Small Business Need Intensive Care

With all the talk of NHS reforms in the news lately, I’ve been thinking about the ‘health care’ that small businesses need if they’re to get off the ground successfully and go on to greater things.

Intensive care facilities for small businesses might include somewhere to call home, proper business advice, training in business essentials or peer to peer groups that can provide support. All of these elements have been available – in various formats – to businesses for years, but they vary enormously in quality and content of offering. And of course, some of those on offer are financially way out of reach for business start-ups.

At Colbea we see businesses who are still in the planning stage, about to launch or have just started to trade. What is it that all of them need…regardless of what stage they’re at? Almost universally, we find that enterpreneurs want an objective, honest appraisal, whether that’s of their business plan, their marketing strategy or even their product or service! Unfortunately, there are times when we have to be cruel to be kind; the news that their launch is likely to fail is never received well but it’s better to give a realistic evaluation than to encourage a business that we know will fail before it reaches its first birthday. Often, we can set clients off on a path of market research or product/service development that means they can still fulfil their dreams but with a modified plan that has a decent chance of success.

As part of this process we try to introduce businesses to others who have ‘been there, done it and got the t-shirt’. There’s nothing like real experience to provide lessons, to motivate or even to dissuade! We’re about to launch a new business club that will be run for its members by its members and this will be a forum where experiences and ideas can be exchanged.

Intensive care is essential for small businesses. Few survive in isolation and the numbers that go on to create robust enterprises are almost always those who’ve had support at the outset.

By Bob Baggalley of Colbea
For information visit www.colbea.co.uk or call 01206 548833