Should you trust your business advisor?

OK, seeing as a lot of work that I do is in the guise of a business advisor, this may sound a bit odd, but bear with me…

I recently saw some publicity for a local enterprise agency that caught my eye (for the wrong reasons) because of a client testimonial they’d used: “their advisors give you honest feedback as to whether or not your idea is a good one”.

As business advisors, it shouldn’t be our job to tell you if your idea is any good or not, but to support you to best understand the marketplace and your potential customers, what it will take to launch and manage it, and what you’ll need to be aware of in doing so. We shouldn’t tell you whether we think the idea is any good or not because:

1) It’s your business not ours – you’ll have to live with it, not us, so why are we telling you what to do with your life?

2) How do we know if a new business idea really is any good or not? - Look at all the ‘rubbish’ ideas that were rejected by the “gurus” of Dragon’s Den that went on to make a fortune; and history is littered with ideas and inventions that the ‘powers that be’ and recognised purveyors of ‘wisdom’ of the day just didn’t get – as a result we almost never had TV, the jet engine or even photocopiers!


You – the entrepreneur, should not always take what you’re told as gospel by a business advisor about if your idea will work or not: it’s your idea, your life, not ours.
If you don’t think we ‘get it’, then challenge us, or ask for another advisor; but please don’t abandon your brilliant idea that will change your world and mine just because someone else tells you it’ll never work based on their own personal tastes and prejudices.

why are we scared about asking to be paid?

Ask most employees what they grumble about most, and ask their employers about most, and it’s likely to be getting their pay cheque on time.


Yet when we create new enterprises, we suddenly seem to lose this boldness and capitulate to our customers when they’re late in paying our bills and invoices to them – to the tune of over £62 billion for small businesses!!!

So why this change in attitude between being an employee and an employer over money?
I have a suspicion it’s about FEAR. We’re frightened that if we appear pushy, our customers won’t come back, and/or even more damningly, our customers start to think “if they’re so desperate for our money, then they must be in trouble, so better take my business elsewhere”.




So what do we do?



Well, for starters, let’s be more open about talking about money and getting paid – raise it as soon as we can as part of negotiations with customers and clients, be clear about when they want to pay and when you want to be paid from the outset. Negotiate, haggle, agree compromises – after all, we do that already over the price and delivery schedule, so why not the payment terms?

Plan the cash-flow: so many businesses fail because they run out of cash before they get paid – I’ve seen it happen, including to a business that was making a £1m+ profit annually (I helped their employees subsequently buy-out the business).

Finally – don’t forget the easy stuff: there’s a lot of legislation you can use to support you with your asking to be paid. The biggest (and least well known) being the Late Payment Act which says that as a small business, you can charge interest on what you’re owed if its late in being paid. And after all, it’s not you that’s chosen to charge interest: it’s the government and their legislation... so no risk to your personal relationships. I’ve used it a number of times and on each occasion got paid more promptly AND had that client/customer book me for further work.

Simple things that with a bit of thinking and planning can make all the different to getting that overdraft reduced and staying in business.


Or maybe there’s something about ‘being British’ that means we like being owed more than £62 billion and not being able to cash it?

too successful?

a charity made front page news by closing after receiving £100,000 from the Home Office because it's been "too successful" in reducing crime and so its services are no longer needed.

Well done to them - rather than try and continue a service that no one wants/needs, or to re-invent themselves with new services (which would undoubtedly have moved in into areas different to those that originally attracted its staff, volunteers, trustees and other supporters to it), they've decided to shut up shop, celebrate and allow all involved to move on to new adventures with a renewed sense of excitement and optimism.

Too often I see groups and agencies who are 'fighting on' long past their use-by date: as a result their people are unhappy and de-motivated, other groups view them with suspicion and they suck up resources that could be better deployed elsewhere.

I've always advocated to groups that once you achieve the reason you were created for, you should stop and go home - don't assume that everyone will want to continue with you if the organisation starts working in new areas, and if you're really serious about wanting to create 'social good' and benefit the community above all else then prove it by walking away when you've done your job.

This translates to me personally in that one of the ways I check that I've been successful in supporting the groups I work with is that they no longer need me (because I've trained/empowered/strengthened them so well) - in effect I've done myself out of a job, but the vision has to come first.

Adrian Ashton's social sccounts released...

I've always been a keen proponent of the idea of social accounting - after all, if we say that our values and ethics are important and make a difference, then we should be able to show to what extent, and in what ways, they do.

