I visited my local market town today....Library visit to read books and while away an hour with my four year old. When I came out, I saw a lovely new shop and I called in for a visit. I got chatting to the owner and despite the obvious passion she felt for her business, she was struggling to get her customers to feel the same way.
In my old life, before I started my business, I spent a couple of years as a small business adviser for the local Business Enterprise centre. It was where people with new business ideas could call in, pick up some information and even make an appointment with someone who could help them jump the hoops needed to start. We ran basic marketing and accountancy courses, had a purchasing consortium going and a small library of business self-help manuals. But times have changed and sadly, our centre is no more but still, small business goes on, and start ups are popping up all over the high street in my local market town.
Austerity might have got rid of our centre, but it sure hasn't quelled the desire to start these small businesses. So where do we go for our help these days?
Well, alongside good old googling our questions, a lot of small business owners find the answers within their own community be it online or real life. There are still a multitude of ways of making those connections. As a small business owner in the electronics industry, we join the local cluster group. We also attend business networking events and conferences and find our tribe that way. For something less specific, here in the UK there are groups which are aimed at sectors of the business community, like WIRE (Women in Rural Enterprise) for example. There is something for everyone if you just look.
I support these businesses and admire anyone who has the nous to take a chance and do something different. Our centre might be gone and we may have to be more creative in order to find support and help, but we can still do it.
And do it well.