Unrepresented

Here’s a challenge. How do you get your message across to a group that is outside of your sphere of influence? This is the problem I am facing with the new Cyber Security Innovation Centres.

The people it is aiming to attract are probably students or working already in a business. They are unlikely to be in any trade bodies, such as the chamber or the Federation of Small Businesses, nor are they likely to be following any of CyberNorth’s social media. There is no group representing them, they are an unrepresented group.

At this stage I must add that people are signing up but we could always do with more. It is also an important lesson for future iterations and, I imagine, for most wider business support programmes.

Where do I start? What we are trying to do is fairly niche and we are only looking for small numbers both of which contribute to the problem.

Where do people who are thinking of starting a business hang out? Perhaps they’ll go to places that offer them support, such as ISN or BIPC? Perhaps they’ll go to their bank as they are likely to end up there anyway? Perhaps they’ll go to the library or to their local council to see what is on offer? Perhaps they will get in touch with a colleague who is in business, or has set up on their own to find out how they did it? 

Everytime the net gets cast wider, the message gets diluted to the point it is homoeopathic. In short there is no one single place to go and so I am going to have to try the most obvious routes to me: business support organisations; local authorities; banks and; business consultants.

The next question is, as these are often very large organisations, who do I get in contact with? 

They say that everyday is a school day, yet some lessons are harder than others.