Despite the Covid-19 pandemic wreaking havoc among entrepreneurs, many have not been discouraged and will start even more businesses this year.
A new report from NatWest found that these people will need all the help they can get to make things work. Partnering with various business schools and universities across the country, the bank polled some 9,400 adults, and discovered that one in every seven adults now plan on starting their own business, up 50 percent compared to last year.
To put things into more perspective, last year the number of existing entrepreneurs in the country dropped by almost 25 percent.
Younger people, those aged 18-29, are the most likely to start their own business, while the older population (those between 55 and 64 years of age) are the least likely to do so, the report further found. Among the minority communities, the number of existing entrepreneurs almost doubled (14 percent), compared to the overall population (7.5 percent).
To give future UK entrepreneurs a stronger chance of growth and success, the government should improve entrepreneurial education ad school age, organize entrepreneurship programs, improve policies on business support and better share research and development.
Analyzing the conditions for entrepreneurial activity among 43 economies, the UK ranked 14th, the same as Germany, and two places behind the US.
The top three economies worldwide based on entrepreneurs’ views are Indonesia, the Netherlands, and Taiwan.
“The findings from this year’s GEM report present a mixed picture of the UK’s SME landscape, showing that whilst the pandemic has clearly had a detrimental impact on overall numbers of entrepreneurs, increasing numbers of young people are now planning to start their own business. We are hopeful that this significant uptick in future intent, combined with an economy that has shown robust signs of recovery, suggest the worst of the downturn has now passed,” said Andrew Harrison, Head of Business Banking at NatWest Group.
“There is a lot of work still to be done to address the gaps in the wider environment to ensure future entrepreneurs are given the best opportunity to thrive, and this report highlights where the public and private sectors can come together to make a real difference.”