Author : Robin Bowman, Senior Business
Editor
For anyone looking to start a small business, or needing advice
about running their current business, there is probably nothing
more valuable than being able to talk to people who are already
successful in business, or who have relevant expertise.
Certainly, anyone going into business for the first time is
going to need to find out a huge amount of information fast -
forming a company, company registration, taxes, national insurance,
business plans, cash flow projections, raising start-up capital
and, of course, business insurance needs. And that's just to begin
with. 
The recently announced national mentoring gateway for
small businesses may well be a good place to start the search for
help.
The aim of the government initiative is to create 40,000 new
businesses over the next two years, with each of these businesses
having access to a special business expert, or mentor.
Help will be available for those who have been unemployed and
who want to launch a start up. This will include advice on finance,
access to start-up loans, and access to a business expert to guide
them through the early phase of the life of the business. To
claim the allowance, anyone will need to produce a business plan
and show their business idea can be successful.
A kind of Dragon's Den, without the glamour and the big
names.
But the mentor scheme is also for established
businesses.
As the government's policy document, "Bigger, Better Business -
helping small firms start, grow and prosper" explains, the national
mentoring gateway will be aimed at helping ALL businesses to secure
the right business mentor for their needs.
By bringing together the British Bankers' Association, UK trade
bodies and mentoring organisations the aim is to develop a single
web-based gateway for mentoring so that potential mentors and
mentees can find the right match for their needs.
The idea is to "ensure that there is a single, cohesive
network of mentoring provision, bringing together at least 40,000
mentors, who will provide practical advice and contacts for other
businesses, based on hands-on experience."
As Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk said: "The
best people to advise small businesses are those who have already
started and run successful companies, so it is particularly
important that this new framework for helping businesses to improve
focuses on providing access to business mentors."
"Bigger, Better Business - helping small firms start, grow
and prosper" sets out another key challenge: helping those
companies with real growth potential to actually achieve
it.
"Evidence shows that 67 per cent of SME employers have an
aspiration to grow over the next two to three years, but only about
20 per cent will grow each year. We need to work with businesses
that have potential to grow to enable firms to overcome the
barriers to growth more easily."
To tackle this shortfall, the government says it will provide a
whole range of new initiatives.
There is also a commitment to overhaul the government's
businesslink website to provide better and clearer
information.
Established SMEs with the potential to increase employment or
turnover by 20 per cent or more each year for three years will also
be targeted.
High-growth coaching will be available to allow these businesses
to overcome barriers to growth.
In addition, the intention is to plug these high growth
businesses into areas of specialist knowledge and expertise from
investor networks, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and investment in
leadership and management training.
In short, businesses will be able to receive specialist advice,
coaching and mentoring, tailored to their specific needs and aimed
at helping them to develop and implement strategic business plans
that help them grow.
The aim is to improve businesses' 'investment readiness', to
make companies with the right potential more aware of equity as way
of raising finance and also at developing their management teams
and business models, plus improving businesses' skills making them
better able to pitch to investment Angels and venture capital
funds.
This all sounds like good news for SMEs and for those wanting to
set up a business - whether it is successful in practice will
almost certainly depend on how much the government listens to SMEs
about their practical needs.
Plus, while helping start ups on their way and giving SMEs with
potential the help they need to grow rapidly are great ideas, it's
important that those SMEs somewhere in the middle are also
remembered.
These are the less dynamic businesses - in fact, the majority of
businesses - up and down the country that could do with a massive
boost from the budget in March.
Removing more red tape, bureaucratic employment restrictions,
unhelpful planning regulations, and creating a far simpler and
clearer tax system that allows businesses to plan for the future,
along with more entrepreneurial tax breaks would be a good
start!
Robin has been a journalist for more than 20 years,
during which time he has held several senior media management
positions in both Fleet Street and Hong Kong. Robin recently
returned to the UK after being based in Italy for six years. He has
a passion for business innovation.
The content of this article reflects the views of
the author and may not necessarily reflect the views of Premierline
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