Riddle of the week, Fairground attraction

Dear All, we have recently started to play a little game with some interested individuals who have expressed an interest in joining Vision. Quite simply we have posed a riddle and asked imaginative, innovative and individual responses. This has proved extremely popular and has now spread to current employees and consultants as well.

Therefore we have decided to publish a riddle of the week competition to see who can be the most inventive. If Emma in Aberdeen reads this be careful, she's very good; and will hopefully be joining us soon to help develop our Scottish connection.

Anyhow the most inventive answer will be posted next Friday (2nd Nov 07) good luck and here's the riddle:-

• A boy was at a fairground and went to a stall where a man said to the boy, "If I write your exact weight on this piece of paper then you have to give me £50, but if I cannot, I will pay you £50." The boy looked around and saw no scale so he agrees, thinking no matter what the man writes he'll just say he weighs more or less. In the end the boy ended up paying the man £50. How did the man win the bet?

There you go nice and easy, but remember its not necessarily the correct answer we want; but an imaginative solution, just like our Training, consultancy and research etc.

email your answers to brendan@visionconsulttraining.co.uk

Good luck, Brendan.

Vision Employability Programmes

Vision have been funded to offer various free to access employability programmes to those seeking employment as well as free support to employers in terms of their employees and the training they may need. This programme is called 'NextStep'.

Attached is a simplified organisational chart which explains the 4 points of entry. These entry points can be accessed at any point however points 1-3 are for people seeking employment whilst point 4 is for those employed for less than 13 weeks and therefore employers should consider if this is appropriate for any of their staff.

All points of entry can be tailored to the individuals needs or individualy tailored to an organisations needs.

Please remember that the WHOLE OF THIS PROGRAMME IS FREE TO ACCESS

However this is only available to the City of Nottingham and its inhabitants with limited places available.

For information relating to your area; please contact Vision directly on 0115 9418242.
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Government Invitation

On Monday 22 of October; Sharon and I were invited to attend a meeting with The Secretary of State, The Rt Hon John Hutton MP, The Minister of Competitiveness, Stephen Timms and various representatives from EMDA amongst others to discuss the shaping of renewed Government Policies to encourage entrepreneurship and support SME's.

This was one of a series of such discussions being held across the UK where a small selection of representatives, including Vision, were asked their views on the following

• Achieving Business Growth
• An environment that supports growth
• The role of enterprise as a tool for closing gaps between regions and social groups
• Encouraging entrepreneurship
• International and European challenges and opportunities

It was a most interesting discussion, and as always time slipped away to quickly. However in our opinion 3 key issues were presented for Government consideration

1. Entrepreneurs and SME owners / managers spend in excess of 50% of their total Training / Development budget on non accredited courses (difficult to acquire LSC funding, which is the point); which they have identified as being essential for their Business growth. The majority found specifically tailored training relevant for their individual business needs; difficult to procure as the vast majority of Training providers offer generic training, the old one course suits all. Well unfortunately this approach does not suit the needs of SME's who are aware that specifically tailored training is the most cost effective way of development, growth and increased profitability.(hello, this is what we specialise in). They also stated that the need to have this training and or Mentoring is one of the top 2 priorities facing the entrepreneur / SME especially in terms of recruitment and retention of staff.
2. The need for entrepreneurs SME owners to have access to a small business loan system which is easy to access and is provided by an Organisation (Government ?) which understands the entrepreneur SME. The feeling that today's avenues of finance are somewhat lacking in imagination, innovation and a certain amount of risk were discussed at length. We feel a medium must be found if the Governments objective of creating an enterprise culture is to have any chance of success.
3. Sharon proposed that so many Organisations exist to help business development that it difficult to keep abreast of who can help with what. Sharon described these as small lights of help, where as most entrepreneurs SME's would prefer a light house to contact with a light house keeper who could understand the situation and direct you accordingly in the proper direction

Expansion and Development

On Thursday 11th of October; Vision launched its new Head Offices. It was a wonderful occasion for staff, clients and friends.

We will shortly be posting photos and video footage on this blog site, however if you would wish to receive your own copies; please contact the head office on 0115 9418242.

Government Ambassador

National recognition for Sharon Roberts for her role as a business mentor and entrepreneur in the East Midlands.

At a lunch held on 21 September to launch the Government sponsored UK Female Ambassadors programme, Sharons experience was recognised when she became only one of 100 Ambassadors to represent the whole of the East Midlands and only one of 1000 in the UK.

What qualified Sharon to become an Ambassador ?

Her experience in setting up her own business 10 years ago and growing Vision with the help of her husband Brendan Blewett to the thriving training and development company it now is.

That experience in delivering inspirational individual training solutions plus her passion for mentoring in business, particularly to encourage other women to go into business for themselves.

Her own experience of having the support of business mentors has shown her the value at all levels and all stages of business growth. She believes that the individual business mentoring she has received has strengthened Vision and given it focus and direction for the future.