UK rich in budding entrepreneurs
Nov 19 2009
“Some 17 per cent of adults say they would launch a start-up”
A significant proportion of people in the UK say they want to start their own business.
Of 2,121 adults surveyed, some 17 per cent want to launch a start-up, according to social enterprise organisation Enterprise UK. The body predicts that if one in ten of the respondents realised their ambition, it could create 1.1 million extra jobs.
Carl Schramm, president of entrepreneurial charity the Kauffman Foundation, says: ‘Job creation is the number one issue facing families and policymakers during this economic recession, and this study shows that new businesses and entrepreneurs are the key factor in adding new jobs.’
For those wanting to start a business, 49 per cent said the recession has had no impact on their decision to start-up. The number of people expressing a desire to launch an enterprise was only 12 per cent last year.
In a recent speech, the former head of the Confederation of British Industry, Lord Digby Jones, claimed that small businesses alone would rescue the struggling UK economy.