Small-business people are not happy with the support they get from government - but some of them are optimistic about the potential of new initiatives. In a survey that firmly lines them up with the farmers and hauliers in their opinion of how much Whitehall understands of their concerns, only 10% expressed satisfaction with government.
It wasn't a small survey, either: 22,000 members of the Federation of Small Businesses responded, about 15% of the total membership.
But the Department of Trade and Industry's new Small Business Service, set up in April, is "on the right lines", says Stephen Alambritis, the head of parliamentary affairs for the federation. It's headed by a north-eastern entrepreneur, David Irwin, and what he is doing is "encouraging", said Alambritis.
But unlike, say, the Labour government of the 1960s which was keen on getting companies to merge into larger units, New Labour ministers are keen on saying how important small firms are: it's one of the clichés of modern business and politics.
In October innovation minister Lord Sainsbury of Turville - a member of the supermarket family - delivered a eulogy to internet incubators. The Small Business Service "is very keen to encourage the development of incubation as part of its start-up policy," he said in a speech to the UK Business Incubation Conference.
There are regional innovation funds, internet mentoring - also launched in October by e-commerce minister Patricia Hewitt - and even an Innovative Clusters Fund, designed to encourage localised groups of related businesses to start up and help one another. But don't bother with this last scheme if you're planning to start a business in one of the established high-tech growth areas of Cambridge, Reading or Basingstoke. "They will focus on areas outside the London, south-east and east England regions," warned Lord Sainsbury. Small businesses have very specific needs, says Alambritis. "People don't set up in business to do paperwork. They don't have legal departments or personnel departments. What they want is help at the end of the telephone line."
The Federation of Small Businesses has obviously been captivated by the idea of NHS Direct, the network of call centres designed to provide first-stop medical advice and, in theory at least, reduce the load on GPs who are inundated with people with sore throats and sprained wrists. The federation's model is the US Small Business Administration, a vast organisation which provides help and advice to entrepreneurs, and even rents or sells low-cost property. "We want a true one-stop shop for advice and help," says Alambritis. "A glorified call centre." And just as NHS Direct is staffed with nurses and other qualified staff who know what they're talking about, small business people want to be able to trust the advice they get.
Who they don't trust, he says, is local authorities. "They see them as enforcers," as places that impose rates and uphold regulation. Though many councils have "useful development units", they are "the last place" many small businesses would go for help.
But that means that start-ups would not get to hear of schemes for rate and rent holidays, and offers of low-cost property, he admits. That's why he thinks business people would be happy to go to a neutral call centre, offering advice about a variety of services.
Is that what's on the way? The Small Business Service already has the beginnings of a useful website on www.businessadviceonline.org, and there are indications that it will be developed in the way that, if the federation is right, entrepreneurs want.
"We want the Small Business Service to be as close to a one-stop shop as possible," says SBS chief executive Irwin. It is planning to set up what it calls "Gateway" - an internet-enabled network of knowledge and information for use by small businesses and others. "Essentially it will be composed of a website and a call handling service; and underpinning these will be a knowledge base and a client base."
The projected launch date for Gateway is April 1 2001, says an SBS spokesman. It will be interactive, and will recognise callers who have been for advice before. The model, he adds, is the personal portal which the Cabinet Office is developing with BT - eventually to be on www.ukonline.gov.uk - to allow individuals to interact with government electronically. A trial change-of-address system is already in operation: tell the government once that you're moving and the information will be communicated automatically to every agency.
It's all part of the government's aim of getting all services to the public available electronically by 2005, and services to business are covered by the same target, which was set by the prime minister in March 1999.
Gateway, the electronic version of Small Business Service, will be delivered via the web as well as through call centres and face-to-face, using the new Business Link network. It's all at a very early stage, though. A chief knowledge officer, John Gibbons, was appointed in October: he has spent more than 30 years in the IT industry, including 19 years as a principal consultant with Price Waterhouse.
Potential contractors are already talking to the SBS about starting up the Gateway service, and SBS staff were coy in late November about going into too much detail. "It's going to be much more sophisticated than the current site," said an official. "It will address you as an individual." But the level of complexity that the SBS is aiming for means that "we have to be sure that bidders can deliver".
The background to this is the government's long, sad history of unsuccessful IT projects, and its wariness following a series of criticisms from the industry, from inside Whitehall and from the source civil servants fear most, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee.
As recently as October the Cabinet Office called off negotiations with computer supplier Compaq on a projected contract to build a similarly named project, the Government Gateway, intended to be the interface between portals offering citizens' services and the vast array of government computer systems which hold incompatible personal information.
Instead the government, worried about the vulnerability of the Government Gateway to cost overruns, delays and security glitches, decided to run the contract itself, with much of the work going to Microsoft. Now the Department of Trade and Industry, which supervised the SBS, will be concerned to avoid similar risks with the SBS Gateway.
Will this be what entrepreneurs are looking for? At the Federation of Small Businesses, Alambritis is enthusiastic about the progress made by Irwin. "He has direct access to Number 10 when he's not getting his way," he says. "But he seems to be getting his way."
Global perspective
The new United States portal www.firstgov.gov leads straight to a range of business services, including the Small Business Administration, www.sba.gov. This is an instant demonstration of the American zest for success: the "starting up" section has a page on "some ideas on how to be successful", with success stories and a magazine called Small Business Success, produced by the phone company Pacific Bell.
The site has clearly laid out step-by-step hints: do your research, training, business plans and so on. There's advice about finding the money, and whether or not to lease premises. There's even a link to a 13,000-strong team of retired executives who are prepared to offer help and advice. And the SBA advertises property and land it has acquired in the course of its operations: there's a 4,000 sq ft warehouse/retail unit in Los Angeles going for $220,000, for example.
The Irish Republic's Enterprise Ireland on www.enterprise-ireland.com, is an altogether more cautious operation. "We have a service targeted to meet the needs of high-calibre, experienced managers, academics and entrepreneurs creating and building new companies with significant growth and export potential," says the site, adding a series of questions about "credible projected sales" and export potential, before offering links to a development adviser.
There are relatively few other resources on the web for entrepreneurs, or other sources of government help. The UK Federation of Small Businesses' ideal is the Confederation for Artisans and Craftspeople, which even fills in health and safety forms and tax forms for members, according to the federation's head of parliamentary affairs, Stephen Alambritis. "It means they don't have to hire an accountant." But governments in the EU have a delicate line to walk to ensure they are not breaking anti-competition laws in the way they support industry.
Alan Burkitt-Gray is editor of Government Computing magazine and KableNET
