One of the reasons for the creation of the Business Link network was the realisation by Government that most businesses could benefit from objective business advice - but that not all small firms could get this help.

A key element of the Business Link service is to enable small firms to make use of impartial independent business. In Bradford we have offered small firms up to two days of such help through the Business Development Service at no cost to the client.

This year we are targeting much of this advice at helping local companies to beef up their marketing, to helping them compete more widely and increase their market share.

We are now in a position to widen the scope of this provision thanks to our relationship with the NatWest Bank. We have worked with them for some time to provide advice to people wanting to set up in business. Now Andrew Smith, who has delivered that programme, is working with us one day a week to offer help to existing companies.

In delivering the Business Development Service, our advisers are not there to dictate what the client must do, but help them work through the problem.

Their role is to provide an objective view where the managers may be too close to the problem to see the solution. In the past we have found that the process of explaining the issue to an adviser has enabled the client to see how it can be solved.

In the long-term the companies who succeed are those who make use of every opportunity to take the help that is offered to drive their business forward.

So now, whether the problem is one of sales and marketing, business planning or financial planning and cash flow, the help is there for those companies who want to make use of it.

Paul Twiddy is information manager at Government-funded Business Link Bradford & District.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.