Warning involves violence to tomatoes.

If you have found yourself starting your own business then this is the show for you.Matthew Clarke and I put this together to bring a bit of fun into the world of the entrepreneur. In this,our first show,we tackle NLP-that’s neuro linguistic programming to you and me. We find out about what’s happening in our Universities and there’s a wee bit about Global Entrepreneurship Week in the UK. Wow what a line up.

Enjoy!

An event with a difference

As befits a different approach, we are not having talks, speeches or lectures. The format is one of expert witnesses who have a chance to chat about what has happened to them, followed by questions from the floor and via a host. At the end, we will pull together what we have learned and discuss what we can do about it. You will have a chance to discuss, explore, argue and enjoy.

The unusual suspects

We have two types of expert witness. The first is people who have actually done it – made the leap to start their own business. The second is people who may also have made the leap, but can also provide an overview as a result of their professional involvement with entrepreneurs.

Throughout 2011 and 2012 we will bring together this mix of expert witnesses, specialists, entrepreneurs and financiers to explore how we learn to be entrepreneurs, what stops us as a nation, what inspires us and how we can help more people who want to start an enterprise of any kind, make it happen.

Over to you to let me know what you think!

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Unfortunately no-one is really talking about it. My new ” Could I Should I Start My Own Business ” sessions start on 17th  and 24th September at Glasgow’s One Devonshire Gdns Hotel  and they were specially designed to help people who had been employed ,more or less, in one sector all their life and are now at  a personal or professional crossroads. The financial services sector still has high numbers of people looking for jobs. Local authorities are seeing the departure of long serving members of staff and it is the same in our colleges,hospitals and larger companies.To this mix we can also add the BBC and many media and newspapers companies. Actually this is pretty much the mix of people that come along to my sessions-all walks of life!

Unfortunately there is not much out there for these skilled professional who is wondering about their future .The likes of Business Gateway-still existing in Scotland and Business Link in England (wound up by November 2011) are useful if you have a clear view that you want to start a business. They are no use if your world has been turned upside down and you are simply unsure of what the future holds.

In the USA they call these people accidental entrepreneurs. I called them accidental entrepreneurs as well but the reality for the UK is this group of people are going to be reluctant entrepreneurs. Having to start a business because there is no other option.

The question is what kind of business will these accidental or reluctant entrepreneurs start and what do they want out of it? That’s the kind of thing I cover on “Could I Should I Start My Own Business” in Glasgow this September. There are only twelve spaces at a time so that everyone has a chance to not just learn something new but also to discuss it. What I also love about these sessions is the fact that everyone gets to know each other and a great support network emerges.

And a final twist-my website,and advert were all designed by people who found themselves in this kind of situtaion -wondering if they “Could or Should Start My Own Business “. Wish them well for they are the future of prosperity in Britain-it’s just a shame nobody is talking about what now for the over 40s.

What you will be interested in is the fact that the advert has been done by the very talented Lucy at Bang The Drum-she is designer for the equally talented Jill Dinsmore who started West End Life- and it transpires they both asked this question themselves.

So I thought I would give advance notice in telling you about what we are going to do.

In the meantime-what do you think of the advert?ENTERPRISE VISUALS NEW-1

Now it’s a veritable highway and with so much traffic around it takes you a long time to get to where you want to be . Found and famous. All the more important then that you find the right vehicle to get you there,and that,my friends,is where it gets complicated.

I’ve just spent several weeks working on how people choose their blog template. “I like the look of that one ” is the gist of it. So here are some questions you should ask before you start.

1.What do you want your blog to do?

Do you want it to sell something? Do you want it to raise your personal profile. Do you want it to show off your work.Is it just a plaything? Before you start blogging answer this question because you would no more take a Ferrari down a broken down farm track than you would expect a Land Rover to win a Le Mans.. Yet very few people think of it like this.

2.Are you transmitting or receiving-or both?

Its great fun typing in things like “why is David Cameron an arse?”because you get to read some really funny stuff. That kind of material is transmit only blogging. A rant to the world and great therapy for the individual. Unfortunately a lot of companies also adopt this transmit mode only approach churning out their message like some North Korean radio station going on about the Great Leader.

If, on the other hand, you also want  to receive (it’s called a conversation) then you need to look at how you engage-and that’s where you need to know a good blog technician who can discuss your requirements and apply thoughtful solutions as opposed to flinging every available icon up on your screen.

3.Data capture

Google knows that I washed my hands ten minutes ago. I’m not sure ,technically how they achieved that but they just do. It is also likely that they know if I used a soap or liquid handwash,paper towel or hand drier… They will then use that information to sell stuff. It’s what they do.Which brings me to the stark reality-virtually no business I worked with looked at it’s mechanisms for capturing information AND THEN USING IT.

And of course ,as I have discovered, I am one of these people.But that is about to change. In the next few weeks my blog site is about to change so it seems appropriate to blog about what I learn as I go along. There is one thing that is for sure-I choose my cars partly on looks and efficiency but also on how good the service is. In other words it’s a mix of effectiveness,looks and a good mechanic.

Of course the reason I have been asking these questions is because I’m just about to change my blog so over the next few weeks bear with me as the blog changes and I ask more questions!

For the truth of the matter is The Apprentice is a fraud. Lord Sugar is tweeting that he hopes the programme will inspire anyone to start a business. Let’s cut to the chase, Sir Alan – the programme is not about inspiring people to start a business, it’s about ratings, and well  you know it. A simple review of #The Apprentice on twitter reveals the UK viewing public’s glee in watching a specially  selected group of contestants spout drivel courtesy of the BBC selection process. It ignores the new emerging group of accidental entrepreneurs-people who start a business because they have no option .

