However, it has to be admitted that the proportion of completions to applications hasn’t changed since inception. There is still a bit too much of what we might call the “I’ve got a great idea!” syndrome where there isn’t enough actually behind that idea, as well as a lot of requests where the client appears to lose interest or change his or her mind. That means it’s down to the brokers behind the initiative to give that education to the businesses that need it.
How do we improve the quality of those leads? Well, they might already be at peak quality. Businesses, especially those who are not members of an organization set up in their interests, will reach out to brokers as a source of information. So the service our brokers end up providing is something like a railway ticket sales office, where not everyone says they need to be on the 11:23 to Nottingham – some of them just want to know the theoretical cheapest way to Nottingham, or where they need to change for Retford, and so on: there’s no profit answering the questions, but it is nevertheless part of the overall service.
In the meantime, this isn’t a quick solution, but at the start of February I was able to lend the NACFB’s support to an organisation I consider very valuable: Working Knowledge.
By bringing in real life businesspeople – as opposed to teachers, tutors and lecturers whose recent employment environment pupils are already very familiar with – Working Knowledge aims to inspire the business heroes of tomorrow. It’s not up to me to say whether or not I indirectly inspired any of the young people in the audience, because I spent my day sharing my business experience with the tutors at Weston College, but that’s very much the ultimate aim of the programme. And what gave this day particular resonance for me was that it took place in the very building where I took my A-levels a few years ago, down in Weston-super-Mare.
This won’t just lead to better-clued-up start-ups, it will lead to more start-ups because part of the message we’re giving out is that funding is out there and it’s very possible to borrow, and grow, and prosper in the 2020s, which aren’t so very far away after all!
