I need to level up my game...

For well over a decade, I've been offering 'beer mentoring' as a model to help me engage with, and support, people who might otherwise struggle to be able to generate the budget, or access funding, for me to be able to work with them on their ideas. 

This has evolved over the years to include 'bacon butty mentoring' (as it's usually frowned on to drink beer before lunchtime), and 'cake mentoring' (because some people are vegetarian).

But recently I came across a fellow business support professional who's obviously been spending more time working on this idea than I have - 'curry mentoring'!! (although I don't usually charge you any more than the bar/café tab at the end of our time together) https://www.altrinchamhq.co.uk/pick-our-brains-over-a-curry 

But these folk in Altrincham have got me wondering if I can/should could start to offer:

• spa weekend mentoring
• Michelin star restaurant mentoring 
• ?

But if you think you'd like me to spend some time with you, in helping to work on your ideas, hopes, issues, etc, and available budget is an issue, please remember that I've always been happy to offer an initial no-fee, no-obligation chat by phone. 

And having been an occasional market trader in the past, I'm also always open to haggling...

why you shouldn't trust your business adviser

based on official statistics, my support to enterprise is far better than what the government pays for...

Business support comes in all sorts of forms, in all sorts of places, and from all sorts of people.

But the question that all entrepreneurs face when navigating the options out there, should be "is it any good?"

And there are all sorts of ways in which you can start to consider the quality, validity, appropriateness, (and even legality!) of the support you find and the advice you're offered through it:

- what qualifications does the person have? (but as I've shown before, a qualification is only an assurance that the person has been taught something, it's usually no indication of how knowledgeable or competent they actually are...)

- what recommendations have others made about them? (but again, I've evidenced how you can't trust any such endorsements a person may have received...)

So what's left? Well, how about statistics relating to performance? After all, it's how the success of any contract or project is usually considered, and the government's flagship business support programme, the growth hubs, are regularly applauded on the basis of these.

But the latest published self-congratulatory statistics about the performance of these growth hubs suggest that they may not actually be that great in practice, and when I compare my own performance against theirs, I seem to come out in a far better light:

Growth Hub - only 5% of all businesses who contact them actually get some 'real' (in person) support

Me - only about 5% of people who contact me by websites, social media, email, or phone don't get the opportunity to have a 'real' (in person) contact and support

Growth Hub - 87% customer satisfaction

Me - 98% customer satisfaction

Maybe this is why I was named as one of the UK's top10 business advisors by Government, and have a trophy cabinet of national and international awards, and the growth hubs don't?

Or maybe it's a case that there's are lies, damned lies, and statistics...?

on being professionally referred to as a 'tool'...

Throughout my professional life, I've been referred to as being/likened to all sorts of things: Darth Vader, Derren Brown, Shakespeare, a Guru, the A-Team, and even a 'neo-liberal stormtrooper'!

However, my most recent public naming was as a 'tool' in front of 50+ students (and twitter!) at Salford University's launch of their enterprise support programme for students and graduates.

I was there as a long-standing supporter of the University's enterprise support programmes and initiatives (although for the sake of some of my other clients, I should probably highlight that I do also work in a similar role within other universities and educational bodies...). The idea of the evening was to inspire and encourage a new intake of students to consider how enterprise could enhance their future options and opportunities, and to that end there were inspiration speakers, details about grant funding available, and pizza. My task was to get those people attending to have some practical experience of what 'being enterprising' might look and feel like in practice through quick activities and games.

However, what was probably the most important part of the event was the Q&A from students to us speakers - in preparing for what we delivered we could only try and second guess what might be most important and relevant to such a large and diverse group; but having time in the programme for open questions helped us to better understand what people's motivations and priorities were. And it was as part of this part of the event that there was a question about the role and value of advisers to a growing business. Jamil Khalil, the founder of Wakelet and keynote inspirational speaker, suggested that he viewed such advisers as 'tools' - in response, I openly wondered if he meant that in the context of a toolbox, or if it was a reflection of poor business support he'd received in the past...

