ACT launch: ‘Now more than ever we have to show people the way.’

At the inaugural ACT conference in Nottingham, over 100 business support professionals from across the country are gathered. Grey-haired men and highlighted-haired women, the average age is around 50. They’ve seen recession before, maybe twice or three times, and have more answers than most to the current predicament.

On the stage a banker – also with grey hair – gives one of the most honest and clear accounts of how we got here. Peter Ibbetson, chair of small business at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, has been helping the government with its response to the current downturn. During the previous recession was also there too; indeed he says, only he and Peter Mandelson were represented both times.

He takes the audience through the unsustainable nature of banking before the downturn, fuelled by an endemic of greed. The SME sector is as solid as ever, however, he says, but affected, as all business has been, by the collapse of liquidity.

But the path out is gaining shape and focus. Ibbetson says the current government has done a lot so far to help small businesses – from the enterprise finance guarantee, to the working capital guarantee and asset protection scheme – and has learned the lessons of previous recessions. ‘There’s far more engagement and dialogue. They’ve learned to listen to what customers say and act on it. It’s so important to get confidence back.’

Others in the room are not convinced that enough is being done to help keep enterprise on track at this critical time. If the pattern of previous recessions is to be repeated, many of the enterprise agencies represented in the room will start seeing a glut of clients, fresh from redundancies, looking to start new businesses.

Those made redundant usually spend the first three months looking for another position before considering self-employment. If this recession conforms to type, those people will very shortly be banging on doors seeking advice and financial support. Bootstrap Enterprises, based in Blackburn, has already seen a vast increase in start-ups since the downturn began to take hold, and its experience is far from unique.

There should be no shortage of advice out there to accommodate the expected demand. As John O’Reilly, business support director at East Midlands Development Agency explains, the business support simplification programme is currently putting in place a simpler structure around publicly-funded business support, previously crowded with products. By 2010, those seeking business support will be directed via Business Link to a personalised service.

There are issues around accreditation of the business support industry, currently the subject of a review by Sfedi, and problems that could emerge due to the shortage of business mentors.

Rachel Elnaugh, former chief executive of Red Letter Days and now a business coach and mentor herself, warns against the ‘fairy godmother, quick-fix approach’ to enterprise promoted by celebrity entrepreneurs but also rails against a waning of hope and aspiration as recession digs in.

‘Without positive energy it will be hard to get business and entrepreneurs back,’ she says.

There’s no shortage of positive energy from Royston Guest, chief executive of Pti Worldwide. He leaps into the room telling his audience to raise the bar in their personal and professional goals and to help their clients do the same. The room falls silent to the story of Charles Blondin, who crossed the gorge below Niagara Falls on a tightrope in 1859. In one variation of his walk, Blondin carried his manager Harry Colcord on his back across the gorge, sitting down mid-tightrope to eat an omelette, his manager still perched behind him. The intense level of trust between manager and aspirant is not lost on this audience, who are urged to inspire similar levels of confidence in would-be entrepreneurs.

‘Now more than ever before we have to step out onto the rope and show people the way, let people climb on our back and let them see for themselves,’ urges Guest.

The launch of ACT by National Federation of Enterprise Agencies as a new networking platform for those in the business of inspiring and guiding future entrepreneurs has already been a success. It has brought together a group of seasoned business support professionals who, despite their years of experience, understand the importance of continued networking, continued peer-to-peer support and, now more than ever, continued hope.