Over the weekend Mark Prisk, the shadow Business minister, revealed his plans for Business Link if the conservatives get into power. As this is looking increasingly likely, the current consensus is that the Tory Party has an 11% lead in the polls, then the future looks grim for Business Link and impartial help for small businesses.
Business Link is an impartial network of 1,600 advisors across the UK. It is also an extremely helpful website which provides a simple to navigate guide to business basics. The two very different strands of the service provide very different results.

The Regional Business Links

Advisors who will eventually agree to meet you and discuss your business’s future. The majority of Business Link’s £190million running costs are put into the Regional Business Links however for us entrepreneurs all you do is get passed from pillar to post. I have tried to contact a number of RBLs and because I run an internet business with bases across the UK I can never get passed the first question, “which region is your company based in? Oh no Sir, you have come through to the wrong department, let me pass you back to the infinite maze of switch boards and inefficiency.”

The Business Link Website

Apparently only a tiny percentage of businesses use Business Link and almost all are dissatisfied with the service. However I bet that almost all businesses in the UK have had a look at the website and found it useful. The solution from the Shadow Minister seems to be a positive one, to repackage the website as a separate entity and to disband the Regional Business Links. This will save the government a lot of money, which will be a welcome break but will it damage small businesses?

This depends on the replacements to Business Link. Regional Enterprise Agencies, like http://www.theenterpriseagency.co.uk/about.asp , are being promoted to a government backed source of advice. Local funding from councils and Chambers of Commerce will be matched by the government for the first 3 years, after which funding will be withdrawn and the agencies will have to fund themselves through incubator portals etc.

The thinking behind the move is to save money and let people who understand business, i.e. not civil servants, help advise on how to run businesses. Simple but it seems the government will be destroying a large knowledge based that has been building since 1993. I am all for change, especially in bureaucratic inefficient agencies, but if it has cost an estimated £323 million to build up, the government should think twice about scrapping the service altogether!

Advice for Mark Prisk MP

Harness the potential for learning embodied in the history and cases Business Link has advised on. The advisors must have identified common themes to success and failure in different aspects of a business, have them share their advice and insights! Build on the excellent infrastructure and format of the Business Link website and integrate the knowledge trapped in Regional Business Links, helping the entrepreneurs of the future to navigate the mistakes of the past.