Company Formation to Stimulate Employment

At the start of 2009, the SME sector was positioned as the main casualty of the recession, by the media – with the ‘entrepreneurial spirit of Britain’ coming a close second. However, as we have previously reported, over 60% of all SME’s have maintained pre-recession profitability and the number of people harbouring ambitions to start their own company, is at an all time high.

On the back of ‘Entrepreneur Week’, research was been done into how an increase in the number of entrepreneurs, could help redress spiralling unemployment figures. According to Enterprise UK, a organisation which aims to promote entrepreneurialism and innovation across the country, has found that if just 40% of all the people who have expressed interest in starting their own company actually do so, over 500,000 new jobs will be created.

Matthew Beeming, enterprise director of the CIB comments: “While many people felt that the recession would discourage people from starting their own companies; actually, the opposite has happened. Indeed, as a consequence of widespread redundancy and a general distrust of big business, many people have been prompted to company formation. Yet while the government have made small moves to help small business – with controversial appointment of Lord Alan Sugar as ‘Head of Enterprise’ – many business owners feel that, considering the potential the SME sector has to stimulate employment , they are still very much overlooked in the government’s broader economic policy.”