Your comments please ...

I've just attended a seminar at the Institute for Independent Business and am impressed with what I heard. Does anyone have any experience of the IIB? Are you an Associate? Does working with the IIB work for you? Is it worth their fees? I'm looking for an objective viewpoint to assist my decision as to whether I pursue this route. Any input will be appreciated. Many thanks

I'd be interested in knowing what type of responses you get, I too have attended IIB seminar, is it too good to be true? How successful are folks through IIB?

there's a web site called 'business -advisers' or something similar. It's in the blurb the IIB give you. It contains names of IIB associates. Call them and ask them directly. See if they will give you other names to speak with. It helped me enourmously to understand what I would and would not get and form a view as to the desirability for me - I suspect it's a personal decision - but be clear over what you need and what you will get.

I attended the seminar recently and was most impressed with the 1st half - but the 2nd went rapidly down hill in my opinion - the emphasis moved from providing a quality consulting service and earning in excess of £100k to the harsh reality of parting with £8k and trying to sell your consulting services to businesses that do not necessarily want or need your services! The initial impression is that leads are provided but in reality they are straight from a 'double glazing' style sales team, therefore the notion that one would be meeting MD's of companies readily in need of consulting servies is perhaps more of an illusion than a reality.(That said they did not try to hide the fact when quizzed). I think the whole thing took a rather sinister turn with the IIB looking more like a MLM or timeshare style company than a professional consultancy practice - which was a shame because I was very impressed to start with. I'm sure there is money to be made but I wouldn't underestimate the focus on selling servies rather than providing them. If anyone has any further comments or experience of the IIB, I would be most interested.

Mark