How can you get affordable business support?

Claire raises some interesting questions in her post below about the challenges we face running small businesses and how we seek to resolve
them. Pondering Claire’s post got me thinking about some of the discussions that I have had with people in my 20 months or so Networking and how people move their businesses forward… or not, whichever it is that happens.

There is absolutely no doubt that few (if any) of us have all the answers and all the knowledge that we need to deliver our vision. There will always be something that crops up where we just don’t have the expertise (or desire very often) and we need external help. It maybe however that our business just needs some fresh thinking, new ideas or inspiration to get it to the next level.

One of the options is to take on advice or guidance from a business mentor or coach. For many (and I include myself in this group by the way) the idea of spending say £200 (retainer) for two x 1 hour phone call sessions per month is difficult to get our heads around, especially if money is tight (which it is these days), and… when whole DAY RATE’s being charged are not much more than £200!! I know we are supposed to focus on the value not the cost… but the proposition puts the risk all in my camp and it is £200.

What happens in these circumstances is… wait for it… absolutely nothing!! The majority of micro businesses will not retain the coach and instead flounder with the issue themselves… or beg / borrow advice from someone around them who they consider knows enough to advise but won’t charge them for it.

We all know the right thing to do… but the combination of ‘the money’ and free (often worthless) advice from well meaning folk takes us down the road which more often that not produces unsatisfactory results. This is a very real problem I have experienced it and I have seen it happen many many times, so what is the answer?

Well… Link4Growth is the perfect solution (and why we created it) ! For an investment of just £30, anybody (there is no contracted period) can drop into a Link4Growth boardroom with their most pressing business issues and receive the advice and guidance from 11 others around the Boardroom table. The 11 others by the way come from an amazingly diverse set of business backgrounds from every walk of life and almost always includes business coaches or mentors!

Let’s just recap here… 11 other people including Business Mentors focussed on your problem for £30? I don’t know about any of the others that I have met in my 20 months networking but this is an amazing opportunity to help micro and small business owners take real positive action and drive their businesses forward with minimal financial investment.