According to this http://realbusiness.co.uk/leadership/exclusive_business_link_to_be_axed
Its being replaced with online information and and expectation or assumption that people are already using the private sector for their information and advice.
I disagree and I think its a bad move
In a recession, the more support for businesses the better surely?
Its being replaced with online information and and expectation or assumption that people are already using the private sector for their information and advice.
I disagree and I think its a bad move
In a recession, the more support for businesses the better surely?
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The website is quite good for a lot of basic stuff but whenever I have needed advice about something out of the ordinary they have never known the answer nor been able to point me in the right direction - and I have actually found the advice I needed on this forum!
I personally won't miss them.
I personally won't miss them.
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D
Dawg
- Original Poster
- #4
In a Business Zone (owner: Sift Megacorp) article it was reported that Businesslink (owner: HM Government) cost £36 million to run.
Deep breath, are you sitting comfortably? Yes £36 million. Hey! It's a good website but not that good. It's got the dead hand of the state haemorrhaging money all over it*.
Close it down, or at least sell it off with a budget to run it properly, but stop just pissing away money on IT and Webby consultants who are extracting the Michael.
(*This mixed metaphor doesn't really work at all, does it? Dead things don't bleed. Oh well, ya'll kno whadda mean.)
Deep breath, are you sitting comfortably? Yes £36 million. Hey! It's a good website but not that good. It's got the dead hand of the state haemorrhaging money all over it*.
Close it down, or at least sell it off with a budget to run it properly, but stop just pissing away money on IT and Webby consultants who are extracting the Michael.
(*This mixed metaphor doesn't really work at all, does it? Dead things don't bleed. Oh well, ya'll kno whadda mean.)
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The website was ok (but not that good)
- and anyway its also what backs up the site, which was poor in some cases (not all)!Phone calls back in ex amount of days, business advisors with NO interest, arranged meetings cancelled, because that so called companies funding was cancelled, (so they maintained) etc etc.
I am not sure a national (although it was split into regions I know) works, it is to large (not sure there will be anymore money put into anything else at the moment) not offering the service for free anyway!
If you are really savvy you can get the info from other quarters anyway, unless you are lazy and cannot be bothered (if so, perhaps being your own boss is not for you)!
36 million for a site (think how many people that could have helped) that could have paid for 1 hour with a real top notch business advisor for hundreds/thousands of start ups, with change for a coffee to boot.
The Gov do like throwing money around (look at that useless system they paid mega books for for the child support agency)!
Poppy xx
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I'm glad it's being closed down.
I'm in the middle of business startup and the extent of the Business Link help to me was to tell me to call another advisory service (despite they themselves being a central point of contact for offering advice).
Badly ran and practically of no use (their website does have good information on it though).
The money should be used for 1-2-1 meetings with business advisers rather than the other non-services that they provide.
I'm in the middle of business startup and the extent of the Business Link help to me was to tell me to call another advisory service (despite they themselves being a central point of contact for offering advice).
Badly ran and practically of no use (their website does have good information on it though).
The money should be used for 1-2-1 meetings with business advisers rather than the other non-services that they provide.
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Surfeit of weakest links...
From what I understand they already work for other companies, are contracted out - or funded to work for business link.
I quess some will struggle and become out of work.
Poppy xx
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Z
ZARMarketing
- Original Poster
- #12
I am a little biased as I actualy am a Business Adviser with Business Gateway ( Our equivalent) in Glasgow as well as running my own business.
It is the Local Authorities that govern us and the service is provided via private organisations that are contracted to the council.
Most of our clients like the face to face time.
Zoë
It is the Local Authorities that govern us and the service is provided via private organisations that are contracted to the council.
Most of our clients like the face to face time.
Zoë
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I've had good and poor experiences of Business Link.
The training seminars are free and good (except for the one I went to yesterday where the trainer was soooo dull).
The advice I was given at startup was useless.
I had 2 very positive meetings with a mentor about growing and developing my business, then she seems to have disappeared.
The website has lots of good stuff which I found very useful when starting - but I was appalled when I saw how much it costs.
I attended a motivational event which was good but must have cost them an absolute fortune to run (James Martin at the York railway museum with food and drink for a few hundred people).
So not surprised to see it go.
The training seminars are free and good (except for the one I went to yesterday where the trainer was soooo dull).
The advice I was given at startup was useless.
I had 2 very positive meetings with a mentor about growing and developing my business, then she seems to have disappeared.
The website has lots of good stuff which I found very useful when starting - but I was appalled when I saw how much it costs.
I attended a motivational event which was good but must have cost them an absolute fortune to run (James Martin at the York railway museum with food and drink for a few hundred people).
So not surprised to see it go.
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Face to face is/was very hard to achieve - and the lack of continuity is also very off putting.
The best advisor (who did not work for BL) also ran his own business, and he was so passionate about his work, and on new starts up level with all of his help and advice. Some others that I have met have been so staid, that it was a good job I did not have a gas oven, or I would have gone and stuck my head in it.
