Business Advisers' Survey - Business support priorities

Source: BAD News (21 Jun 2010)

The latest BAD News survey, conducted in June 2010, asked business advisers about proposed Government reform of business support over the next five years. The results have revealed front-line practitioners' opinions about where support should be targeted, the key priority business sectors and the most favoured methods of intervention.

Almost 400 front-line advisers and business support practitioners from around the UK took part in the survey.

Respondents were from a wide variety of backgrounds including independent business advisers/consultants, and advisers employed by a broad cross-section of support providers including Business Link (and equivalents in Scotland and Wales), local enterprise agencies, Chambers of Commerce, local councils, business reference libraries, universities/colleges, trade associations, charities, BICs, accountants and training providers.

Half of respondents have worked in business support for more than ten years, with one in six for more than 20 years.

Headline results from the survey are as follows:

Advisers believe the highest priorities for support should be for existing firms with 10+ employees, (80% rated this as essential) closely followed by new start ups at 77%.
92% believe support should be available to anyone regardless of gender, ethnicity or location - and 64% are opposed to support specifically targeted at women and minority groups.
85% say manufacturers and exporters are the top priority sector, followed by IT, digital and creative industries at 48% - and only 14% are in favour of prioritising support for home-based and lifestyle enterprises.
Most favoured method of intervention is local face-to-face advice/counselling (73% rated this as essential) followed by subsidised or free training at 58% - and the least favoured intervention (which just 10% of respondents rated as essential) was proposed growth hubs similar to British Library Business & Intellectual Property Centre.
Asked about the introduction of an "enterprise allowance" scheme for business start ups showed 76% are in favour with 24% against its introduction.

A breakdown of the survey results is as follows:

How should the Government prioritise business support over the next 3-5 years?

Rated as essential

Support existing small/medium firms with 10+ staff to grow and create jobs - 80%
Encourage new start ups across the board - 77%
Support existing freelancers/sole traders and micros with 1-5 employees - 69%
Support larger enterprises with 50+ employees to expand or diversify - 48%
Encourage part-time and second income enterprises - 19%

Who should the Government prioritise or target for support?

Agreed this is a priority

Support available for anyone regardless of gender, ethnicity or location - 92%
Support to be targeted at the long-term unemployed - 52%
Support targeted to those aged over 50 - 51%
Support targeted to those aged under 25 - 50%
Targeted support not necessary as those with true potential will look
after themselves - 39%
Support targeted at disadvantaged groups, minorities and women - 36%

Which specific business sectors if any should be prioritised for support

Rated as essential

Manufacturers and exporters - 85%
IT, digital and creative sectors - 48%
Local traders, retailers and shops - 48%
Agricultural, rural and tourism - 41%
All sectors should be prioritised equally - 40%
Social enterprises and charities - 30%
Service sector especially finance, professional and business services - 26%
Arts, craft and artisan businesses - 14%
Home based, kitchen table, lifestyle and hobby-based businesses - 14%

What type of intervention will most benefit start ups and small businesses?

Rated as essential

Face-to-face advice/counselling through local enterprise agencies - 73%
Free or subsidised training in core skills - 58%
Grants/soft loans for genuine projects eg marketing, e-commerce, market research - 42%
'Packaged' advice/counselling alongside tailored training - 38%
Peer-to-peer networking, seminars and workshops run by existing business owners - 32%
Online support via a national website - 21%
Godparenting approach where larger firms 'adopt' and mentor smaller enterprises - 13%
Growth hubs around the UK similar to the British Library Business & Intellectual Property Centre - 10%

On the call to reintroduce payment of an allowance to new business start ups similar to the Enterprise Allowance Scheme from the 1990s.

In favour - 76%
Against - 24%

You can view individual comments (mostly anonymously supplied) which were made by respondents to the survey.

Key topics for discussion

85% of respondents believe manufacturers and exporters are the key sector for prioritisation, and probably targeted at existing firms in the 10+ employee size band. Does the current role of UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) stretch far enough? How will any gap in provision - such as training, subsidised market research, or sector-specific consultancy - be met? An enhancement of the role played by Chambers?
Only 14% of respondents are in favour of prioritising support for home-based and lifestyle enterprises - with a similar response for the arts and crafts sector. However, as this is where the volume of demand for start up and enterprise support will possibly lie - for example hobby-based start ups, recent redundancies, downshifters, unemployed graduates, unemployed professionals, semi-retirees, part-time and second income enterprises - how can this particular gap be filled? There are probably millions of people in this category and are heavy consumers of support.
Many survey respondents highlighted the fact that much of the work of an enterprise agency is made up of supporting 3-4 prospective start ups who decide not to start for every one that does go on to start up. The cost of support per successful outcome is therefore higher than generally realised. However it is widely reported that there is around an 80% three-year survival rate for those who receive support at start up and in their early stages.
90% of respondents are in favour of a fully inclusive business support policy. Would this broadening of eligibility further increase the quality of start ups, or result in an increase in demand where there is insufficient capacity to supply?
Local face-to-face advice/counselling and training in core business skills is shown to be the essential intervention - with other support as "nice to have" - and probably reflects where demand (local needs of enterprises) meets supply (the extensive support expertise that is already out there on the front line).
With regard to the majority in favour of introducing an Enterprise Allowance, there are arguments that this should be available for all start ups, but in the current economic climate this is probably a cost which is beyond what the Exchequer can afford - hence should be earmarked for unemployed start ups.

