These are tough times, if you’re in business. But, as someone who started up his own firm at the bottom of the last recession, I also know that if you can make it now, you can make it anytime. That’s why we need to encourage more people to become entrepreneurs.
I don’t underestimate the problems. As the Global Enterprise Monitor’s annual report shows, total entrepreneurial activity in the UK has fallen, down from 7.7% in 2001 to 5.5% today. We are falling behind both our international counterparts in the G7 and newer economies including China, India and Brazil.
Part of the problem is that Labour doesn’t understand business. So they find it difficult to accept that government doesn’t create wealth. Business creates wealth and that means Ministers should refrain from tinkering and meddling or from picking winners. Government’s role is to provide a stable, long term framework and to then free enterprise, from needless red tape, over complex tax laws and enable businesses to invest in and grow their firms.
Conservatives are finalising our agenda for business. But let me set out three areas in which we want to be a change for good.
First, to help more people work for themselves, I will be leading a three month research and consultation programme to see how we can provide a practical, focused approach to expanding mentoring and supportive finance for start- ups. Not another bureaucratic programme run directly from Whitehall, but an enabling framework which will build on best practice and ensure we have entrepreneurs, helping other entrepreneurs.
Second, a Conservative Government would simplify the tax system and, as a result, cut the headline rate of small company corporation tax from 22p to 20p. Those retained profits will then be available for entrepreneurs to invest, at a crucial time.
Third, we will abolish tax on new jobs created by new businesses in the first two years of a Conservative Government. Any new business started will pay no employer national insurance contributions during its first year, on the first ten employees it hires. This will make it both cheaper and easier for new businesses to grow and it will help us tackle the growing numbers of unemployed.
Now more than ever, we need more entrepreneurs. Conservatives will be working to afford them the best chance possible, so that the UK can have entrepreneurs everywhere.
( 23 comments ) Tags: entrepreneurs, jobs, tax
Comment by Dr. Rami Ranger MBE on November 18, 2009 at 11:53 am
Yet another Tory success.
Please follow the link.
http://www.foodbev.com/news/celebrating-combined-turnover-of-80-million
Comment by Themis on November 18, 2009 at 12:05 pm
If the Conservatives want to get serious about promoting entrepreneurs and business in general, they need to reverse the recent return to 1970s style labour policies.
in particular, the new hign rate tax of 50% and the non-dom tax (fist notion introduced by yourselves) are among the two major recent taxes that have seen and will continue to see a major drain of talent overseas: it will not be a sudden exodus but a steady, ongoig stream – I have personally seen twelve friends and colleagues who have left on this basisi alone.
Comment by peter stephens on November 18, 2009 at 12:07 pm
We started our business at the bottom of the recession before yours and we have been in the Sunday Tiimes Top 250 for many years now.
And we strongly agree that if you can run a business in a recession you can run it any time.
However, it was easier in those days – you could get rid of people if they were no good, your company didn’t have whole departments virtually grinding to a standstill because a key person got pregnant and took the next year off.
And you weren’t swamped by bureaucracy, red tape and unnecessary rules and regulations.
You’ve got so much to do to recreate the right conditions for small companies to flourish again I feel tired at the thought.
Good luck!
Comment by Dids Macdonald CEO of ACID on November 18, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Hear hear!
We are a nation of entrepreneurs not shopkeepers now! There are over 2million micro enterprises out there and they need encouragement to make it now more than ever.
Many are isolated and bogged down with red tape and run the risk of failure and falling behind our international counterparts.
Less consultations are needed and more foot soldiers of action. More simplification to free enterprise to enable the UK’s micro businesses to grow and develop.
Simplified access to funding
Accessible hands-on mentoring
Creative tax incentives for SME’s
Linking and matching graduate expertise with start-ups
A clear Government policy on the acknowledgement and importance of brands to the UK economy and national identity
Respect for and protection of intellectual property rights underpinned by a stronger enforcement policy
ACID (Anti Copying in Design) is an action group representing over 1000 companies within the creative industries, all of whom wish to protect and commercialise their intellectual property.