And there are a ton of toolkits and models out there to support you do this - some based on your form (ie - CESPIs for co-ops) and some on your main focus of activity (eg environmental impact).

However, as a sole trader, there's nothing really obvious that I've found that I can easily pick off the shelf and use on myself...so 4 years ago I began to create my own framework based on measuring the things most important to me in terms of what I try and achieve and contribute through how I work.

It's an evolving framework, and I usually add an additional measure each year, but surely its a start.

This year they show an increase in the extent to which I've contributed to stimulating debate and discussion around sector issues, that over a quarter of all my business purchases have been made from local companies, that the majority of all my business travel was made without the use of a gas-guzzling and polluting car, and that training I develop and deliver seems to be well received.


You can download a pdf version (as i include it in my 'blag sheet'/CV) from my website here (its referred to as the 'information sheet about me'); and below is a copy of their summary:



So what do people think? Is this a useful emergent framework for social accounting on sole traders, and what other measures should I incorprate for next years?

main website is unwell...

Dear all

sorry for 'hi-jacking' my own blog, but this will remain the 'latest post' until further notice as I want to let people know that due to technical issues involving the internet service provider who looks after my main website, that my main site (the one with all the cheesy pics, links and copies of various published articles) will not be available until further notice.

you can still follow me here on this blog, as well as my twitter feed and via LinkedIn, and hopefully it'll be back before you know it and I'll continue to post my (sometimes irrevent) musings and thoughts here.

I've also now created a temporary site using paperclips and rubber bands at http://adrianashton.blogspot.com - while it doesn't have everything my site usually offers, its got some of the basic stuff available again there.

until then, thanks for your patience and understanding



Adrian Ashton
adrian_ashton2@yahoo.co.uk
07786 492313

the real benefit of using cartoons

The Development Trusts Association have produced an “Early Warning Guide” – it’s a very powerful and engaging resource, not just because it gives a very clear, easy to use and quick analysis of the state of an organisations’ health, but because of the way in which it does it: the use of cartoons and simple, bright images.

Often, as professionals and support providers we assume that what we deliver and offer has to be highly technical and detailed when sometimes simple cartoons will suffice – cartoons ensure that everyone understands the issue, everyone is involved and somehow, in being a cartoon, its disarming and so people more likely to at least pick it up and start to engage with it as they see it as non-threatening even if, as with the DTA guide, it ends up telling you that your ship is sinking fast and you've no lifeboats left!

Franchising social enterprises – replicating the ‘magic dust’ and the hidden threat from within?

I’ve been involved in the replication of social enterprises and co-operatives since 1998: as a member of a worker co-op that was licensed from another successful original worker co-op (which led to my being asked by some to comment on the failure of the Whole food Planet franchise that was based loosely on it earlier this year); as a manager of one of the regions of the ill-fated Aspire: the first attempt at creating a formal franchised social enterprise in every region of the country; involvement in the national social franchising programmes that ran in the early 00’s; and in supporting groups to evaluate social franchise offers as well as developing their own.

In all these instances I’ve been struck by the baggage associated with the phrase “franchise” – people seem to think that the only way to replicate a successful model is to do a McDonalds on it, but actually there are lots of ways that such enterprises can be replicated and duplicated elsewhere.

I recently participated in a 2-day residential on social enterprise replication run by Unltd Advantage – a welcome opportunity to reflect on my own knowledge and experience built up from firsthand experience and self-directed learning (especially as I’m currently writing a 5,000 word essay that will be critiquing current theories, models and tools for social franchising).

And while the formal content it offered me may not have offered much new that I hadn’t already educated myself in, including how we identify and recreate the ‘magic dust’ that makes our enterprises successful, the opportunity to spend some time exclusively immersed in the subject matter, and to share stories and ideas amongst the other participants did make me realise something:

Despite there being a multitude of models through which successful models of social enterprise can increase their impact in ways that they could never do if they remained as a single entity, the biggest threat to this being achieved is our egos:

People can be extremely precious about the enterprise model they’ve developed and aren’t always happy about the chance that in offering it ‘out there’ in some way for replication in ways other than in very formal command and control ways on their part, perhaps there’s a fear that they’ll lose control of it, that maybe others may be able to improve on it, and that it will mean less reward and kudos for them personally and individually.

But if, as social entrepreneurs, we’re motivated primarily by the needs we see in society, shouldn’t we welcome any and all opportunities to increase the impact in addressing those, even if that means copying someone else’s model or accepting that our own approaches can be improved on?