all you have to do is ask ...

I want to highlight a form of “partnership” that is vital to the progress of your business. These partnerships are of strategic in nature and perhaps surprisingly from me these relationships that I urge you to build are with those in the public sector!

Whilst there is much truth in the maxim that there is no such thing as a free lunch there are many agencies – funded out of your corporate and business taxes and thus you have prepaid for! – that can assist.

However, the challenge as you grow your business is to leverage the services that are available to you in the public sector without becoming bogged down in a sea of unwanted bureaucratic red tape and for this I simply recommend that - as with all good buffets - you don’t overload your plate but select only those services that will satisfy your palate at the time and come back later when your hunger returns to sample further offerings.

In almost any area or part of the world in which you currently operate, there are national or local Government entities that offer to help organizations with growing their business. These include local, regional and national organizations such as, in the UK, UK Trade and Investment, Scottish Enterprise, Welsh Development Agency, Local Enterprise Partnerships and local and national Chambers of Commerce. 

On Continental Europe and in the Middle East the local CC’s have readily available services to assist; almost all with English speaking international officers. Another fact to remember with the Middle East and most of the major markets in Europe is that membership of the local Chamber of Commerce is compulsory in order for a company to be licenced to operate thus in say a city the size of Hamburg there are over 150,000 members which provides you with a ready-made network of business contacts!

In North America there are a numerous local county plus regional and state-wide organizations that assist companies in their efforts plus in Europe a number of US States have local offices that can provide background information and business cultural advice. As with the UK and Europe the services these entities provide are again for free. 

Whatever the current requirements are in the development of your business there is almost certainly a publicly funded entity out there whose job it is deliver exactly what you need. 

 As is so often the case – all you have to do is ask!

©David Smallman 2015