Andrew Haigh, managing partner of our Entrepreneurs client group, talks about StartUp Britain, a campaign to support entrepreneurs, which Coutts is proud to be part of.
Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the UK economy. This group is currently in the limelight as the government is championing entrepreneurs as one of the key drivers for reviving our economy. Today, more people seem to be talking about how we as a nation shift our culture towards enterprise and the number of initiatives seems to be growing.
StartUp Britain was launched by eight entrepreneurs and supported by David Cameron in March this year in response to calls from the government for the private sector to maintain an ‘enterprise-led’ recovery. The campaign demonstrates the continued support for entrepreneurs as it aims to provide the best support and advice for startup companies.
The face of the StartUp Britain campaign is a unique website that points the way to a wide range of the best existing resources available for business owners. Coutts, along with a number of participating organisations including Microsoft, Virgin Media and Google UK, has pledged its support for StartUp Britain.
We work with over 20,000 entrepreneurs around the country and our own research reveals the main drivers and challenges for entrepreneurs and what they perceive to be the measures that will most help them in order to stimulate enterprise.
Entrepreneurs in London are calling for the creation of entrepreneurial apprentices and the development of more enterprise courses in schools, as they believe these will be the biggest measures that will help grow their sector. StartUp Britain will be focusing on providing support for every school in England to run its own business through the Enterprise Champions Programme. In addition, it will be looking to create enterprise societies in every university and most further education colleges to develop students with the ambition and skills for enterprise.
A third (30%) of entrepreneurs in London are calling for the business tax burden to be reduced, as well as improved access to growth capital (22%) and a reduction in regulation (21%), as the top drivers to enable Britain to become more of an enterprise economy.
When first setting up their businesses, the area where they most needed support was overwhelmingly accounting and finance (54%). Marketing (30%), and meeting regulatory requirements (20%), were also the main areas where help was needed. Nearly two in five (38%) would not know who to approach if they had a business idea.
When it comes to finance and marketing, the internet has had a marked impact on reducing the cost of starting up a business and allowing them to scale up more quickly. We are seeing a fundamental shift of the economics of doing business and business owners should be aware of the new economic models. TV programmes, too, often suggest large amounts of cash are needed for startups when the reverse is true.
The power of technology can deliver more efficient ways of doing business while cutting costs. For example, an organisation that spent £500,000 on marketing ten years ago could achieve the same objectives for a fraction of that cost today by moving its campaign activities online. Similarly, companies working in the retail sector have slashed distribution costs by moving at least some of their activities to the internet. The low cost model may be most apparent in the case of Amazon-style purely internet players, but it also benefits the traditional high street and mail order brands. Not only are the start-up costs lower, making it easier to raise or pull together the required finance, but the whole process of addressing a national or potentially global audience is also cheaper, easier and faster.
Looking ahead, business owners throughout the UK are starting to feel more optimistic about the economic outlook, and, in London, over two in five (41%) plan to expand their business this year. In comparison, entrepreneurs in the South West are most likely (48%) to expand their business in 2011, compared to none of the businesses in the North East who were interviewed.