Thankfully he clarified that it was the former, but it created an opportunity to highlight the importance to any enterprise or startup of needing to take multiple approaches: building your own toolbox of resources including professional advice being only part of what you need - there's also value in some of the startup and business planning processes, and my 'games' highlighted the critical need for both a good network of contacts and self-confidence.

So to my fellow advisers and enterprise supporters out there - let's celebrate and revel in being seen as 'tools' ;-)

Why I just did an 8-hour round trip to London by train for a 50 minute chat

I’m on my way back from London where I’ve just spent 50 minutes chatting with a medium sized charity about what I might be able to offer them if they took me on as a ‘critical friend’ to their senior management team. And I know that for most of the conversation, the charity was principally trying to figure out what a ‘critical friend’ might look like and do, rather than hearing how great I might be for them in that role… (they’ve been asked to recruit one by a one of their funders, but not had any guidance and not had any prior experience of what one is!).

I get the strong impression from some passing references made by the charity’s executive team during the chat that I’ve a relatively low chance of success in getting this work; the contract value means that I won’t really make any money on the work if I’m awarded it; and it’s quite a travel distance from my usual patch around the North West, Pennines, and Yorkshire -  so why did I even consider spending time on drafting the initial proposal and then committing to the cost and time of such apparently excessive travel?

1. They approached me direct. This wasn’t an open or advertised call for consultants to bid, but rather they did some pre-selection and research against the sorts of backgrounds that they knew they wanted their new ‘critical friend’ to have. It only seemed polite to reciprocate (and it was very flattering…)
2. The role of ‘critical friend’ to charities and other organisations is one that’s only just starting to be explored and introduced here in the UK, so it was a clear opportunity to be in the inside of this emergent trend and model to keep myself best informed, and also share some of my own experiences and insights (including likening the ‘critical friend’ to that of the historic ‘court jester’) that I’d otherwise struggle to do in not being a published academic or writer of books…
3. It was an opportunity to reflect on my experiences and skills within a different context and framework to that I usually find myself in – a valuable CPD opportunity in keeping myself ‘fresh’ and trying to avoid becoming ‘professionally complacent’
4. I had the time and resource to follow up their invitation: one of the things I think has meant that I’ve been able to develop and keep a successful and profitable freelance consultancy practice going for 13 years is having an inquisitive nature – if someone shows me a door that’s ajar and says they think it might be interesting for me to have a peek inside, I’ll always try to…

So – a mixture of good manners, the opportunity for business and professional development, and personal values, meant that I’ve just done something that I suspect most of my counterparts would have passed on without a second thought. Perhaps another reason why I’m labelled as being ‘not your typical consultant’ in the worlds of facebook and Instagram?

the Korean perspective... (I may be funnier than I think I am?)

I had the opportunity this summer to spend a week mentoring a cohort of South Korean social entrepreneurs as part of the UK leg of their international MBA. And while pictures have been shared on instagram, twitter, and such like, as to the various adventures and activities that people got up to, I thought it might be useful to reflect on what I think that South Korea can teach us about how we do social enterprise in the UK, having spent a week thinking about it from their perspective;

at the end of the week, all the entrepreneurs shared what we mentors had offered and challenged them over which has caused them to rethink either their business models and assumptions, or how they'll launch and scale their enterprises in the future. This was though all giving short presentations to us as the mentors, as well as to their fellow student entrepreneurs, and university professors. And while all agreed that they greatly valued the time we had been able to offer them as mentors, and shared something different in relation to their own specific enterprises, there seemed to be some common themes around:

• the benefits of mentoring in getting 'back to basics' - its good to have assumptions challenged, and start to simplify things to make them more manageable
• testing enterprise ideas with a wider group of mentors, all of whom have different backgrounds and perspectives, is valuable in identifying new options and opportunities
• having a range of mentors to draw upon (rather than a single mentor as many other enterprise support initiatives offer), allows access to a far wider range and number of contacts and other models and initiatives of direct relevance and benefit
• there's also a cultural difference as to what constitutes a 'social need' in South Korea that the UK would struggle to recognise as being relevant for a social enterprise to have as its mission, but perhaps this echoes some of the confusion we still have here in the UK as to the different ways in which we define and recognise a 'legitimate' social enterprise by the forms it can adopt?
• Many also seemed to espouse a new mantra that we mentors think may be attributable to their session with Nick Temple of Social EnterpriseUK - J.F.D.I.

