Steve Nelson

South East London Chamber of Commerce Column

The full Nelson

HAS there ever been a time when business needed support more than it does today? I think not.

In my opinion, the very best ongoing help comes from local support agencies which in my organisation, the South East London Chamber of Commerce’s area, means Business Focus in Bromley, the TIC in Bexley, and South East Enterprise in Greenwich and Lewisham.

Help is available to guide businesses through their early years.

Figures show that a young company taking advantage of the mainly free assistance on offer doubles its chances of survival into its third year of trading.

Growing companies can get assistance in accessing new markets, making their businesses fit to supply the public sector and larger private companies, introductions to business opportunity websites and real help with progressing through pre-qualification questionnaires and the final tendering process on large contracts.

We are in a time when many residents have lost their jobs and are sitting on redundancy packages wondering about their future.

In many instances they will decide that the time is right to start up their own business and become employers in their own right.

It is imperative there is hands-on assistance to guide them through what can often be a very testing time and again the business support agencies are there to help.

It is therefore tragic that at the moment funding to finance the local support agencies is being cut.

For example, assistance to start-ups, where the demand is greater than ever before, is being cut by up to 75 per cent.

Training for individuals on and off the job is also essential, especially in growth sectors (yes, there are still some), but having the best trained unemployed workforce in the world is of no real benefit to anyone.

Assistance to maintain jobs and create new ones is the real way to get people back into employment and help the nation return to more affluent times.