I am currently trying to set up a new business specialising in recruitment for the over 50's. I have had a couple of meetings with the small business advisor at my local council and she feels the business would make a great social enterprise.
Coincidentally in the council building I went to today is a company that amongst other things helps businesses set up as social enterprises. My business advisor had already mentioned my idea to them and they said they would be interested in meeting me. Today having read my business plan she passed me on to them.
A lady pops in to get me, takes me into reception and starts asking me whether I had had a benefits check done and would I like to go on a CV writing course, I explain that I am not seeking work but hoping to find people work. She slams shut her folder, says 'right follow me' and takes me to their office to meet the two male Directors.
I explain my idea and they basically ripped me to shreds, before I had my children I owned a recruitment agency in a large city which I started from scratch. It was award winning and I was incredibly proud, their attitude was 'we think you think you can come here and start something on the same scale, that's not possible', I explained that I knew that it was going to be difficult starting from scratch in a town rather than city and I had covered this in my business plan.
They told me I should not be targeting blue chip companies but focusing on car dealerships because most car salesmen are over 50 and initially I should only have one client. I tried to explain a recruitment agency could not function with only one client, their response to this was 'well we run four companies'. I told them that everything they were criticising had been covered in my business plan if they could just find the time to read it. So I feel a bit shit, a little disheartened and back to square one.