Comment by Senake Atureliya on November 18, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Mark…we have enabling framework that you mention developed and are currently in discussions to spin it into a number of interested banks, outreach providers and business link. It enables start ups to get the (ideally spare) resource they need on an initial premium rate, paid out of revenue share basis – a win-win solution for entrepreneurs, job seeker, the tax payer, university students and incubators, investors, lenders and anyone with spare resource…
Comment by Terry Forsey on November 18, 2009 at 2:32 pm
The UK faces one of its biggest tests for years – to be able to generate the wealth necessary to provide the government with the income needed to repay the massive recessionary debt.
Small Medium Business (SMB) provides almost 60% of the UK’s private sector employment and one-third of its total employment. They will be the source of the majority of the UK’s new jobs. In short they are the backbone of UK entrepreneurial talent and wealth creation.
SMBs need to play their part in contributing to the government’s coffers and enable the treasury to manage its way through this debt reduction programme.
The Entrepreneur’s Manifesto (see http://www.entrepreneurs-manifesto.com ) has been drawn from working with SMB organisations for over 30 years, most recently as the UK’s leading Technology Sales and Marketing Consultant working exclusively with smaller technology companies.
This is, therefore, my view of what a future Government should be doing to harness the tremendous potential of SMBs.
I am committed to driving the debate to achieve better & more relevant support for SBMs to unleash the wealth creation potential of entrepreneurs and transform the UK to an incubator of emerging entrepreneurial talent.
Comment by Raymond Pidgley on November 18, 2009 at 2:54 pm
We need to get rid of this government (Peter Mandelson) and get back to prosperity, get rid of the immigrants and loafers, who rely on our money.
Comment by John Harrison on November 18, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Mark, excellent but I disagree on one point – this “enabling framework” sounds a lot like the pointless Business Links. Don’t waste money on these schemes, just reduce the red tape and tax on entrepreneurs. Give us certainty on tax rates by removing discretion from HMRC where they tax by what they think businesses should pay rather than what the law says. Get rid of the minimum wage – it prices the young and inexperienced out of the jobs market and sentences them to long term unemployment. Do all this and you will make a good start at unleashing Britain’s entrepreneurial talent.
Pingback by A sure-fire solution to unemployment – Workplace Excellence – Dan Bobinski talks about Skills for Workplace Excellence on November 18, 2009 at 5:53 pm
[...] can’t take credit for the idea. I’m borrowing it from a similar idea I read in The Blue Blog, which I discovered following a link tweeted by Brendan Stormo, an entrepreneur out of the San [...]
Comment by B Smith on November 18, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Mark, if you need to consult you should not be in the job. Most of your answers are already in this blog. You will probably find the remaining answers from The Princes Trust – and as far as many entrepreneurs are concerned and based on experience Fred Goodwin should be in the team. For the record, having had excellent experience in multi national corporations and starting my own business at the age of forty, in the 30 years I was in business I never met anyone from a Government Agency able to contribute. From board level down it was a complete waste of time – and High Street Banks as throughout history have never lent money to businesses who needed it – in fact most of those I met were unable to understand a set of Business Management documents.
Set up a Government sponsored Merchant Bank for SME’s with the objective of a later management buy out and encourage Government at all levels to allow the private sector to look after themselves. And in passing – from an environmental viewpoint the FSA is one of the leading UK generators of waste paper!
Comment by c coats on November 18, 2009 at 10:01 pm
John Harrison, above. I commend you. As if I had dictated it myself!!
‘Mark, excellent but I disagree on one point – this “enabling framework” sounds a lot like the pointless Business Links. Don’t waste money on these schemes, just reduce the red tape and tax on entrepreneurs. Give us certainty on tax rates by removing discretion from HMRC where they tax by what they think businesses should pay rather than what the law says. Get rid of the minimum wage – it prices the young and inexperienced out of the jobs market and sentences them to long term unemployment. Do all this and you will make a good start at unleashing Britain’s entrepreneurial talent.’
