Who ya gonna call?

If you were in strife running your business, what would you do?

You might ring your accountant, your mentor or your business coach. You might email Aunty B, hop on a forum, join a social networking group or call the tax office. You might organise an offsite day with your key staff or bring in a consultant. There are a load of things you would do. But would you call the Federal Government help line?

The Government has announced today their small business support line is open, offering free advice and support over the phone.

It sounds like a good idea, but could the money have been better spent? I suspect that if you ask the average small business owner what to do with $10 million of taxes, they would say – give it back. They would want payroll tax reduced or tax concessions for taking on trainees, improving their owns skills or a reduction in the costs of doing business. That sort of thing.

But I am not sure if they were in trouble they would dial a Government advisor, particularly when we don’t know them from Adam. Apparently, the advisor will have business experience, but in what? And is the experience relevant?

They have also been trained by mental health charity Beyond Blue to help callers who might be suffering depression or personal issues. But surely their role in these situations is to refer the people on for proper counselling with experienced practitioners. You wouldn’t want to be advising someone to keep going with a lousy business when you don’t know their psychiatric history, do you?

Ironically, one of the functions of the phone service is to help small business operators navigate the myriad of Government departments and specialised services needed to establish or improve a business. Couldn’t the money be better spent making the myriad of services easier to navigate once and for all?

The support line will also double as a complaints clearing house for those experiencing problems with access to and cost of bank finance. But guess where those calls go? To the Australian Bankers Association, for timely response. I would love to hear from anyone who has any success getting access to finance going down this route.

It also seems to me like a bit of doubling up. The State Governments already have support services for small business so I am not sure what this really adds to the mix.

What do you think? If you were in trouble would you dial a Government advisor? What else could they have spent $10 million on? Post a comment below and let us know.