Inevitably some good people will come through on The Apprentice- they have always done – but because this show is such a slave to its format it will neither inspire nor educate. This is a real shame because off screen Sugar is a doughty champion of anyone starting a business.

For nearly fifteen years I ran programmes to help people turn  their passion into a business, to find a business idea or to learn how to make money.

Latterly these programmes were run to help people in some of our most deprived communities find a way of making a new life via starting a business. For each and everyone it was a tough call – far tougher than Sugar probably remembers. The fear that starting a business would have them evicted from their rented accommodation. The fear of debt. The fear of not knowing if they could make it. All a far cry from Sugar’s picture of your average start up as a bunch of whingers seeking handouts (am I alone in thinking of the Monty Python sketch about how hard you had it?).

However the real problem here is not Sugar – it’s the BBC. The BBC made virtually nothing on business until the arrival of Greg Dyke as Director General. Any business programmes that were made were the product of Robert Thirkell (John Harvey Jones’ Troubleshooter etc) and – wait for it – the Natural History Unit in Bristol. The BBC has never understood enterprise, and certainly not small businesses, and they now encourage Sugar to wind us up with ever more ridiculous soundbites.

As ever the BBC is missing a trick. The real entrepreneurs out there are accidental – The Accidental Entrepreneur of my sessions. People who have lost a job. People who have lost a loved one. People who have a passion and want to start a business. They are not driven they way Apprentice contestants are to show off – they are driven to change their lives because they have to. That is the essence of the accidental entrepreneur.

That sad thing is everyone can learn from Sugar. He sticks to the basics of making money and is full of common sense where that is concerned. Is he a teacher of enterprise skills? No, because his ego gets in the way. Never forget Sugar was a manufacturer. How sad that he is now more interested in manufacturing sound bites than entrepreneurs.

I thought that 2010 – just after the General Election – was going to be cataclysmic for many public sector workers  across the UK. I was wrong. But sadly, only by a year and, as the 31st March 2011 came and went so did the careers of many people working in this sector. As those working in the private sector found in 2008,  finding employment again is not easy, and the problem is exacerbated as you become older – a sort of negative reward for years of service.As the BBC Panorama programme “Finished at Fifty” showed there is no no doubt about it; through a combination of government policy, financial meltdown and globalisation, 2011 will be “The Year of The Accidental Entrepreneur” in Britain – primarily because many find that they have no option.

“Employment in one place for a long time corrodes the brain”

The real problem facing most people is that if you have worked for one employer for a very long time you become an organisational captive. You have been working successfully within the rules for so long that you lose your ability to think and act independently. Add to this that over a period of time your confidence becomes associated with your job, and your status in the community  – whether you like it or not – is also linked to what you do. So when you get a P45 inevitably your mind and body get a shock and the hardest thing is to start again and reinvent yourself.

Many people I worked with on my Enterprise Island Challenges had chosen to reinvent themselves, and I have become fascinated by them and their stories. None were in the Alan Sugar category, hellbent on making money. What these these people wanted was a good life and they expected to make reasonable money as a result of their hard work.  Some had chosen to leave their job to start a business because they hated what they were doing, some had a great passion and or idea and wanted to make a living out of it, and some had no option. These are the people who are our Accidental Entrepreneurs. While they felt strange mix of anxiety, excitement, passion and lack of confidence, the biggest problem they faced was that they simply did not know where to start.

“No Business Starts With A Plan”

The traditional support mechanism for many people, Business Link or Business Gateway in Scotland, was a disaster. Their starting point was usually “Do you have an idea?” followed by “Do you have a business plan?” and these questions bore no relation to what the individual facing them needed to hear.

Now if you have chosen not to be an employee any more or have had that forced upon you this business idea/business plan is utterly the wrong starting point. You need time to get your head around things; time to think and talk things through. You need time to learn what enterprise skills you have and you need to learn some basics like how to cost a product or service before you can begin to do a business plan.

The Accidental Entrepreneur Sessions start on May 6th 2011 in Glasgow .

So we have been working hard on our new Accidental Entrepreneur Sessions which start on May 6th at One Devonshire Gardens (Hotel du Vin) in Glasgow before rolling out to other locations across the UK.

These Accidental Entrepreneur Sessions are the result of two years’ detailed work on how to help people move from the mindset of an employee to that of an entrepreneur. They are all about the individual and then the idea – if they have one. Not the other way around.

What we are doing over the four sessions is teaching everyone how to think and act like an entrepreneur. We believe that the only way to do that is to get everyone doing something. Learning by doing is not only fun, it is highly effective – look at the way children learn!

No business starts with a plan – it starts with a conversation – and over  four weeks in May people will get a chance to not only explore their ideas but also to test them and themselves in the company of other like minded people. The bit I really enjoy doing is seeing if I can get people to understand cash flow, overheads and margins in less than forty minutes!

The whole point of Cognitive Business Therapy, which is the process that underpins our Accidental Entrepreneur Sessions, is that you – just like the mafia – separate the business from the personal. Too often we find people pursuing a route which is wrong for them. I mean if you hate selling, why start a business which is all about selling? You can do things differently these days. You do not have to do it all yourself and you certainly do not need to do it on your own!

We do not run programmes, but sessions for entrepreneurs. You get a chance to relax, think, reflect and then act. You also get a laugh because without humour you will not find the energy to make your dream happen.

So roll on 2011, Year of The Accidental Entrepreneur, and in particular my first set of sessions!