In my life as an IT consultant, I spent a fair bit of time walking between clients, Guernsey isn't a big place y'know!  At the moment, there are a few big offices that are sitting empty at the moment, either because they're new and haven't been occupied yet, or because the old tenants have moved to new premises.

Each time I see one of these empty spaces I keep thinking

How cool would it be to turn that space into Guernsey's very own kick-starter factory?

Now, I don't know if there are any such places already out there in the bigger world but I think that in the current economic climate these could provide a real boost to the little guys who are the ones that could make a real difference.

My idea works something like this:  the kickstart factory would provide startup advice, access to potential investors and a creative environment for budding new entrepreneurs that have a good business idea but don't know where to start.  Basically, it would provide all the things that I feel I'm lacking for my own ideas.

I'll admit right now that I haven't got this idea fully worked out, for example how it would be funded, how I'd get the investors or advisors on board, how the kick-starter projects would pay for the services or at what point a project would need to move out of the factory - either because they're successful or they failing.

Here are a few services that I think could be provided by a kick-starter factory:

• Initial Initial advice: an hour session with an advisor for people that have an idea but don't know where to begin.
• Financial advice: for people that have an idea, maybe a business plan but need funding.  This advice could be recommendations for bank loans, access to venture capitalists or other sources of funding.
• Business management advice: initial business plans, project management, marketing, planning for business growth, kick-start factory exit planning.
• Hire-purchase of equipment: whether it be computers, soldering equipment, sewing machines, the kick-starter factory could provide the equipment and lease it back to the startup.  If the startup fails it's retained by the factory and can be used to help the next startup.
• Office/work space: for people that don't have their own useable space, the kick-start factory can provide space, electricity, internet connection, etc.

Of course, the benefits of the kick-starter factory don't just stop at what we're able to do for individuals startups.  Having an environment such as this could act as an incubator for potential new startups.  Having many creative people under one roof will provide excellent networking opportunities.  From on failed startup a new successful one could emerge thanks to ideas sharing, chats around the coffee machine, etc.

There's also no reason why it wouldn't be possible to partner with local schools.  Providing an opportunity for people thinking of leaving school to see that there is a third way.  Two often in Guernsey students leave school and either go straight into a finance job or go to university.  Some of the most successful people on the planet decided to take the third way and decided to have a go at making their own business, as a result we have Microsoft, Apple and Facebook!

The only problem now is that I have no idea where to go from here!