Does anyone remember the episode of Dragons Den when Doug Richard rubbished Rachel Lowe's Taxi Board game as being the crappiest investment opportunity he had seen? That would be the crappy idea that took Monopoly for the Christmas top slot at Hamley’s that year...a first…and the same idea that was the root of a multimillion pound business. From taxi driver to successful businesswoman. Truth is no one has a monopoly on good ideas and equally no one has a monopoly on spotting them or the bad ones. The same applies for corporations, which more often then they would like to admit get it completely wrong! My experience of the business support bodies in Yorkshire is that they do get people with ideas to do a reality check. It’s up to the people with the ideas ultimately to make their own choices and follow their dreams and who are we to stand in their way. Good luck to them. The real problem is not that poor ideas are being promoted but that there are not enough of any ideas good or bad or the people in Yorkshire to promote them. How do we solve that problem?

Nicholas White

The best ideas and people will fly without much outside help. The worst will fail irrespective of how much input they receive. So the biggest impact can be made by targeting those ideas and people that have the potential to take off, but it’s not a done deal that they will fly, which is where organisations like Connect Yorkshire (www.connectyorkshire.org) come in. By the time an idea is obviously great it’s generally too late to profit from it – someone else with more foresight is already doing so! As Deidre Bounds emphasized at the Venturefest Dinner a lot of great ideas sound wacky at first pass and most people just won’t get it. Do you back it or not? Tough call – but that is what risk and equity reward is all about. Just as death is part of life, failure is part of success. Quack. Quack.

Glen Hopkinson

I understand the remit of the public sector to 'help' people start businesses but in addition to a 'comercially good idea' a good business should have the capacity and capability to find resources and invest in their own business, if they want someone else to invest in it. It is a challenge for all businesses to 'go out and find new business'. The public (and private) sector do offer relevant training, courses and seminars in these areas but ultimately it is up to the business/person to achieve. Perhaps what would be useful to a new (inexperienced) business is a reality check on the length of time it may take for a business to gain a solid footing in their market place as this will have a bearing on finances and sustainability. It should be encumbant upon public business advisory services to provide this information sector specifically based on data, knowledge and experience gained from dealing with like businesses.

Jenny Eugene

A timely reminder of how the Private Sector views Services being provided from the Public side of the House. There is always an opportunity to look at the goods and services any organisation provides. Once again, Ajaz has started a very worthwhile debate

Jon Harris

I fully agree. If the idea is good and the person or team has the will to succeed, the business will thrive. If not, it will most probably fail. There is no point in squandering money on lame ducks. The discipline of finding the resources to build the business in the real world serves to make the venture more robust in the longer term. As one of my colleagues has often said to me " You should never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig"

Christopher Maslen

Very wise words from Ahmed; good that someone is prepared to stick their neck out. When I started out I found that the support I really wanted wasn't available ie, going out and finding new business. I had to do it all on my own, adapting as I went along. Also being over 40 there were no grants available, and when I looked at getting a cheap office the only ones I found were with Leeds Council and were expensive and impracticle. I've since found out what and where offices are and again I did it myself.

Richard Hamer