24.4 Areas of special concern

Counselling the start-up entrepreneur

We examined earlier (section 3.7) the relationship between counselling and consulting. The counsellor works mainly with and for individual clients, rather than for an organization. The counselling relationship is, and should be, a personal and intense one, and is likely to involve areas far beyond the particular management issues that led to the assignment.

The decision to start a new business can be one of the most important steps that any woman or man ever takes, and involves far more than straightforward business and management issues. It is extremely important that the client alone makes the final decision. Counselling should empower people to take fundamental decisions of this sort for themselves rather than simply advising them what to do.

Many people launching their own business for the first time do so because they have been jolted out of their normal career path by a shock, such as redundancy, or by a personal “determining event”, such as bereavement, divorce or a forced move to an unfamiliar country. Such an experience can marginalize the person, and may encourage him or her to look beyond the ordinary and expected courses of action to new and unfamiliar fields, such as starting a new business. People in this position are often unsure, lack selfconfidence and need support but, because they are marginalized, they may not have access to friends and family who would normally help on such occasions. The professional counsellor can thus fill an important gap.

Counselling usually goes beyond business issues. An entrepreneur starting a new business has to involve the whole family, since lifestyles and financial security are almost certainly going to change and some members of the family may also have to work in the business. Some marriages break up, while others are strengthened and enriched by the experience of starting a business. A counsellor has to ensure that would-be entrepreneurs think through all the implications.

The counsellor should neither encourage nor discourage clients, but should help them to look at the situation from every angle and to make their own decisions. Some people may be overconfident and blind to possible difficulties, while others may lack the confidence to think clearly about the options facing them. The counsellor must judge whether the client needs a “wet blanket” of realism, or a “firecracker” of enthusiasm. The client should not be pushed in any