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UKBAB |
UKBB |
37% of the Business Advisers responding to this survey felt there have been improvements in conditions conducive to business start ups compared to 5 years ago, while 33% felt conditions have worsened. Of the respondents to the UK Business Barometer survey, 54% felt that current conditions are worse or significantly worse. On the other hand 19% think that conditions have improved.
Most of the respondents work with high tech clients - at least some, and most of those that do would take up the opportunity for specialised related CPD if it were offered.
63% of respondents believe that their clients would be more likely to take up management training if there were evidence of benefit in the form of more sales leads or more immediate sales. 16% think that evidence of better financial management is the most likely motivator, while 11% opted for better staff management and 6% for better time management.
The issue of work/life balance for employers and business owners as well as staff continues to feature in public debate. 75% of Business Advisers participating in the UKBAB advice clients on these issues.
Business Advisers have constantly to be updating their knowledge and skills base as business conditions and legislation changes. 38% of respondents find it most difficult to keep pace with red tape in general. Of the specific issues changes in employment legislation emerged as the most challenging, with 27%, followed by changes in employer responsibilities with 18%. Keeping pace with use of IT causes problems to 12% of respondents.
The responses to the question on advising clients on accountancy and management software were spread 'across the board', with 11% highly involved and 11% not involved at all.
Junk email and spamming are becoming more significant to many individuals and businesses. 55% of our respondents are not at all discouraged from using email, but the remainder were spread on the degree of discouragement they feel. The same question in the Business Barometer survey produced a figure of 50% that were not discouraged at all from use of email, again with a spread of the remainder over different levels of discouragement.
Feedback into the July 2003 Survey BAB-11
Views expressed are those of individual panellists and may not represent
those of the IBA or the University of Nottingham.
Manager training: Many would like to have their decision making ability enhanced and feel more confident in their 'real' strategic decision making ability.
Businesses need to be taught how to measure return on their training investment and then, in my view and experience, they become more open to training.
Question 7. I believe in CPD and ticked yes, but already work in this field quite a lot, the training content therefore needs to be better than average.
I increasingly ask specialist advisers for help with employment leglislation and other Govt. interference in the successful running of SMEs.
Basically most ongoing businesses I advise need to be more businesslike! Hence mgt. training, financial training/understanding, market research and marketing come under basic strategy formulation.
I have to 'ignore' most legislation in that it exists and has to be obeyed, not moaned about !!!
Re: Question 10 [As an adviser, which areas of advice do you find most difficult to keep pace with? (Tick all that apply)]
Changes in employment legislation
Use of IT
Market research and marketing trends
Changes in employer responsibilities
Red tape in general
Other (please indicate via 'Comments' facility, if you wish)
- Depends on individual clients. General management skills are lacking in many businesses. Coaching rather than training would be most beneficial (and I am not a business coach, so have no vested interest in this observation.
- Question 10 - availability of grants
- Q.10: The constantly changing area of grant/loan funding available via Enterprise Agencies etc. It's sometimes difficult to give info about such funding with absolute confidence as the criteria and availablility changes so often
- Q10. The main difficulty is keeping abreast of changing contractual
requirements of fund providers eg Business Link and particularly on the
plethora of initiatives coming from Government. George Derbyshire, NFEA
told me recently that there were no less than 9 Govt Depts with a small
business agenda now.
On the question of high tech CPD, I personally think this question misses the point of who (what) a business adviser is (is for).
The recent changes in banking regulations have made enabling suitable banking facilities more difficult. Bank staff seem overly officious and unhelpful. Start-up funding (both grants and loans) are extremely difficult to access.
ยท The real issues in business today revolve around the following:
- getting staff with the right attitude
- finding skilled staff
- finance for growth, especially that area when it it too rich for a bank and not big enough for a venture capitalist
