Angels Den Blog

Is your office laying off workers? Are jobs being outsourced to other countries for the sake of the bottom line? Are branches of your company shutting down? Is your store going out of business? It’s a tough old time for British businesses and their employees at the moment, whatever sector they’re in. Closed shops and massive reduction signs are quickly becoming the norm in the retail landscape, and there is little indication that this will change in the near future. Not surprisingly, the unemployment figures are up and, according to the latest statistics, over two million people are out of work

Depressing thoughts, I know, but while this showcases the UK’s inclusion in the worldwide economic downturn, there is a silver lining to this dark global cloud—that is, renewed entrepreneurial spirit. The numbers of individuals and small groups of entrepreneurs with outstanding business ideas are rapidly growing, and so is a new infrastructure for helping them. It is interesting to note that this new trend towards turning business ideas into businesses is open to all socio-economic groups. No matter where you are from, or what your accent, age, schooling, sex or social status might be, you have an opportunity to turn the sour grapes of unemployment into the champagne of small business success.

Customarily, entrepreneurial spirit appeared to have been reserved for the upper middle classes with significant venture capital at the ready. This trend is changing, and even some straight from education are now entering the marketplace and turning their business ideas into new companies. Some operate from the privacy of their own homes, converting their garages into miniature factories and manufacturing venues, or their bedrooms into international online venture HQs. This is a heartening trend. As entrepreneurial activity reaches new heights, public perception of small business ownership has also changed.

Attempting to change public perception here in the UK is rather like a very small ant attempting to push a rather large elephant in a direction in which it doesn’t want to go. As a nation, we have always considered employment with a venerable institution to be the pinnacle of pay-packet success. The tradition of working for ‘Jones, Jones and Smyth’ from school to retirement was revered, and the pursuit of business ideas considered merely folly.

The economic climate has forced everyone to reassess their views on many things. After twenty years as an accountant with Jones, Jones and Smyth, you may have been made redundant due to recession-led cutbacks—so now what do you do? Finding a job these days is not easy, so eventually you may decide to set up your own practice. If 2009 is the year in which you’re due to graduate from university, there are fewer jobs out there for you now than at any time in recent history—so now what do you do? Leave and sign on the very next day, or take your technology degree and a few friends from class to set up your own venture?

If the recession has ignited your entrepreneurial spirit and led to new business ideas, you will find that, in spite of the recession and the grim economic outlook, there is plenty of fertile ground in which start-up businesses can take root. While established companies are suffering under a weight of bad debts, lowered revenues, and outdated structures and methods, new ventures find that their versatility and adaptability makes them highly competitive. What is more, new entrepreneurs brimming with clever business ideas are much more likely to utilise the most up-to-date technologies for promoting and conducting their businesses, leveraging cost savings and pushing forward on far smaller budgets than those that the established crowd could ever work with.