• (and there were also some nice comments that students directly made about me as part of their presentations:
• "As we all came to realise, Adrian is very humorous"
• "Adrian was a great encouragement to my self-esteem as I realised that this enterprise will be the hardest thing I ever do in my life")

I also reflected on some of the themes that seemed to regularly come up as part of the mentoring sessions I was delivering. It's telling that these seem closely related to issues that are also particularly pertinent and relevant to all (social) enterprises in the UK today?:

1. Mapping and reporting the impact we create offers a range of benefits that we don't usually recognise it for:
1. it helps prioritise service and product development
2. it contributes to marketing activity
3. it helps to identify potential future customers who benefit from what we do, but aren't paying us!
2. Branding is an often undervalued and underused 'tool' in helping us to not only differentiate ourselves from the competition, but also between the services we offer were they are targeted at different customers and beneficiaries, to mitigate possible confusion about us in our marketplaces

so perhaps as a sector, social enterprise has more 'common currency' globally that it might think it has - but how can we encourage and support that? Initiatives such as this that are hosted by Sheffield University are by far the exception, but all involved recognise the immense value it offers to everyone who was a part of it.

(And I'm also indebted and grateful to Darren Chouings for pulling it all together, and also my fellow expert mentors - none of whom I'll share the embarrassing pics I took of you here...

Jamie Veitch

Dave Thornett

Morgan Killick

Nickala Torkington

Andi Stamp)

Is ‘The Full Monty’ a promo movie for social enterprise?

I currently have the fortune to be supporting a group of South Korean social entrepreneurs who are studying for MBAs – as part of their international syllabus, they’re spending a week with Sheffield University (apparently Sheffield is one of the unofficial UK capitals of social enterprise – who knew?), and it’s there that I’m sitting on pitch panels and offering several days of mentoring support, along with other luminaries of sector support (including Laura Bennett, Morgan Killick, Andi Stamp, Dave Thornett, Jamie Veitch, and Nick Temple)

And while sitting in on one of the students’ sessions which offered them an initial orientation as to the history (and possible futures) of social enterprise in the UK, I got to reflecting on Sheffield's role in the wider landscape of social enterprise.

Sheffield is famous for many things, but perhaps most memorably, a movie called ‘The Full Monty’. It charted the fortunes of a group of unemployed steel workers who form a dance troupe and do strip routines… and I got to wondering if this made it a contender for being a movie that promotes the social enterprise model more generally?

Social enterprise is about people harnessing their available resources, skills, talent, (and sometimes baravdo and bluster – see some of Tim Smit’s ‘confessions’ in his books about his journey as a social entrepreneur…), in order to overcome challenges being faced by people (such as the poverty and deprivation caused by long-term unemployment).

And the ex-steel workers who formed their dance troupe were part of a community that faced economic decline and increasing deprivation caused by widespread long-term unemployment and a loss of employment opportunities.

Through their ‘market offer’ they not only created employment, but also attracted more investment into that city through customers coming in from outside the area, spending money to see their shows, and brought hope back to those who had seen only hopelessness before.

So – The Fully Monty: required viewing for anyone wanting to learn about social enterprise in the UK? (and what other movies might be similarly disguised propaganda for social enterprise..?)

the risk of offering ‘women-only’ finance

I recently came across the female business angel network and was encouraged and depressed by its existence in equal measure:

 

while it’s always good to have finance tailored to specific groups of enterprises (increases the likelihood of engagement, makes it easier to develop supportive relationships, etc), there’s a very large associated risk that it stifles the potential of the enterprise being financed;

 

an entrepreneur engaging with such specific and niche support is highly unlikely to subsequently engage with the wider business support community on the strength of the relationship they develop with it, and so won’t want to look for anything else – ultimately this means that they’ll miss out on opportunities that may have been open to them elsewhere, in programmes that have a more ‘mixed’ recruitment to the businesses they’ll support.

