Entrepreneurial networks matter. Despite popular portrayals to the contrary, entrepreneurship is far less about cut-throat competition than it is about cooperation, shared knowledge and mutual support. This reality was reinforced by recent research we conducted with American Express for their Peer Power study.
Featured in The Times and City A.M. among others, you would be forgiven for taking the headline finding for granted: 94% of SME leaders in Britain believe that supporting their peers is critical to driving business success. Yet it’s easy to forget that most people aren’t business owners and don’t have close family members who run companies. For the majority, entrepreneurship remains something observed at a distance.
As a result, many people form their views about business through television and the mainstream media, which are more likely to present business through the lens of scandal than as a process of value creation. When entrepreneurship does appear on screen, it is often distorted and combative. A decade ago, 75% of entrepreneurs reported having a negative view of The Apprentice and Dragons’ Den — and there’s little reason to think that has materially changed. (That said, with fewer than half of 16–24-year-olds watching broadcast TV in an average week, the influence of these shows is already waning.)
But as everyone reading this will know, running a business is mostly about cooperation — whether that’s with employees, customers, suppliers or other founders. It makes business sense too. The Peer Power survey also found that 86% of those with strong networks said their businesses were profitable last year, compared with 66% of those with weaker networks.
The consequences of this framing are visible in public attitudes. According to the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer, trust in British businesses stands at just 51%. More striking still, 70% of Britons hold a moderate or high grievance against business, government and the rich. Businesses are not widely seen as a good in themselves: as many as 88% say they have an obligation to provide good-paying local jobs, while 86% say they should train and reskill workers.
These tensions are reflected in founders’ own perceptions of the media. As our Out of Focus report showed, entrepreneurs overwhelmingly believe Britain’s media fails to represent entrepreneurship accurately or fairly. Coverage is seen as narrow and misaligned with founders’ priorities, with nearly three-quarters saying the issues that matter most to them are underreported. Too much attention is given to unicorns, funding rounds and sensational stories, and too little to the realities of building and sustaining a business.
And yet, despite all this, Edelman’s data also suggest that business remains the only UK institution seen as both competent and ethical overall. By contrast, government is viewed as incompetent and unethical, the media as unethical and not very competent, and NGOs as ethical but not very competent.
None of this means we should import wholesale a stereotypical American attitude to business. But it does suggest something important: entrepreneurs have played a critical role throughout history, and continue to do so today, largely through cooperation rather than conflict. Recognising that — in how we talk about business, report on it and understand it — would be a good place to start.
Call on You
Despite the plethora of consultations affecting businesses — which subscribers to our APPG for Entrepreneurship newsletter are alerted to each month — it’s rare for us to recommend that our network of thousands respond to one. After all, consultations take time, and they are not always the best use of it.
But HM Treasury’s Tax Support for Entrepreneurs: Call for Evidence is the exception that proves the rule. It was launched alongside the Budget and will remain open until 28 February.
We know from experience that tax is one of the most important issues for entrepreneurs in our network. This call for evidence seeks your views on the effectiveness of existing tax incentives, the wider tax system for founders and scaling firms, and how the UK can better support these companies to start, scale and stay in the UK.
You might, for example, have a view on how tax cliff edges affect real-world scaling decisions. Treasury officials may understand these in theory, but only entrepreneurs can explain how they shape their behaviour: delaying hiring, selling early, relocating headquarters, or avoiding certain investors altogether.
Or you might be able to shed light on what genuinely determines whether founders reinvest after a successful exit. Again, only entrepreneurs can explain the factors — both financial and non-financial — that drive reinvestment decisions.
Or perhaps you can explain whether Business Asset Disposal Relief — or Entrepreneurs’ Relief before it — meaningfully influences your behaviour. BADR is frequently debated, but rarely grounded in direct entrepreneurial testimony. The Treasury wants to know whether it actually affects decisions to start, grow, sell or reinvest.
You do not need to answer every question. What officials are looking for is first-hand experience (e.g. this happened to my company when we hit X threshold), behavioural insight (e.g. this policy changed how we hired, raised capital or exited), specific examples (e.g. we lost a senior hire because our equity offer was no longer competitive once we outgrew the relevant scheme), and clear causality (e.g. we did Y because of Z tax rule).
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