Thankfully, equality and diversity are celebrated in both the corporate world and in education. There is a recognition that everyone is different so there have to be different approaches to training and teaching.

Exactly the same is true in the world of enterprise support. There are so many types of business owners – solopreneurs, sole traders, consultants and side hustlers who differ in age, gender, ethnicity - all of whom will have their own needs and outcomes.

Furthermore, as we understand more about neuro diversity, it is clear that anyone in the fields of coaching, mentoring and training need to understand the challenges and opportunities posed by dyslexia, autism or ADHD.

Traditionally there has been a one-size-fits-all methodology based around looking at business plans, forecasting and basic marketing. However, with the increasing use of technology, running a business has become much more complex and uncertain.

That is why we need to think about a much more person-centred approach to business support. One where we analyse the needs of the individual then tailor any advice, training or workshops specifically to the issues they face either in their lives or their business.

just as health practitioners or personal trainers use a series of tests and questionnaires to determine the current health of their patients or clients’ fitness levels, we at DNAsix believe you should also run a bank of tests around several key areas affecting business owners.

1. Starting off with life skills, it is important to determine the motivation of clients, their hunger to learn new skills as well as their ability to deal with stress. Similarly, finding out about a person’s physical and mental health will help advisers to understand the personal challenges faced by the people they serve.
2. We then move to finance. Not only is it important to understand what level of income the client needs to survive personally, but we also need to find out how their business is performing.
3. Sales and marketing are obviously key components in running an enterprise. Therefore, it is vital we test the basic knowledge or skillset of the business owner in these key areas.
4. In today’s uncertain world, we all need to aware of data, how to use it and how to protect it from criminals. Finding out where clients are weak in terms of their knowledge may well save their business from a loss of competitiveness or loss of income.
5. Equally, we all realise the impacts of climate change and need to do our bit to hit the Government’s Net Zero targets. Understanding how sustainable a business can be not only helps achieve this ambition but can actually become an income generator.
6. Finally there is the human aspect. Many small business owners will go on to recruit, then employ people but we need to determine their knowledge of basic HR to ensure they do so with the correct knowledge.

How holistic is your support? Are you taking a person-centred approach or are you sticking with traditional ways of helping SMEs to survive the thrive?

If you’d like to find out about the DNAsix platform which includes many of these features, then get in touch with me on david@dnasix.com and I’ll be delighted to show you a demo.