Its all down to the people involved and sadly not all of them have the best interests at heart of new start ups.
Poppy xx
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I went to a couple of their free seminars - one at a beautiful New Forest Hotel - must have cost them/us a fortune (even before I tucked into the complimentary cookies!)
Still can't forget the brilliant advice one of their advisers gave me when I was talking to him about late payers - "Get them to pay before you do the work" - simply brilliant, why didn't I think of that!!!!!!!!!!
Still can't forget the brilliant advice one of their advisers gave me when I was talking to him about late payers - "Get them to pay before you do the work" - simply brilliant, why didn't I think of that!!!!!!!!!!
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Ignoring the total ignorance of some posters (£36 million does not just pay for a web site) Business Link has its plusses and minuses.
1. Some of the advisers are a waste of space and are little more than sales people for consultants (all of which by the way are private sector so who is screwing who? - and who will miss Business Link most?)
2. Some advisers are top notch, care and really do help businesses.
3. A lot of people think that Business Link advisers are "failed business people" - sometimes that is true, but who better to warn you of mistakes than someone who has actually made those mistakes and learnt from them ?
4. Some Business Advisers are ex- succesful business people - see the other side of the coin to point 3, above
5. In my experience the self employed Business Advisers are the worst as they always have a secondary motive - their own pocket. Employed Business Advisers have no axe to grind and can give true and impartial advice - if they are good, they are very good. They all have to work within the usual tick boxing mentality of every government body. That's not their fault. Back in the good old days it was about advice that worked, not ticking boxes and doling out money to one eyed Japanese lesbians as a priority.
6. Business Link is not just about giving away money - which most people seem to think it is. Whilst it's nice to get any "free" money going, if you rely on it to keep your business going it's probably better you go under anyway.
7. Business Link has always been a useful "body" to blame if things go wrong in your business - saves looking at yourself and your limitations doesn't it ?
8. Business Link has ALWAYS been useless at giving start up advice - it is not their target market. In most areas this work is subcontracted out to other providers and Enterprise Agencies. Some of these are fantastic, some are worse than useless - usually staffed by people with no idea but they are there to tick boxes and draw down funding.
9. Closing down the Regional Development Agencies who pay Business Link is a better idea that I do welcome. I have never walked into a RDA office and not said "Wow, how much did this cost?" -
If they stop taking the cream off the cake to fund tiers of management that are not needed, the heart of Business Link is good and I, for one, think it will be missed - who else will all the failures blame? - I am sure they will find someone.........
1. Some of the advisers are a waste of space and are little more than sales people for consultants (all of which by the way are private sector so who is screwing who? - and who will miss Business Link most?)
2. Some advisers are top notch, care and really do help businesses.
3. A lot of people think that Business Link advisers are "failed business people" - sometimes that is true, but who better to warn you of mistakes than someone who has actually made those mistakes and learnt from them ?
4. Some Business Advisers are ex- succesful business people - see the other side of the coin to point 3, above
5. In my experience the self employed Business Advisers are the worst as they always have a secondary motive - their own pocket. Employed Business Advisers have no axe to grind and can give true and impartial advice - if they are good, they are very good. They all have to work within the usual tick boxing mentality of every government body. That's not their fault. Back in the good old days it was about advice that worked, not ticking boxes and doling out money to one eyed Japanese lesbians as a priority.
6. Business Link is not just about giving away money - which most people seem to think it is. Whilst it's nice to get any "free" money going, if you rely on it to keep your business going it's probably better you go under anyway.
7. Business Link has always been a useful "body" to blame if things go wrong in your business - saves looking at yourself and your limitations doesn't it ?
8. Business Link has ALWAYS been useless at giving start up advice - it is not their target market. In most areas this work is subcontracted out to other providers and Enterprise Agencies. Some of these are fantastic, some are worse than useless - usually staffed by people with no idea but they are there to tick boxes and draw down funding.
9. Closing down the Regional Development Agencies who pay Business Link is a better idea that I do welcome. I have never walked into a RDA office and not said "Wow, how much did this cost?" -
If they stop taking the cream off the cake to fund tiers of management that are not needed, the heart of Business Link is good and I, for one, think it will be missed - who else will all the failures blame? - I am sure they will find someone.........
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D
Dawg
- Original Poster
- #18
Oh well, pardon moi for believing a Headlined article:
Link, (for the second time)
And even thinking that this, from the Central Office of Information report
might have a smidge of truth....
Now, what was it you were saying?
Hmmm. The point about visually impaired Asians from the LGBT part of society might do with a bit of...polish? Thought?
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Surely there's a difference between someone who made a mistake and learned from it and someone who made a mistake and then gave up?
Steve
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Quite agree, but it's the reason for giving up that matters, or if indeed they they have given up. One of my business mentors lost over half a million - he became an adviser- he hasn't given up yet, merely "regrouping" - it takes a lot to get over some mistakes.