Pingback by Britain needs more entrepreneurs « It is Recruitment, honestly on November 18, 2009 at 10:28 pm
[...] PDRTJS_settings_808052_post_19 = { “id” : “808052″, “unique_id” : “wp-post-19″, “title” : “Britain+needs+more+entrepreneurs”, “item_id” : “_post_19″, “permalink” : “http%3A%2F%2Fdarrenjennings1.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F11%2F18%2Fbritain-needs-more-entrepreneurs%2F” } Britain needs more entrepreneurs. [...]
Comment by dickie on November 19, 2009 at 8:30 am
if you are in the construction industry you cant choose to be self employed. “you cant choose !”, mmmmm !. If you have registered with HMRC to be self employed, (you get a registration number) when you work for a Contractor the Contractor has to supply HMRC with a raft of information about the self employed person. ( which presumably they already have in order to have registered that person for self employment) in order to get “another” registraion number.Each month the Contractor submits a return to HMRC with the subcontractors list of registered numbers and the amount of tax deducted and also supply the self employed subcontractor with a certificate of the registration numbers and tax deducted.This seems a lot of work and waste of time to supply HMRC with information they already have.
You know someone actually earns a big salary thinking up this time waste. Small and big Contractotrs are bogged down with all this when they are struggling to survive.
Comment by John Poynton on November 19, 2009 at 9:42 am
Don’t be afraid to abolish the minimum wage. Better a low-paid job than no paid job. Emphasise that the minimum wage is a major cause of unemployment.
You could also go further with tax incentives by:-
1). Abolishing tax on undistributed profits entirely in the first year, and reducing it by 50% in the second for unconnected new businesses.
2). Making good losses, in the form of a negative tax assessment, up to say 20% of turnover in the first year, and 10% in the second for such businesses. Or you could link these percentages to local levels of unemployment so as to provide a further strand to regional policy.
Comment by Paul Ettinger on November 19, 2009 at 11:57 am
The most important lesson governments need to learn is that their power to generate wealth through government ‘initiatives’ is very limited. All they can do is to put structures in place which will encourage and not discourage people from starting and growing businesses. Start with the tax system and simplify it, reduce/simplify employment legislation and make it harder for people to go to tribunal. Easy hiring and firing is critical to all growing businesses. Move on to absurd health and safety red tape and then finally reduce substantially the overall size of the civil service so that peoples energy can be focused on real jobs.
Comment by Al B on November 19, 2009 at 5:04 pm
I think a large part of the problem is that the current government have made no attempt to align itself with local businesses, instead feigning interest with hollow initiatives. It is within private insititutions, such as local Chambers of Commerce, that real inroads are made. I recently went to Business South West, a networking exhibition which offered direct advice from successful entrepeneurs, as well as the chance to strike business relationships with representatives of a variety of companies. It is with these independent forums that the government should stand, because at the minute a distant government offers no reassurance to a rookie entrepeneur.
Comment by G Ric Richards on November 19, 2009 at 6:05 pm
A decent start, but 1 year is a very short term helping hand. Additionally, why not for ‘new employers’ rather than just ‘new businesses’? People who have been successful in self employment can be constrained from growing by the step change cost of employing someone. Any encouragement would be welcome.
Comment by Jim Bedford on November 19, 2009 at 7:05 pm
I think that it would useful to have a breakdown of SME’s into something like micro, small and medium. To often they are lumped together but I believe they need different help and the separation might be better for targeting support. I’ve seen micro defined as up to 10, small up to 50 and medium up to 200.