 

Think I’m blowing smoke over nothing? Well, there are two things I’d point to which have led me to come to this perspective:
 

1)  the rise of Islamic Finance: it’s generally not a mainstream offer, and since its introduction I’ve anecdotally been aware that there is a significantly decreasing diversity amongst entrepreneurs in the more general business support programmes I’ve been involved in supporting...

 

2)   I like to think I keep pretty clued up about support available to entrepreneurs of all types (it’s what some clients feel they value the most about me), but as someone who’s been involved with enterprise financing for 14 years in different guises at local, regional and national levels, this is the first time I’ve come across the female business angel network...

 

So – the female business angel network: along with other niche enterprise support offers it’s a great resource to engaging those entrepreneurs who might have otherwise ‘slipped through the net’ on the basis of sexism or other bias and prejudice (however explicit or implicit) within wider business support programmes and bodies, but with an increasingly fragmented marketplace of such support, I’m increasingly concerned about how well its being ‘joined up’ to ensure that those being supporting to pursue and realise their dreams and hopes don’t inadvertently find themselves being unnecessarily stifled or curtailed...

I'm not looking myself...

most of the time we do what we do because we believe its the right thing to do (or sometimes because we just need the cash...);

we don't do it to seek praise or public adoration, we do it to keep the wheels of the universe spinning a little more smoothly, and to hopefully contribute to a slightly better world than the one we found when we arrived in it;

but sometimes someone sees what we're doing, and pats us on the back - not because they have to, but because they want to recognise and encourage us. And when that happens its very empowering and motivating. How do I know? Because it happened to me recently - turns out I won a national award from the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship in recognition for the impact I'm creating through my mentoring various enterprises (didn't realise I'd even been nominated!)

And did I enjoy the glitzy award ceremony at the Houses of Parliament? No - because I'd already promised a local charity that I'd be spending that afternoon with them, helping them to try and resolve some of their frustrations and tensions in how they manage themselves to ensure that adults with learning disabilities can enjoy a higher quality of life, while at the same time they as an organisation can keep paying their bills...

So instead, Harsha Patel of Doing Social kindly accepted the award on my behalf - and I'm glad she did, as she looks far better in a dress than I could ever hope to...

how ethical is your business advisor?

"my name is Adrian, and I've been a business advisor for about 15 years..." - sometimes I feel like I've a shameful secret about who I am that I can only be absolved of in a similar way to attending a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous...

And its nothing to do with me, but with those other guys - the small group of ill-informed advisors out there who through their practice end up causing more difficulty for the enterprises they're supposed to be supporting than they started with by directing them down paths that are wholly unsuitable or not making sure they've connecting them to sources of funding or further support that might be available to them.

And you won't always be able to spot them until its too late - because they look the part, they know the jargon and they exude a confidence that makes you feel you can't question their counsel. But you should - after all, its your enterprise, not theirs; you're the one who has to live with it while they can walk away; and what they think they know may not be appropriate for what you need to know.

If its starting to sound like getting a good business advisor is a bit of a lottery, take heart for there are some simple steps you can take to assure yourself that the person you've asked to walk alongside you does actually have your interests at heart (rather than their accountant friend who they're strongly encouraging you to sign a contract with...) -

• ask them for references: after all, if you were employing someone to do a job for you, you'd want to know that they've done good by others, right? And crying 'client confidentiality' really doesn't wash in these days of LinkedIn recommendations and testimonials...
• are they a member of a trade body? As a member of several myself, you can't get in without proving your merit, and if it starts to go badly between you, at least you have someone to complain to who can take actions against them (i.e. kicking them out of the club)
• finally, do they subscribe to a professional code of conduct? Codes of Conduct set out a transparent and ethical framework of what you should be able to expect of your advisor, and to which you can (and should) hold them. (the institute of consulting has a nice one for reference, but your advisor should be able to show you one which is relevant to your business type or market)

'but what about qualifications?' I hear you cry. Well, I'm afraid I don't see these as an indication that your advisor is any good at being able to support you, merely that they can pass some exams - after all, you may have got your Maths O-level or GCSEs, but how many of you could easily solve simultaneous equations now if I asked you? My experience is that while qualifications have a purpose, they're not the automatic assurance that you should be seeking;

after all, if your business is going to be ethical, shouldn't everyone else be who you invite to be involved with it..?

how did I get here...?

