Why business support is failing in the recession

Playing the Devil’s Advocate... In a recession and with a general election on the way there seems to be little visible evidence of government (or anyone else) really helping small businesses.

We have succeeded in creating an entire industry around the subject of business support. Entire conferences are run by so-called experts telling others how to be experts in how to support businesses. It reminds me of the island where everyone took in everyone else’s washing to keep the economy going...

At the centre of the ‘BS’ industry is a series of partially-funded, target-driven organisations along with the usual suspects... A nice long list, but do they actually help anyone?

Business support is meant to be a ‘good thing’ (like motherhood and apple pie?!):

• to help start-ups (“out of acorns grow oaks, etc., etc.” goes the blurb),
• to help the fast-growth businesses (“the real engine of the future etc., etc.”),
• to help the ailing (“to save their pain”), and
• to help the excluded (“because we have a duty to pay attention to the socially excluded”).

Now is the time that the industry should be demonstrating what it is actually doing: simple, concrete examples.

In reality, when people say that business support is a good thing, they mean that it is good ‘politically’ (rather than good ‘economically’). We’ll see more of this as we head towards the polling stations.

Continuing in my ‘provocative and challenging’ approach, the numbers talk for themselves.

Investing in start-ups is an entire lottery – and the fact is, most fail within two years.

As for existing businesses… only the fast-growers really generate the jobs; so rationally you should invest in them (and not the others) if you want the biggest bang for your buck. The reality is, however, that a policy focusing on high growth businesses only would be political suicide.

And then there is the government rhetoric about creating a small business enterprise culture in the UK free of red tape. (Oh no – I’ve just wet myself laughing!)

Seriously, I am really concerned that the quality of recession-related services that our small/growth/independent/privately-owned businesses get from the ‘BS’ industry is just not good enough. I hear too many dreadful stories.

I am concerned that bureaucracy and the remoteness of some of the policy makers may be unhelpful. How many members of the cabinet and the senior levels of BIS have run their own business and know what the issues really are?

I worry about the products and services that are made available (that seem to be more about targets and tick-boxes than helping the actual businesses themselves).

I worry about the reputation that the business support industry has acquired – and yet it has had budgets that surely would have made it doomed to succeed!

I am a great fan of doing everything we can to help people who run businesses in this country - I have worked with, and do work with some stunning business support organisations and people worth their weight in gold. So I know that some of the Business Links, etc., are more than just ‘above average’.

MY POINT: I am, however, desperately concerned (unhappy would not be an exaggeration) that the word on the street is ‘that despite the BS industry's best efforts… it just isn’t working well enough.’

Please can you let me know I am wrong.

Regards,
Robert (playing the Devil's Advocate!)