Disney Entrepreneur Center

Wednesday was a trip to Downtown Orlando to meet Joshua and Jerry at the Disney Entrepreneur Center. The center has been open for only 6 years and houses all of the 'not for profit' business agencies to assist pre-start, start up, fledgling and established businesses. Jerry explained that it took a long time to etablish and knows that all the hard work was worth it. Jerry is responsible for attracting the mix of public and private funding that ensure the service exists. Disney being one of the private funders, prides itself in being able to help the business community of Orlando. The idea of having a true 'one stop shop' for business support in my opinion is invaluable as in England there are all sorts of agencies with different support packages available to help businesses and it's an absolute lottery as to whether the business finds them. Sometimes they are that hard to find that business owners give up trying as they are too busy running their businesses to spend the amount of time it takes to search.

I spend time updating myself with what support is available for businesses in the geographical areas in which our business 'Making It' operates and I find it difficult to keep up and it is the arena in which we work, so how the business owners feel, I don't know!

Here at the center, as a client makes an enquiry they are seen by the incredibly personable Joshua. Joshua will then establish their needs and refer them to the most applicable agency. Some businesses may be eligible for support with more than one agency. In this case after each intervention the business owner will meet again with Joshua who is the client interface and brokers the relationship. As everyone is in the same building there are shared facilities such as training and conference rooms, also shared is the receptionist Pam who clearly makes a difference on a daily basis and of course this benefits from shared costs.

There is also a charge made for some of the seminars on offer for business owners. Again in England there are so many publicly funded seminars that are 'free'. Of course they are not free, they are paid for by the taxpayer and unfortunately the fact that they are free devalues the service. Frequently the agencies that we supply trainers for have to book up to 35 people onto a seminar in order to achieve an attendance of 18-20.

For businesses that are high growth at the Disney Entrepreneur Center they are offered a volunteer board to assist them through the growth period at no cost. The volunteers are usually business owners that have successfully been through the programme themselves and are now more experienced and achieving a high turnover and good profitability. The nuturing of business in this way has proven to be invaluable for them.

A huge thank you to Jerry, Joshua and Pam for your time and hospitality, definitely a highlight of my trip!