I've always been a fan of Talking Heads, and in particular their Twilight-Zone inspired track 'Once in a lifetime'; and while the lyrics are largely concerned with an existential mid-life crisis, there's a line that always strikes me, where David Byrne says:

"and you may ask yourself - well, how did I get here?"

And maybe its because I've been listening to some old Talking Heads albums recently, or maybe because I'm approaching a certain age... but I am catching myself increasingly reflecting on how I've come to be living the life I am - I've never had any grand career ambitions or 'life goals', so its not always easy to look back to spot the markers along the path I've followed.

However, one thing I am certain of is that a lot of who I am and where I am today is because of other people who (with hindsight) have had influence over my thinking and choices made - sometimes by offering an opportunity for work or visit, and sometimes through challenge or encouragement. And mostly they didn't need to do the things they did that have contributed to who I am today, but with graciousness and goodwill they freely shared something of themselves and their time.

So I've decided I really should try and thank these people as I now go forward into whatever (mis)adventures await; but in keeping with my avoidance of career plans, it won't be in any formal or structured way. It'll be when I come across them at conferences or their name is suggested as 'someone I may know' by LinkedIn.

So watch out - I won't be publicly 'naming and shaming' you, but you may be approached by someone in the future who says 'thank you for that time 10 years ago when you...'. 

I think its perhaps a practice we should all perhaps try and do more of in not only better understanding ourselves, but also in encouraging others to keep on changing the world for the better one person at a time...

How I (nearly) made a client faint - and why they gave me a fruit basket afterwards

As some readers of my blog will know, a lot of what I do is supporting people and communities to realise their visions by creating new co-operative, social, or private enterprises. And I do this through various means – training courses, consultancy, beer mentoring, etc...

Recently, I’ve been working with a number of south Asian women who want to use their skills to improve the well being of families in deprived communities, but also want to work in ways that ensure people’s dignity is paramount in that process as well. They were ‘awarded’ 4 days of my life through the co-operative enterprise hub to help them to pursue and realise this, and through that time I’ve helped them develop their business model, financial plan, marketing and also to incorporate themselves as a worker co-operative. And it’s this last part that caused their ‘excitement’ – they were so sure that they would have made a mistake on their submission to companies house (they structured their worker co-op in a guarantee company form, in case you’re wondering), that when their company certificate arrived in the post, they were overcome with excitement... they told me that one of their number almost fainted! (although I’m not sure I can take all the credit for that, as it turns out that the person also had a cold at the time...)

 

Anyways – they were so impressed with how I’ve supported and encouraged them over these few days, that at my last session with them this morning, they produced a fruit basket as a traditional means of expressing their thanks for all I’ve done with them over the last couple of months. And I’m very touched – normally, at the end of supporting an individual or group, there’s the awkward handshake and assurances about keeping in touch, but this felt really nice – so  thank you Access Alpha Ltd of Burnley, and may the universe reciprocate your generosity many times over.

(NB – i’m also partial to cake, beer and donughts in case any other clients I’m supporting are thinking of finding ways to thank me...)

I'm number 6, 37, 72, 180...

The government announced a grand vision last year; that there would emerge a volunteer army of no less than 15,000 business mentors by now to support those aspiring start-ups and existing enterprises in the wake of cuts to funded business support (remember Business Link and the once proud national network of local enterprise agencies?)

