Anyone here been advised by Business Link

chickmug

I am interested to hear of experiences - good or bad? If the information was useful of perhaps if it was wrong?

Pee

A previous firm had some contact with them. It was generally positive although they did have databases of addresses to sell which were expensive and not as focused as we wanted. That is a while ago now, though.

Pennywise

Business link advisers are a mixed bag, so tread warily. Some of my clients have had brilliant experiences and have been very happy, others have been given the runaround with lots of wasted time and poor advice. One client was even conned out of thousands and risked losing his business because he engaged a consultant who was supposedly "vetted" by Business Link, but turned out to be a personal friend of the BL adviser!

This is a question that crops up a lot on fora such as these and the ukbusinessforums - the answer is always the same - some good, some bad. The real issue seems to be a complete lack of quality control and supervision of their advisers. Time to trust your instincts and not get too deeply involved if you aren't really getting the service you think you should be.

chickmug

Pennywise wrote: »

Business link advisers are a mixed bag, so tread warily. Some of my clients have had brilliant experiences and have been very happy, others have been given the runaround with lots of wasted time and poor advice. One client was even conned out of thousands and risked losing his business because he engaged a consultant who was supposedly "vetted" by Business Link, but turned out to be a personal friend of the BL adviser!

This is a question that crops up a lot on fora such as these and the ukbusinessforums - the answer is always the same - some good, some bad. The real issue seems to be a complete lack of quality control and supervision of their advisers. Time to trust your instincts and not get too deeply involved if you aren't really getting the service you think you should be.

Interesting to hear this as my experience was not good. BL advised people, who were looking to buy a business, to go through issues in stages and it took too long. I know many who therefore lost the business they wanted.

paulwf

I did the BL introductory course this morning actually and the trainer was very good - all the trainers are self employed so have experience in running their own business.

All the courses are free and you even get free coffee and biscuits so I can't see any reason for not going to them. We were given the chance to do the 3 more involved modules next weekend so it doesn't have to take long. If they held someone back I guess that person should have started the courses earlier. Getting the balance right is probably hard, more businesses fail than succeed so in a way the most important thing a trainer can do is to stop people rushing into things and making a mistake, in some cases I suppose they might get it wrong.

A theme from the course I did today is most people had been wanting to start out on their own for the past 10 years so had enough knowledge not to be relying just on the word of the BL trainer. I think investors will take you more seriously if you have done BL training...I hope so anyway!

slipp_digby

i had a one to one session with an advisor and I have to say he was excellent. i went to discuss issues about expanding the business and a couple of models I had for either employing people, or bringing in another partner.

we discussed the pros and cons and his advice led to me drawing up a shareholders agreement and bringing in a new business partner to share the load. he saved me a lot of time and i got the result I wanted.

but as discussed above depends who you speak to, dont be frightened to ask theri credentials - ideally you want someone who has hands on experience.

Horace

I have been on courses run by Business Link with my local chamber of commerce and they have been brilliant, however, there was one person who contacted me direct from Business Link whom I discovered later was a temporary employee who was using Business Link clients to further his own business ends. This guy promised the earth and just didnt deliver:mad: He occasionally rings me now giving me the runaround but I know that he is all pie in the sky and has several failed businesses behind him (companies house is amazing for all sorts of details).:rolleyes:

On the whole I think they are OK.

chickmug

Horace wrote: »

On the whole I think they are OK.

I feel it depends on the advisor you get. When they advertise vacancies for advisors they don't pay much so I am not sure of how good that empoyee is likely to be?

Nelski

Totally agree with the comments so far and feel I have to "big" up the North West BL who have been very supportive to me lately and seemingly have gone out of their way to help me through some difficult times. Of course it depends on the individuals involved but I think its important that if you have had bad experience (like Horace :eek::eek:) that you tell your local branch - if they are given feedback they can improve like all of us;)

EagerLearner

My experience as self employed was generally ok and my advisor was fine.

My experience as a manager is that they constantly call and will not take no for an answer! I feel as if they're a sales team, passing on our number round the office, almost 2 calls a month... my only option now is to say I am not available.

princessamy86

I'll second that BL North West are great, OH has had loads of really useful advice from them about setting up a business.