Britain needs scale-up businesses as well as start ups

The Institute of Directors has welcomed the news that business births were up to 1.2% in 2014 but the focus must now be on turning those small businesses into scale-ups.

Jimmy McLoughlin, Deputy Head of Policy at the Institute of Directors, said:

“These figures are yet more evidence that Britain’s entrepreneurial scene is thriving, with more and more people choosing to set up businesses, create new products and services, and work for themselves. In the downturn, some feared people were being forced into self-employment through a lack of job prospects. But as the economy has returned to health and unemployment has reached a post-crisis low, the entrepreneurial revolution shows no signs of losing steam. With the number of business births outnumbering deaths in every single region of the UK, this is an exciting time for British business.

“We must now focus on turning start-ups into scale-ups. Still more than half of all new businesses fail to make it to their fourth birthday and the Global Entrepreneurship Index recently pointed to an ‘aspirational deficit’ among British start-ups. Skills and finance will play a vital role in unlocking potential growth. Entrepreneurs need to be able to hire the very best from around the world and they need the right kinds of equity finance to encourage risk-taking. That’s why promoting initiatives such as the Enterprise and Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes, and making investing in start-ups as easy and simple as possible is so important.”

There are a number of options available to businesses that want to scale up but these aren’t well publicised so business owners never get the chance to apply. Business owners in the UK can take a look at Gov.uk to see what’s available to them.

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