Working with Government
I am spending about one week a month working in Canada. Whilst there, I work with many start ups and I have started angel investing in Canada. There are no notable differences between the issues and the challenges that start ups face no matter where they are located. Sadly, I have though noticed I am giving very different advice in the UK to start ups wanting to obtain support or contracts from government.
In the UK my advice for a start up is to stay well away from Government (any agency of government). In Canada, I would advocate the company to get involved with a government agency as soon as possible. Why the difference?
For cultural reasons, Canadian government staff tend to be of a much higher calibre than the people I have come across with government agencies in London.
The sheer hard work required to win government work in the UK even for relatively small value contracts means that I really think it is a flawed strategy for a start up to try and seek government contracts.
In the UK, I recently looked at pitching for some work which I felt I would be well placed to do but once I looked at the requirements involved in pitching, I decided it simply was not worth the effort to go for it. The risk/reward ratio was skewed against me.
For a start, I would have to partner with another organisation that had at least a £3m turnover. The paperwork required would mean that at least two members of the team would be fully occupied for at least two weeks. And as a business that has not won this type of work before, I felt that the effort was not worth it. Compare this to my Canadian experience.
I came up with an idea to help Canadian companies and after writing a four page proposal for a local government agency, it was accepted and I have started working on this project.
The people I have worked with in Canada seem more commercially aware – they ‘get it’. So, I do find it ironic that in the current climate when the British Government is trying so hard to try and support small businesses and start ups, that they do not start closer to home! They should temporarily lower the high barriers that prevent companies from getting government work. And they should actively discriminate against the same old companies that seem to win most of the big pieces of government work.
