I feel we need to keep this debate really hot right now – in particular, we need to make it even more specific. There seems to be a general consensus within government circles that some form of ongoing State-sponsored enterprise support is appropriate and (I’m speaking for myself and my friends) growing businesses will always take what they can so long as it is accessible, relevant, and potentially value-adding.

My priority is to return the debate time and again onto what kind of support is going to be provided - and who is going to provide it. I am worried that as individual business builders, ours seem to be the least represented voices in all of this.

In structural terms, the emergent and new Local Enterprise Partnerships, to be created in the wake disbanded Regional Development Agencies and Business Link, are going to be sited more around existing capacity such as local authorities and chambers of commerce.

Social media is a great way to increase your profile and get recognised. Here are seven top tips to use social media to help you find your next job.

1. Keep an updated profile on Linkedin, Plaxo and Xing.

The recruiters and headhunters tend to use these social networking sites for professionals as an extension to Monster. You need to make sure your profile can be easily found on these websites, and is peppered with keywords. Whenever you meet someone, ask permission to connect with them on LinkedIn and stay in touch.

A quick word of warning, make sure any internet links to you enhance rather than decrease your personal brand. You may find it easier to ramp up the privacy settings on your facebook account to the highest level possible, rather than ask your friends to take any photos of you socialising as a student down.

2. Use LinkedIn to target companies within your preferred geographical location

I've spent the last 10 years working within training, learning & development. It's become second nature for me to be continually developing myself and learning more about myself in the process. So, why is this now useful for me as a successful entrepreneur? For a start, I have surrounded myself with people who complement not replicate my strengths and weaknesses. Secondly, I have put in place checks and balances to stop my weaknesses sabotaging my chances of success. I generally spend most of my time & energy playing to my strengths - and use the team around me to do the rest.

So how do you increase your personal levels of self-awareness?

1. Ask others

Make a habit of regularly asking for feedback from people around you. Even if you don't agree with what is being said, say thank you and that you will think about what has been said. If you find that two or three people keep on saying the same thing, then take note!

2. Notice your personal energy levels

Has anyone been watching the latest series of Mary Queen of Shops? As a die-hard Mary fan, I was thrilled to see the return of the series, but a little dismayed to note that she has turned her talents to any old business, not fashion as per the last series. However, I had to quickly eat my words, as it has been brilliant!

Each week we have seen her work wonders on these ailing little shops from a stiggy bakery to a flailing general store. In this week's episode, our Mary trys to wrangle an interiors/home shop trapped in the seventies by two ageing hippies and their son (who looks remarkably like a bearded version of the 'Small Boy' from The Snowman, complete with cosy dressing gown,) from the jaws of commerical disaster. It made for excellent viewing.

I spent last week camping with the family on the Isle of Wight. During the week, I spent a lot of time looking at all the different designs of tent, wondering which tent would suit the needs of my young family.

Now some people would say a tent is a tent. However, there is a vast amount of difference in the quality, strength and stability of a ‘budget’ 8-man tent and a top of the range 8-man tent. However, I found the easy way to tell a budget tent from a ‘top-of-the-range’ tent was the quality, positioning and number of guy ropes on the tent – or ‘lines of support’.

You probably didn’t realise it, but there is a good analogy between guy ropes and training. Many a time I’ve been discussing an individual’s development needs with a partner or director – and it becomes apparent that they want a quick fix for their direct report’s behavioural problems. There is a myth that a 1 day course, in isolation, can be a quick fix for behavioural problems. This is akin to buying a cheap tent, with its limited lines of support, and wondering why it fails to stand up in strong winds.

 Creating a website is such an art form that I shouldn't be surprised when people turn their home pages into art rather than the business tools they should be.  I've seen so many beautiful sites.  Flash pages that incorporate short films and elaborate audio tracks, exciting product catalogs that shuffle and flip images like playing cards at a blackjack table, amazing bio pages with professionally shot pictures . . .  So much sophistication to admire.  

It's official - the RDAs (regional development agencies) will soon be no more.

There is talk of their core replacement being something called Local Enterprise Partnerships, although, at this early stage, there is no clear definition about is meant about any of the three words defining these latest bureaucratic bodies.

- Like so much of the headline cuts across State spending, there is much momentum emerging about deconstruction, but precious little detail to date about from where productive creation is expected to come.

Cynics (or maybe just realists) amongst us might expect that the exercise could primarily end up as little more than a re-shuffle of the same grey suits into different organisational structures, with the only real cuts being the disappearance of support delivery budgets.

So let's talk more specifically about these emergent Local Enteprise Partnerships, as I fear that the voice of early stage enterprise is something that will be heard the least in the scramble for enterprise quango reassembly in new forms.

This is what I would like to see on the agenda:

The world of professional services has numerous differences to the corporate world. One of these differences is that fee-earners within professional services retain an element of client or ‘technical’ work regardless of whether they are a trainee, newly qualified or a partner. Most professional service firms don’t have a neat, orderly structure – they are a matrix organisation, with a pool of talent that assignment managers can call upon.

Promotion in a professional services firm can often be a messy procedure. Many firms make their promotions at set points in the year, others promote on-demand. Either way, most people are doing the role, before the official title comes their way. Retention of talent in a professional service firm relies on staff members being able to progress their career within the firm.

In the next three blog posts, I am going to look at the skills and values that must change in a person, as they climb the management ladder within a professional services firm.

It was Emergency Budget Day this week and as usual comments like those above (click on the image to enlarge it) were plentiful. Nothing special there I hear you say.Rants on the day the chancellor takes to the despatch box are ten-a-penny. But what's difference about these comments are that they appear on the Number 10 website.

One question I get asked with some frequency is "Where do I find investors for my projects?" The answer is, in most cases, right next door.  Your earliest investors will be your friends and family because they have the most reason to believe in you, and the best chance to hold you accountable.  As you require more funding, you may need to look a little farther afield.