For budding entrepreneurs, a good idea is only the start. To be successful, they must also be able to execute the idea.

“You can have the best idea in the world, but if an entrepreneur is not able to execute on it, then it’s like having a Formula One car but the driver has got no licence to drive,” Gayle Mann, executive director of British-based consultancy Entrepreneurial Spark, said.

Ms Mann’s organisation has entered a three-year consultancy agreement with Ignite Bermuda to offer free, six-month accelerator programmes for local entrepreneurs.

Ignite will accept applications from entrepreneurs at any stage of their journey, from idea stage to profitable enterprise.

Applications are being accepted at www.ignitebermuda.com for the first programme beginning in May.

The application deadline is April 24.

The term “accelerator” is used, Ms Mann said, because entrepreneurs in the initiative want their project to progress quicker than it otherwise would.

They also accept that the process may be uncomfortable at times, she said.

Entrepreneurial Spark’s proprietary “entrepreneurial enablement” approach combines bespoke start-up and growth coaching with a development programme that concentrates on taking action as an entrepreneur.

“We build great people who build great businesses,” Ms Mann said. “That’s what makes us different from other accelerator models.

“Their focus is on the business and the business plan and the market opportunity — but they don’t do the work on the entrepreneur.

“At Ignite, we will help entrepreneurs to find out what’s good about their business idea, what’s not so good, and to get a quick validation about whether they have a viable business model.

“If you are going to fail, we say it’s best to fail smart, fail fast, and fail cheap.

“What an entrepreneur thinks the world wants, and what the world actually wants, are two different things.

“You need customer discovery and customer validation because without them, you don’t have anything.

“Coupled with the enablement and the coaching for the entrepreneurs themselves, it’s what makes our programme a success.”

One of the key programme elements, she said, is behaviour modification.

“We call it the ‘mindset performance loop’,” Ms Mann said.

“Mindset and attitude drives behaviour, which drives actions, which drive results and performance, which drive mindset and attitudes. It’s a cyclical process.

“Without knowing it, as humans, we have certain beliefs and attitudes that drive our behaviours and actions. A lot of work we do with enablement involves identifying which of those attitudes and beliefs are unproductive.”

The result, she said, would be entrepreneurs better able to attract investment.

“We are here to create credible, backable, investable entrepreneurship with ideas that have been thoroughly validated.

“Investors want to invest in an idea that has been through stress-testing and a robust process to see if it has a business model.

“Investors want to know if the model will deliver a return, but they also want an entrepreneur who is able to deliver it as well because you have got to have both.”

Ignite Bermuda is the 20th accelerator developed by Entrepreneurial Spark.

From 2012 to 2018, the organisation said, Entrepreneurial Spark accelerators enabled more than 3,800 businesses to turn over £651 million, raise £255 million in investment, and create more than 8,000 jobs, all underpinned by an 87 per cent survival rate for the businesses.

“In the UK, we became known for deal-flow, for angel syndicates,” Ms Mann said.

“We had investor round tables, we had people visit our intakes, we had a pitching day.

“Investors knew they didn’t have to go through a gatekeeping process because we had created it for them.”