'Double your money or get your fees back'

A London business link agency is offering a unique money-back guarantee to local companies which have the potential to develop a ‘sustainable competitive edge’. These are companies which can grow on at least two out of three measures – turnover, profits or employees – and can do so in two years out of three.

Alan Calder, chief executive of Business Link London City Partners, promised that help and advice offered to companies which are accepted on to his Mission 2000 programme will see their profits double within 18 months, or have their consultancy fees refunded in full.

While not eligible for the usual business link subsidies, ‘they will be more than compensated through the increase in profitability,’ he said.

Six companies are currently enrolled in the scheme.

Calder claimed that 200 of the 20,000 companies in his link area – the City, Hackney and Islington – already have a sustainable competitive edge.

But he said that Mission 2000 aimed to raise the number to 500 by the year 2000.

Calder pointed out that some 2,000 companies have already been identified in his region and are being targeted by Business Link London City Partners.

Valerie Thompson, chief executive of Business Link London Central, has vigorously rejected criticism of the quality of advice offered to companies by personal business advisers (PBAs) under the Business Link scheme. PBAs, who receive Government-subsidised consultancy fees, must go through a rigorous selection procedure, she said, claiming that only 1 in 150 PBA applicants is accepted.