debt, the Health Service, the Benefits dependency on scale of 1:10 where 10 is stellar – where would Business Link be?
2. Big business wins all the time
Think major industries and sectors – banks, oil, utilities, cars, retailers – who do you think is calling the shots? Is it the Government? I don’t think so, despite the ‘pro forma’ bashing – regulators, commissions, parliamentary enquiries etc. Have mature quasi or totally monopolistic businesses changed their position one iota – no they haven’t!
And my point here? Big businesses generally only like smaller businesses if they can rape and pillage them. Because, perhaps, generally they are not bright and creative enough themselves. And governments acquiesce to this. Yes, I know selling works as an exit strategy for the fortunate few too.
So, Business Link was never going to get any leverage here.
3. The Public Sector doesn’t ‘do’ small businesses
Tales abound of the hoops small businesses have to jump through to get in to the Public Sector. One rule I heard recently was that a tendering company’s turnover had to be ten times the project value. In this case the project was worth £150k and the company although successful was small and didn’t have a turnover of £1m plus. EU rules designed to encourage fairness in tendering mean you need a degree in business obfuscation and the patience of a monk too.
The Public Sector doesn’t do granularity – which presumably is behind the Coalition’s push for local activism. Business Link tried to fill this space but wasn’t sufficiently loved by its owners or users to survive.
4. Free is always the wrong model
There are numerous studies that show that providing business support free is not the right answer- see Daniel Isenberg’s article for the Harvard Business Review ‘How to start an Entrepreneurial Revolution’. Free has the wrong connotations and is likely too to result in quantity not quality. The problem is once you let poor quality prospects in it’s the devil’s own job to weed them out as a Pharma incubator I worked with found out when it had to move to a commercial business model.
Business Link as formulated had all the trappings of a cost centre.
5. One size doesn’t fit all
I’ve raised the issue of granularity earlier. Many delivery models to be economic have to make assumptions and group users in to categories or segments and inevitably become homogenous. SME’s have singularly peculiar and varied characteristics which would challenge most customer facing organisations. Actually, just think how difficult it is even to define a small business.
6. Being ‘nicey nicey’ is no good
Let’s face it – sometimes you just have to tell business owners their baby is ugly. No customers, no cashflow, no more seedcorn capital. Pack up and find something else to do. If you’re going to fail then do it quickly. Life support for an ailing small business is the wrong sort of support. I admit, I don’t actually know how Business Link handled businesses where the business proposition just wasn’t going to work but one might pre-suppose an inclination to kindness.
7. Not many Business owners want to listen
Here’s the real rub, not only are they loathe to listen but they don’t often ask for advice even when they know they should. A very successful entrepreneur I met with recently took pride in regularly batting away well meaning support services. At the SME Forum I talked about earlier I’m not sure how many small businesses were actually there – although certainly there were a lot of providers (yes, myself included) who want to work in the SME Sector.
Overall, this is not a satisfactory solution as we sift through the embers of a burnt out economic model where expectations of economic regeneration weigh heavily on the SME Sector. There may be cause for optimism in the wave of localism that the Government is trying to engender but nannies in any form are not the answer – would the real Small Business please come upon the stage!
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