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D
Dawg
- Original Poster
- #27
So you are saying that the government report is wrong, and that you are right?
And that all the journalists and others who have given credence to that report are gullible idiots, but you know the truth?
Your bumper sticker platitude doesn't mention discrimination: which half to believe and which to cast aside. Perhaps worth thinking about?
But lets hear it: will you say unequivocally that the Central Office of Information report of the cost of the Businesslink website is wrong?
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Business link when it started in Gt Yarmouth in the 1980's was run by asenior manager on loan from a large PLC who was great and consentrated onweek courses covering most items a new company would need to know and plan for, with specialist help in makeing a businesss Plan. a total staff of about 5
Last year it had grown very large, but still in same office block a half run down block of victorian office with a coat of paint.
Now changed to GT Enterprice whatever that is, in a shinny all glass rebuilt office block with all mod cons, I contacted them to give me advice on someone to do some marketing bumpf, they could not supply any names or give advice, contacted again for any grants to start a manufacture section to my company, No idea and then passed around whole of the government departments to find the answer None
The old system gets my vote,
The new system just jobs for clever speaking consultants who milk the system and help nobody
Last year it had grown very large, but still in same office block a half run down block of victorian office with a coat of paint.
Now changed to GT Enterprice whatever that is, in a shinny all glass rebuilt office block with all mod cons, I contacted them to give me advice on someone to do some marketing bumpf, they could not supply any names or give advice, contacted again for any grants to start a manufacture section to my company, No idea and then passed around whole of the government departments to find the answer None
The old system gets my vote,
The new system just jobs for clever speaking consultants who milk the system and help nobody
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Discrimination ? I am certainly not getting into any stupid pedantic fight over my meaning when I mentioned one eyed Japanese Lesbians. I don't care who gets what money, but I don't think anyone deserves it more than anyone else because of where or what they percieve themselves to be.
I will state, unequivocally that I personally don't believe any figures put out by any government department.
My personal reasoning for this is simple: Having worked with them long enough I know how good they are at adding things to budgets at the expense of others. I know how good they are at throwing things into "cost centres" to hide costs of other cost centres - including costs of people who are claimed under one job, but are actually working on another (including me at a stage in my life.) I know how easy it is to inflate costs to attract other funding streams, usually "match funded by Europe". I know how easy it is for them to throw costs from one project into another "dying project" to hide what they don't want revealing. I could go on for ever. Bottom line is that it's a nice and useful headline to put out in the silly season and some people are more than happy to let the publicity do their job for them.
It's not the fault of the number crunchers- they can only report on what they see and what they are told - but if a decent audit team ever actually investigated and discovered just where public money was really being used and wasted - well there would be fun. But they won't - just keep ticking those boxes and filing those reports.......help people?........nah, just tick that box so we can report on how good the figures are - who cares if someone changes the rules later and decides the figures look bad - you can prove anything with a tick box.
Journalists also report what they are given - that's not rocket science. I have not seen any respected investigative journalist get their teeth into it. I wish they would.
Am I right ? At the end of the day who cares ? You believe what you want to believe and I'll believe what I want to believe. Who has the real knowledge? - who knows? It's certainly not something I am going to waste my time pondering over
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Which is true if it wasn't for the fact that Chambers of Commerce are membership based and have no funds (and no remit usually) to help non members in most cases. (In most, possibly all, cases they can't survive without an income generating arm that would need to charge someone (the government) for the advice and services they give - - the circle starts again.
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etiquette question Dawg... is "pissing away" [used] more acceptable than "taking the p1ss" [avoided]?:|
Business Link did me one favour - it got me a client a year down the line... guy I went on the course with is now one of my bigger clients
The rest of it - got more from UKBF if I'm honest
Here's an idea - sell it to Sift, and we all get shares
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etiquette question Dawg... is "pissing away" [used] more acceptable than "taking the p1ss" [avoided]?:|
Business Link did me one favour - it got me a client a year down the line... guy I went on the course with is now one of my bigger clients
The rest of it - got more from UKBF if I'm honest
Here's an idea - sell it to Sift, and we all get shares
Good idea. LOL Sift look impressive.
What is it that you do Geoff?
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They were pretty much "IT-Illiterate"`s interpretor. All they do is print pages of the web and read them out to you. No thank you we have google and ukbf.
Plus this service is avilable for businesses with annual TO under £150k (cant remember exact though) which is pretty much useless.
The people in there didnt have any sense at all. They didnt even know what to do in order to raise finance. All they knew was Welsh Assembly Grant.
Needless to say didnt bother them again.
Plus this service is avilable for businesses with annual TO under £150k (cant remember exact though) which is pretty much useless.
The people in there didnt have any sense at all. They didnt even know what to do in order to raise finance. All they knew was Welsh Assembly Grant.
Needless to say didnt bother them again.
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