Comment by Steve Parnell on November 20, 2009 at 9:34 am
Enterprise/optimism has been all but destroyed inthe UK, you’ll have to do a lot more to recreate anything approaching an enterpriseing culture.There’s a generation of entreprenueurs who’ve given up(work hard and you won’t prosper here!) and the youngsters have little work ethic, (modern lifestyles and a gererous state etc). The tax and regulatory burdens are a major disincentive and I can’t see how(and you havn’t told us how) you will be able to correct this significantly enough in time to save what’s left of enterprise Britain.
Comment by Ben Cowell on November 20, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Hi Mark
I agree with many of your points and those made above. I’ve been in business for 39 years and its not getting any easier to start up. But what we really need is easy access to funding. I’m about to launch a beer, and after my last experience, before I waste my precious time and money on a business plan for the bank, to apply for the Enterprise Finance Guarantee facility, I want proof that they really are lending! My previous experience was that with the best plan submitted to one of our nationally owned banks they ‘suggested’ I had not borrowed enough. Turns out that most of their loans had gone pear shaped, and it was just an excuse not to lend. My advice relating to this is to focus on the applications and see if they really are turned down for the correct reasons, and good luck!
Cheers Ben Cowell
Comment by Dean A K on November 22, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Entrepreneurs feel stifled by the lack of initial incentives, the lack of assistance by the banks and the huge amount of red tape involved in creating a successful business. For serial entrepreneurs, like myself, we have been de-incentivised by the two-faced approach to the private sector by this government. We are targets for ‘bleeding dry’ with the removal of taper relief, the introduction of the 50-60% income tax band, the mooted wealth tax, CGT rise etc,etc. It is sheer folly to think that high taxation will bring around a better economic position, the present government pushed out interest rate control to the BoE, aggregated credit to the Treasury, then told everyone to spend like a ‘drunk man’, no more bust just boom?? Transient taxes from housing booms, commodity booms, internet booms, M&A, low unemployment etc….loaded their ‘every ready’ credit line to pay for non-jobs in Public sector, an area that has decreased in productivity by 3.7% since 1997 against the private sector that increased by over 22%, it was government hubris at its best and an acquisition of voters as well as a huge public deception. Now those that help create wealth are to be punished, in what is a complete turnaround by the instigators, the labour government. If you really want to make a dent on this recession and climb back to normality, the money cycle needs to start again, entrepreneurs need to be embraced and listened to, they are the country’s saviors; they create jobs, pay taxes and therefore invest in the future. Bureaucratic policy requires some defining changes, the removal of positive discrimination is a must, as by definition it is discriminative, employers should not be guilty until proven innocent, it cost thousands for them to defend ‘fake, unfounded’ claims, in most cases they pay because it is cheaper than a defense, remove minimum wage, drop pointless business quangos with their army of non-acheivers. Our Public sector is a huge antiquated machine that absorbs billions of pounds in order to give relatively weak outcomes, therefore more needs to be done to help private business, especially new businesses, work directly with the public sector. A huge win for both, the private sector can bring about innovation and efficiency while working with a client that would relax the banks and their creditors. Serious thought and engagement is required in order to switch on the next generation of entrepreneurs, otherwise I believe them and those that are already up and running will be lost to more receptive lands.
Comment by Mark Barber on November 28, 2009 at 10:32 am
Why is this not reflected in your selection procedures for election candidates then? Should the Conservatives be successful, having benches of charity workers and positively discriminated candidates is not agood basis for the reconstruction our country needs. You need doers not talkers
Comment by Nick Critchlow on June 24, 2010 at 7:52 am
I live in West Kent -Tunbridge Wells Area. We started an internet business in 1997 and BT took away our telephone pole!! Difficult? EDF power was going up and down like a fiddlers elbow. I told the late Sandy Bruce-Lockhart in 2000 that West Kent is dead beautiful but Commercially dead. He promised to do someting about it but did nothing. The 3 of us moved the business to East anglia, got onto fibre optic cables and Eastern Group electricity. We sold the business in 2004 with 120 employees for many millions and it now employs 400 people. What enterprise -not in ‘conservative’ Kent. Nick C