Another invitation to tender appeared today.\u00a0 This time a council looking for the provision of Neighbourhood Enterprise Talent Scouts and Neighbourhood-based Business Advisors to work closely together in stimulating enterprise.<\/p>\n
Talent and Business.\u00a0 Business and Talent.\u00a0 Is this REALLY what it is all about?\u00a0 Or is it about frustration, unfulfilled potential, anger and possibility?<\/p>\n
One thing I do know; If you set up a system to find people with a ‘talent for business’ you will find the same people that every other agency has already found.<\/p>\n
Set up a system to find and help\u00a0 people who are angry, frustrated and wasting their potential and you will find people with the potential to do something remarkable.<\/p>\n
However their trust is not easily won.\u00a0 More than likely they gave up trying to work with the agencies a long time ago. Set yourself up as a talent scout and they will stay well clear (they have probably spent years being told they are ‘a waste of space who won’t amount to much’ and the last thing they need is another Simon Cowell type rejection).<\/p>\n
Set yourself up as a business advisor and likewise they are likely to avoid you like the plague – images of men and women in suits talking a foreign language of equity and turnover, profit and unit costs.<\/p>\n
Instead just provide a service\u00a0 with an unremitting focus on helping people to make progress in their lives – in whatever form that takes.\u00a0 Build relationships, win trust and get busy.\u00a0 It won’t be long before you are working with some really interesting people on some really enterprising ideas.<\/p>\n
Oh, and by the way, don’t try to collect reams and reams of MIS data for the funders.\u00a0 Ask for an NI number or for them to fill in an equal opps monitoring survey and they are likely to drop you like a hot potato.<\/p>\n