{"id":1373,"date":"2010-03-29T10:16:42","date_gmt":"2010-03-29T10:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localenterprise.wordpress.com\/?p=1043"},"modified":"2010-03-29T10:16:42","modified_gmt":"2010-03-29T10:16:42","slug":"entrepreneurship-or-rockin-da-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2010\/03\/29\/entrepreneurship-or-rockin-da-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneurship or Rockin’ Da Vote?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a number of competitions out there designed to ‘promote enterprise’. \u00a0 In some of them the key arbiter of success is the ability of the would be entrepreneur to turn out a vote. \u00a0Whether it is about getting your pals to turn up at a dinner and vote (old skool) or winning support on the web as in Barclay’s One Small Step Competition<\/a> this is a puzzling phenomenon.<\/p>\n

Prizes are awarded in part on the ‘quality’ of your business idea, as established by judges, and on the number of people who you can persuade to ‘click or tick’. \u00a0Kind of Dragon’s Den meets Britain’s Got Talent. \u00a0A popularity contest with business plans.<\/p>\n

I would rather see bankers, and others with cash to spare, investing in businesses rather than giving prizes through competitions. \u00a0Competitions identify winners and losers. We should be identifying ‘investment ready’ and ‘not yet investment ready’ if we are really interested in supporting entrepreneurs. \u00a0And what happens if the winner is not yet investment ready? \u00a0Or they require investment at a\u00a0different\u00a0time or level to the prize? \u00a0What if it is not cash that they need?<\/p>\n

Competitions work well for the publicists and the marketeers. \u00a0But I am not sure who else they really serve. \u00a0Let’s put our time and money into proving real support on the journey to investment readiness.<\/p>\n

Let’s get back to the work of making informed investment\u00a0decisions instead of awarding prizes in swirls of publicity. \u00a0Of helping entrepreneurs on the long journey toward investment readiness that rarely fits\u00a0neatly\u00a0with competition deadlines. \u00a0 This way more entrepreneurs might get the right level of\u00a0investment\u00a0at the right time rather than a few ‘lucky’ prize winners. \u00a0I remember hearing one ‘prize winner’ wondering how to spend the \u00a310k she had just won and making some quick and bad investment decisions to fit in with competition timescales. \u00a0Her business is no longer trading. \u00a0Another asked me whether I thought the cheque made out in his name was for him or for his business? \u00a0The last I heard he was splitting it 50:50.<\/p>\n

I also\u00a0believe\u00a0that the ability of the entrepreneur to raise clicks and votes is a poor indicator of success. \u00a0Let’s face it on\u00a0this\u00a0basis Paris Hilton is going to give Warren Buffet a beating. \u00a0Ashton Kutcher would be a nailed on winner. \u00a0Unless of course the other finalist was Steven Fry. \u00a0The best connected and most socially networked do not have a monopoly of good ideas. \u00a0Nor, in general are they the ones for whom the investment might make the biggest difference. \u00a0Such voting mechanisms are surely discriminating unfairly?<\/p>\n

As it says on the One Small Step website<\/p>\n

‘it\u2019s worth getting supporters on board now, so you\u2019ve got plenty of local backing in time for voting’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this perpetuates another myth. \u00a0That business ideas are in competition with each other. \u00a0 That we have to choose winners and losers, when the market will do this much more effectively in its own time. In fact we should be looking to help everyone with passion, talent, commitment and a viable business idea. \u00a0There is always room for another good idea. \u00a0Investors will back propositions that meet their \u00a0criteria for risk and reward. \u00a0I am not convinced that creating winners and losers in very public competition really helps.<\/p>\n

It is not about the competition for first place but about the\u00a0development\u00a0of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in which players collaborate and support each other as much, if not more than they compete. \u00a0I have seen how competition based on\u00a0popularity\u00a0can damage\u00a0local\u00a0entrepreneurial\u00a0ecosystems as the community fragments into ‘camps’.<\/p>\n

So, if you are about to sponsor yet another ‘enterprise competition’ please just pause for thought. \u00a0Could your money be better used to create a sustainable and\u00a0enterprising\u00a0society?<\/p>\n