If you have any views on the survey results or these discussion topics please leave a comment below.

Add a comment:

Name:

Website (optional):

Comment:

8 comments so far:

Harry Booth (23 Nov 2010)

I largely agree with the findings. Priorities should be small businesses/start-ups and manufacturing. We also need to link education provision with business needs much better. Business Link have been as much use as chocolate teapots.

Cobweb (06 Jul 2010)

In response to Catherine Courte's comments, you are correct and this is precisely what survey respondents have said.

64% specifically responded that they were AGAINST support being targeted at women, minorities and disadvantaged groups - in fact the figure was 44% disagreeing and 20% strongly disagreeing with the suggestion. And in the case of support for social enterprises and charities, 30% were of the view that this was essential, while 37% said it was fairly important but not essential, and 32% were of the view that it was a low priority or not a priority at all.

These particular opinions match up with the overall view that while the vast majority of respondents (92%) felt that eligibility for support should be inclusive, in other words no particular demographic group should be excluded, there were still views that certain demographic groups require some specific targeted support, such as women and minority groups.

This also matches up with opinions we have previously canvassed from the intended beneficiaries of support whose number one gripe is that they are too often excluded from support because of their age, ethnicity or gender.

In response to other comments on this post about the survey - roughly 50% of respondents were independent consultants, freelance business advisers, or private professional firms, 20% were from the voluntary/non-profit sector, and 30% from publicly funded support agencies.

Catherine Courte (05 Jul 2010)

It's interesting to see the conclusion that " 92% believe support should be available to anyone regardless of gender, ethnicity or location - and 64% are opposed to support specifically targeted at women and minority groups..." That 64% is presumably the remainder of the 36% who do think that support targeted at disadvantaged groups, minorities and women IS a priority. Using such a ridiculous method of assessing survey results suggests that 70% of respondents are against any support for social enterprises, and that nearly a quarter of all respondents are opposed to encouraging new start-ups!!

Harry Fortune (23 Jun 2010)

Interesting read and interesting to read that 1 in 6 of the respondents have been in business support for over 20 years! It obviously make a good career move.

I see also that 73% of respondents are in favour of the face to face support being offered through enterprise agencies, which is great if you have one in your area. In a lot of local areas they have been disbanded because they no longer got money from Business Link (BIS etc) to deliver parts of the Business Link contract.

Also interesting to note that they have put peer to peer support very low in their priorities, is this safeguarding their jobs? Peer to peer is perhaps THE most powerful way of supporting business and to top it off, it may also be the cheapest option.

There are many ways that this can be done and many places where it has proven it's worth. Look at Profitnet in the South and Leeds Progress School in the North, plus other organisations running action learning sets and self directed learning.

Time to shift away a little from traditional business support, maybe get in a new generation of business support practitioners?

And lastly - totally agree with Emma Jones, forget the 'home based business' at your peril. A local business to me started at home and is now employing 100 people and turning over £10m.

Marianne (Cobweb) (22 Jun 2010)

Thanks for your comments Emma.

This was an independent and impartial survey of business advisers about what they see at the coalface of small business start up support. They certainly arent our advisers and we are not looking to advise anyone based on the results.

We are only reporting opinions of practitioners - and those opinions vary quite considerably. This is a reflection perhaps of the reality that business start ups are not a homogenous group and cannot be classified in that way, and the key for policy makers is to ensure that the quite apparent diversity of demand from startups is met by an appropriate supply of expertise - whether for a care agency, a B&B, a design consultant, a tax driver, a tearoom, a writer, an ice cream maker - and whether home-based or otherwise.

They no doubt see quite plainly where significant need and demand for support exists - which is exactly the point you make about 60% of new business being started from home. In fact our own view is that the actual figure will be much higher than 60% - there are hundreds of thousands - more likely millions - of "entrepreneurs" who are part-time and who start up in order to add a second or even third income to their earnings.

We noted this in our key points for discussion - which poses the question that, while advisers are suggesting priority should go to manufacturers and exporters, there is enormous demand and need for support that will increasingly be coming from home-based and other lifestyle enterprises. The quandary for Mr Prisk and the policy makers is how this demand will be met.

Marianne

JS (22 Jun 2010)

The last thing businesses need is more failed business owners giving advise, including those who are trying to run a business on a part time basis. Maybe if they spent more time comitted to developing their own business they wanted have to also suppliment their income by giving advice.

Emma Jones (22 Jun 2010)

Hello,

Worthy of you to do this study but what a shame you felt compelled to refer to home based business as lifestyle and hobby businesses. It seems odd that the 400 advisers who responded to your survey aren't aware that over 60% of new businesses are started from home and they are growing strongly as they are keeping costs low and delivering high quality, niche products. Sureley your advisers would agree that this is the best way to do business?

And only 19% want to support part-time enterprise? Would you therefore advise that in these shaky economic times people give up their day job outright and start a business before making sales? I don't think so! Please be careful in what you are advising with these results which don't at all reflect what we see amongst the Enterprise Nation community.

Best wishes

Emma

John Smith (21 Jun 2010)

Interesting how defensive Business Link staff can be when under attack. It's a shame that there isn't the same enthusiasm for helping customers. One of my colleagues (in an Enterprise Agency) recently had a discussion with a Business Link 'adviser'. This person has no business background and sees up to 3 clients a week. We see an average of 12 a week and all either have or are running our own businesses as well. We need to, we're paid a lot less than BL advisers!

TODAY: 5 February 2012