And those nice civil servants in Whitehall recently revealed the exciting news that 7,500 such volunteer mentors have now been found! Fantastic! But there might be a problem... it seems that they haven't asked what level of enquiries for support these mentors are receiving (or are actually delivering...). So there might be 7,500 business mentors sitting around twiddling their thumbs. And there's another problem in that they're likely double counting too: I offer support to various enterprises through a number of mentoring initiatives (including the RSA Skills Bank, Unltd Connect, and others...)

So – volunteer mentors: there are obviously quite a few of us, and there are lots of schemes through which people can get at us. But I'm not sure how valuable it is to have government watching over us and claiming credit for what we're quietly getting on with to make sure that the world manages to keep getting along...

It's great to be proved wrong (really!)

I offer support to social enterprises through a variety of means – one of which is as a mentor through the Unltd Connect programme.

Recently I was 'paired' with One&Other, a new media enterprise in York that’s seeking to use news channels and digital publishing to share good news and build communities rather than simply 'telling tales' to make money.

They've already attracted a lot of initial interest from within this industry, and one of the topics that I wanted to explore with them (as well as everything on their 'wish list') was that of their legal form – they incorporated as a CIC and I wanted to explore with them why they'd chosen this structure given my experience of this form: briefly, I'm skeptical of the tangible benefits that being a CIC might offer based on published research and my own experiences, but am always open to being proved wrong about that.

I think it’s important that I remain open in this way, seeking opportunities to be proved wrong in my understanding and stance on all sorts of issues, because if I don't I risk become an entrenched cynic and it also offers me new opportunities to further enhance my own knowledge which can surely only be a good thing for everyone?

Anyway – their experience of being a CIC is fantastic! It's allowing them to achieve one of their principle aims: creating opportunities and generating invitations for them to explain and explore what social enterprise is within an industry that's largely unaware of it and the potential it can offer, because when they meet people as say 'we're a CIC' people are invariably asking 'what's that then?'

So thank you One&Other for proving me wrong – I hope to be able to return the favour someday ;-)

Me and Bono

Well – OK, pro Bono, rather than U2's Bono, but I found myself wondering recently, just how much free support do I actually give?

I've always been very open about saying I'm happy to have an initial chat/lunch/beer with anyone who like to ask me to, without obligation – just 'cos I think that's how the world should work. But I don't keep track of how much time I spend doing this, and I'm suddenly aware that its probably increasing - there seem to be a growing number of people in different sector bodies who 'pass my name on' to various groups and people (I was tempted to list the sector bodies they work for, but might be a tad delicate if I did....), and I'm happy for them to continue do so.

But very few of these lead to any fee earning work, and although that's not the reason I do it, being self-employed I have to try and drum up enough work to keep the bills paid somehow.

But I digress – I do pro bono for a lot of people and I don't track it.

Should I?
But if I did, what would it show? The only reason I measure or record anything I do is because I think it generates useful management information, and anything I record about myself I tend to be pretty open about in sharing what they show (see previous posts about my social accounts and why I do this ). As a freelancer, what useful management information would I be generating by recording how much of my time is spent doing pro bono stuff and openly reporting this (other than to gratify my ego).

This is not a hypothetical question – it’s something I really am trying to work out. I'd appreciate any comments you'd like to share with me, either by reply to this post or by direct email adrian_ashton2@yahoo.co.uk.

just because everyone seems to be at it doesn't mean you should...

So – mentoring. Everyone seems to be at it these days: Unltd Connect are running a national scheme, there’s the Mowgli Foundation if you prefer something a bit more international, and Social Enterprise North West are running a programme that will accredit your mentor in the process!

But is mentoring worth it?

Undoubtedly yes – the chance to share some of a mentee’s infectious enthusiasm and the chance for mentors to help to short-cut processes and learning, and sometimes even save a venture from failure by sharing hard-earned lessons elsewhere can only be a good thing.

But it comes at a cost. As mentors, we need to be able to keep paying the bills and mentoring doesn’t usually pay well (if at all) in terms of cash. As mentees – don’t forget you’ve also got an enterprise to keep running and developing: don’t neglect your own customers; your mentors might be more enjoyable company, but we don’t actually pay you any money…

As for me – I still prefer my own model of mentoring: “beer mentoring”