The average cost of starting a business in the UK is just £312, a new report has revealed.
According to the study from freelance marketplace PeoplePerHour and published in EN magazine, this is more than £100 less than the average weekly wage.
Stockport is home to 15,000 businesses where around 67% are employing between 1-5, including many of whom are recent start-ups.
Some 76 per cent of respondents in the UK used personal savings to launch their enterprises, while 20 per cent asked for help from friends & family and 13 per cent used cash from a redundancy package.
Just 2.5 per cent of those quizzed secured a bank loan, while the same number received a grant of some sort. However, only 0.8 per cent had help from a private investor.
Xenios Thrasyvoulou, founder of PeoplePerHour, said,
“Starting a business is now most definitely open to anyone. You don’t have to be from a wealthy family, have a background in finance or have started on your entrepreneurial journey while in your teens.
“The online revolution means that it’s never been easier or cheaper to launch a business at any time in life.”
He added that the first year is often the make or break year for many new companies, with many failing because of cashflow issues.
“Businesses are being launched and grown from kitchen tables across the country, as the online revolution has knocked down any barriers to entry.”
“The modern business owner can run operations from a home office, or even on the move, managing a remote workforce without having to pay for additional desk space.”
Last week, in his Growing Your Business report, Lord Young, the Prime Minister’s enterprise advisor, recommended that budding entrepreneurs over the age of 30 should be given access to start-up loans.
He suggested axing the age cap, which is currently set at 30, on accessing taxpayer-funded loans to set up a business.
Lord Young said,
“I have learnt from many years of investing in businesses that small and well-targeted finance can make a big difference in the early stages of a company.
“I am now asking the Government to go further and remove the age cap for all entrepreneurs, to enable the board of the Start-Up Loans Company to work towards extending the benefits of the scheme to all start-ups.”
Source: Kirsty Hewitt – read more at EN for Business online