Open Mind Consultancy

"I am delighted to offer my congratulations and best wishes to you on the launch of this important and innovative website. It is the first time I can recall a group of like-minded projects coming together under the umbrella of a common web forum, to share ideas and experiences, good as well as bad, and to use that learning to develop your projects for the benefit of those who need it most - your mental health clients.

I believe strongly in the use of the internet and e-business as a crucial tool for businesses of all types, accessing information and resources, enabling them to compete in global markets. Even though you are still in the early stages of your projects, I can see many exciting possibilities for you to make this Portal your first and preferred starting point for exchanging and updating each other as you progress.

It will be up to you to make it work; to use, to inform, to challenge, to debate, to bring it to life as an active community of common interest. I know you are all working hard in your projects to make each one a success in its own right, but I am also confident that you recognise the value of working together and sharing those successes, as well as the knock-downs and the frustrations. In time, the Portal could well become the place others come to see how things are done. I hope you share that vision.

Government Support

The Government have an ambition to make the United Kingdom the best place in the world to start and grow a business. Successful businesses are set up and run by enterprising individuals, but the Government shapes the environment within which they can do business. The Government therefore have a responsibility to provide the most appropriate support required by small businesses.

We can do this in many ways, big and small. Through your 13 projects, we are already touching the surface of a vast pond of talent and resource, and the ripples will spread for years to come. I am confident that you will make a real difference, to people's aspirations, their careers, and their lives. I believe this Portal, focussed on you, for you, and by you, will provide one more means to help you to achieve that.

The Economic Benefits

Already the number of small businesses, including self-employed people, is growing fast - up 170,000 in the past four years. We can predict that by 2010 there will be almost 1 million more SMEs - a growth from 3.7 million today to more than 4.5 million. Between them, those businesses will have created 2 million new jobs.

Between you, you are aiming to contribute to that success and growth, in possibly one of the hardest areas of all, confronting not only the business and economic difficulties that all start-ups have to overcome, but surmounting the prejudices and self-doubt your clients themselves face. The encouraging thing is, you're not alone. There are dozens of you, helping thousands of others; helping each other through this Portal can only be a good thing and I hope you will make the most of this opportunity.

Social Inclusion

Our commitment to social inclusion means reaching the parts that other schemes fail to reach. SBS invests in deprived areas and among groups who are under-represented in business. You have become part of a select and successful cadre of social inclusion projects and support services whose key mission is to make a difference; to help those people for whom being different has largely been a bad experience. By joining together - through this Portal, as well as at events, indeed anywhere you can unite and send out a clear positive message of hope - I want to see you flourish and develop and prosper. I hope and believe the Portal can help you do that."