Seek advice and help for your business
Overview
This standard is for entrepreneurs who need to seek advice and help for their business. There are many instances when you may need to get some advice or support or help for your business. There are lots of different professionals, agencies and organisations that can help you with your business. They may provide general advice and information about setting up or running a business or advice and help that is specific to the products or services you provide. You will want to make sure that the advice you receive is up-to-date, relevant to your business and meets your requirements. Seeking advice and help for your business involves knowing what help you need, identifying how and where to get the help you need, getting the help you need, and checking that it meets your requirements.
You might do this if you:
are just starting a business or a social enterprise
are reviewing a business or a social enterprise
have reviewed your skills and found information and advice that you need
want to develop or change your business.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
- identify your business needs, issues or problems you need to resolve
- define your needs and targets before seeking advice or support
- identify the help or support you need to take your business forward
- identify and collate sources of information, advice and help to support your business
- identify the range of professionals and organisations and select those that are likely to meet your business needs
- work out the cost and benefits of getting different forms of help and advice
- decide when and how to contact professionals and organisations who provide help and support
- check that the help offered is suitable to your business needs, is well-founded and can be relied upon
- seek help from professionals and organisations
- collate all information related to the support and advice received and discuss any points that require clarification
- decide if there is any further support that you need and could get
- keep records of the advice and support received and assess how well it matched your business needs
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
Information and advice
- the requirements, issues or problems you need to resolve for your business
- what your business needs are and the type of help you require, such as business planning or development, funding, location and premises, staff, ICT or marketing
- the sources of advice and help are relevant to your business, such as friends, family, specialist advisers, business support organisations and government agencies
- the methods of communication to get help that you need
- the range of questions you may need to ask to get the advice you require
- the help and support professionals and organisations can offer to your business
- how to make best use of contacts and avoid overloading them
- how important it is to get the right kind of advice and help
- how to check that the advice and help you require will work for your business needs
- the costs and benefits of support and advice
- the sources of funding available for your business needs
- what support services can and cannot do when providing help
- why it is beneficial to keep a record of the information received to meet your business needs