It’s been a big week of media coverage for us, as we launched our inaugural Entrepreneurs Survey. As Eamonn Ives, our Research Director, wrote for City AM:
“Last week, the government announced that serial entrepreneur Alex Depledge would be joining the Treasury as Britain’s first-ever entrepreneurship adviser. New polling from The Entrepreneurs Network suggests that this appointment couldn’t come soon enough. Fully 84 per cent of founders we surveyed do not believe the government understands their needs as entrepreneurs, compared to just four per cent who do. If it’s any consolation to Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer, founders aren’t exactly wowed by any of Britain’s other political parties – 43 per cent replied ‘none of the above’ when given a choice of which party they trust most to know what they and the startups they lead require.”
So what’s driving the current malaise? In a word: tax.
As I said to Henry Bonsu on Times Radio yesterday in response to the British Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Conference (go to 18:30 to listen), Shevaun Haviland is right to call for “no further tax increases on business in the autumn budget.”
Our survey shows that 84% of entrepreneurs have a negative view of taxation (only 8% positive), and the 1,000 founders who signed our letter against equalising Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax shows this has become a – if not ‘the’ – major gripe for founders.
The other big issue is the Employment Rights Bill, which, combined with the immediate pain of increasing National Insurance Contributions, is driving many to outsource and offshore. We find that in the next 12 months, 12% of founders are looking to sell their business, and when asked why it’s not for reasons you would hope. For the brave, click through to slide 13 of our deck.
But I don’t want to fall into a position of pessimism. While only 19% are optimistic about the next 12 months for the UK economy, 69% of founders surveyed are optimistic about their business. The truth is that the UK is still an incredible place to be an entrepreneur. It’s just that when the pips start squeaking, don’t be surprised if Britain see less entrepreneurship.
A massive thanks to readers who completed the survey. If you want to make sure you don’t miss out next time, sign up here.
Where It's At
On Wednesday, we host our third event of the Young Entrepreneurs Forum. If you are or know a young person who would benefit from this event, please send them here. We will be joined by Sean Kohli, Chair of the Young Entrepreneurs Forum, alongside other invited guests from Silicon Valley.
We aren’t just looking for those who have started a business. We are looking for people who like to build, which could be a technology, charity, fund, campaign or anything entrepreneurial.
If you want a testimonial, take a look at Malindi Mwangi’s LinkedIn post. Off the back of hearing from Chris Hullat, she found out about the Octopus Energy Entrepreneur Awards, and following the nomination of her local MP, Callum Anderson, managed to win.
Match Pointing
Rt Hon Chloe Smith has an interesting piece on how the UK might overcome economic inactivity. She posits that AI-driven job-matching could help, as in Estonia where an AI-powered tool has seen 10-15% more people remain employed than those advised by a human without AI assistance. If you’re working in this space, drop Anastasia an email as she has been talking with Chloe on this topic and it has really piqued our interest.
Breakfast Club
One reason for starting The Entrepreneurs Network is simply because I love spending time around entrepreneurs. It’s telling that our survey found most founders are optimistic about their business, even if they aren’t quite as bullish on the British economy.
That’s why we’re working on a plan to start hosting regular small, private breakfasts with the 10,000 or so entrepreneurs in our network (not all at the same time). For this, we’ll need partners, so drop me an email if you would like to chat about this.
We think these breakfasts would allow us to take an even more regular pulse of what’s holding back founders – feeding into the work we do while strengthening the network of entrepreneurs.