Benefits 'blunt entrepreneurial edge' says guru

Few locations in the world can rival the UK for the infrastructure that gives ‘wannabe’ entrepreneurs a vital boost up the business ladder, according to a globally respected business consultant. 

Ernesto Sirolli, who tours the world giving advice to would-be businessmen and women, reckons that the UK’s benefit system is so generous that it could even act as a brake on ambition. 

Speaking on a visit to Birmingham he said: “A safety net is one thing, but in this country people have to really think twice before setting up on their own, because they risk losing their benefits if they do. 

“It amazes me that notwithstanding all of this, people are still coming forward and saying ‘I want to start a business.’ “ 

Italian-born Mr Sirolli was a successful entrepreneur in his own right before establishing his not-for-profit consultancy, based in California, 14 years ago.  

Since then he says he has helped to establish 50,000 businesses in more than 300 communities around the globe. 

He spent a week in Birmingham at the invitation of Enta CIC, a social enterprise that tackles worklessness and provides training and support for the city’s most vulnerable communities. 

Mill Wharf-based Enta, a training specialist active in Birmingham for more than three decades, is keen to tackle joblessness on a number of fronts – including a programme to encourage entrepreneurial start-ups.

 So, as well as offering advice to around a dozen fledgling firms in some of Birmingham’s more disadvantaged areas, Mr Sirolli also devoted time to passing on his hard-earned know-how to Jason Fry, who – under Enta’s banner – has become the city’s first Enterprise Facilitator. 

Mr Sirolli said: “I have been doing a lot of work with Jason, passing on to him what I have learned in 25 years assisting budding entrepreneurs who either want to start, or expand, their businesses.” 

Mr Fry is taking part in a 12 month training programme which “will ensure he becomes a capable and adept enterprise facilitator,” Mr Sirolli said. 

He believes entrepreneurs are made, not born, and that people from backgrounds where there was no entrepreneurial role model need to be taught the skills required to succeed. 

“Even if they have the passion to start a business, they don’t know what to do, or how to do it,” he added. 

Mr Sirolli said he was impressed by the budding entrepreneurs he met in Birmingham – most in their 30s and 40s – and their determination to start businesses despite the poor economic climate. 

“The ideas they had ranged from training to manufacturing and services, and none of them were unrealistic,” Mr Sirolli added. 

Kevin Hayes, Chief Executive of Enta, said: “The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Birmingham – the city of a thousand trades – and it’s flourishing as strongly in deprived areas as anywhere else. 

“If Ernesto Sirolli shows us anything, it’s that dreams can become reality with the right kind of advice, guidance and training.  

“Enta has a significant part to play in this process, helping people to obtain the skills and knowledge they need along the road to becoming entrepreneurs, and showing them where a range of resources can be found.” 

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