Forum - Are you a moaner who lives in Disney Land?
Are you a moaner who lives in Disney Land?
Wed, 04/11/2009 - 11:30 — Mark Williams
According to reports, at a question-and-answer session in Manchester for SMEs, Gordon Brown's business tsar Lord Alan Sugar dismissed some struggling small-business owners as ' moaners' who lived in 'Disney World'.
The multi-millionaire and star of BBC's The Apprentice claimed only 15 per cent of businesses turned down for bank loans had anything to complain about. The rest needed an 'insolvency practitioner' rather than more money.
Read the full story here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1224895/Theyre-living-Disney-Wor...
What do you reckon? Arrogant mutterings from someone who is no longer in tune with the challenges small businesses face or does 'S'Ralan' have a point?
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Lord Sugar is the only one living in Disney Land. He probably doesn't remember what it was like to have a perfectly viable business idea but no money to invest in it, and so can't envisage the skeptical bankers' faces peering at today's start-ups through the gloom of a recession. Shame on him - he's supposed to be championing them, not smashing their hopes to smithereens.
Err, this is not going to make me popular, but there is a strong element of truth in what his lordship is saying. We've all got used to easy money on easy terms, which is no longer on offer, because it was never sustainable. For most of us, it's back to the days of BYOC (bring your own cash), which is how I've always run my company. But why on earth talk down to SMEs in such bullying language? It just adds to the oppression that so many owner-managers already feel. Would be great for SMEs to feel appreciated for a change.
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