Last Monday, along with other Greater Manchester Chamber members – I was interviewed for the Eddie Mair News show on Radio 4 (between 5 and 6pm) – you might be able to still get it on the iPlayer if so fast forward to about 24 and 31 minutes I think.
Anyway – the long and short of it was that Radio 4 wanted to know what business owners in Manchester thought the Government should be doing to help business.
From a 20 minute interview – here’s the bit that actually aired!

Question – what part do the Government have to play in helping business
“My name is Carole Fossey. I run a small HR and Recruitment Business in south Manchester specialising in IT, Sales and Marketing. I think they (the Government) have a massive, massive role to play. They’ve obviously made a lot of cuts in the public sector and if they really, genuinely want the private sector to pick up that slack and create those jobs, they need to support small business…95% of the businesses in this country are small businesses and they (the Gov) have to do something to restore the faith of small business to take people on.

The Interviewer mentioned the governments initiative to suspend employers NI for start up businesses. I had commented that it sounded like a great idea but the reality is that very few start up businesses actually take staff on immediately – and that if they really wanted to encourage and assist employers to hire more then they should extend that to established small businesses.

Vince Cable was asked “One of the business women interviewed, Carole Fossey, said it’s just a headline grabbing initiative because very few businesses in their first year are in a position to take on staff and therefore it will have little effect.

Unfortunately she spoiled the point by adding “small business are feeling abandonned” – which is the point Vince Cable went on to answer, commenting that their top priority now is business.

You learn early in sales that if you ask more than one question at once, the other people will answer the last one asked – shame the interviewer hadn’t been taught that principal.

So, I nearly got my question answered!

Generally – are the government pro-business? I think that answer is yes, but I would love to have had Vince tell me what he thought of my NI suggestion. Maybe next time!