Evaluate the quality of your own practice in business and enterprise support
Overview
This standard is for entrepreneurs who evaluate the quality of their own practice in business and enterprise support. It is recommended for professionals providing support to individuals considering starting their own business and running existing businesses, either on a voluntary or commercial basis. You need this for reflecting on, and evaluating, your own practice to ensure that you are providing support which adds value to the personal and business development of the client. It requires you to monitor your own practices on an ongoing basis, seek feedback from others and identify responses to any identified areas for development you could make.
Business support refers to assistance which is received from individuals or organisations outside of the business, related to a specific business problem or opportunity or development of the business. Enterprise support refers to assistance which is received by individuals considering starting their own business. A 'business' can mean an independent entity such as a private sector business, a social enterprise, a charitable or voluntary organisation, or a significant operating unit, with a relative degree of autonomy, within a larger organisation. It can also refer to a formal partnership where two or more businesses are working together towards common goals.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
- review the delivery of the support services against the agreed programme of action with the clients
- inform the clients how you will provide business and enterprise support services
- identify the improvements that need to be made
- present the methods of resolving problems
- agree the working plans with the clients
- assess the impact and value added of your work with the client at a personal and business level
- analyse causes of any changes against agreed objectives or milestones and the implications of these changes
- develop your practices to take account of any changes in your relationship with the client
- follow the journey from opportunity to action
- monitor your practices to ensure that it is professional and ethical
- ensure your working practice meets the standards by appropriate professional bodies, regulations and organisational guidelines, where required
- gain feedback on your performance from your clients and stakeholders
- identify the improvements in your working practices with current and future clients
- comply with legal requirements, industry regulations, organisational policies and professional codes
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
Monitor your own performance
1. why it is important to evaluate your own performance in providing business and enterprise support services
2. how to apply informal and formal ways of monitoring the progress and quality of your own practices against standards set by you, your organisation or a professional body
3. the methods for establishing and applying formative and summative measures for evaluating your own performance
4. the benefits and limitations of self-evaluation
5. where and how to obtain feedback on your performance
6. how your clients and their personal and business needs can affect your performance
Equality and diversity
7. the diversity of clients with their individual skills, abilities and needs
8. the legal requirements, industry regulations, organisational policies and professional codes
Organisational influences
9. the performance goals set by your organisation or professional body
10. the guidelines for evaluating services set by your organisation or professional body
11. the conditions and measures of economy, efficiency, effectiveness, value for money and quality
12. the effects of financial and time limits on services
13. the local, regional and nation-wide priorities and issues in business and enterprise