The rise of small businesses

[amycatling]

Richard Branson has often said when he started in business, entrepreneur was seen as a dirty word. But from crowdfunding pleasers to pop-up teasers, start-ups are now everywhere.

 

This week the Centre for Entrepreneurs revealed that 2016 broke the record for the number of new businesses starting up in the UK. Last year a total of 657,790 new businesses were founded, smashing the record from 2015 by around 50,000. Looks like we'll need to do something big this year to welcome them all to the community...

The UK could be set to take the lead on adopting a start-up culture. But are entrepreneurs like you being encouraged enough?

We’d love to hear what you think – when did you start your business and what has been the biggest challenge so far?

In our Power Up survey last year we found that some of the main challenges holding Pioneers back are finding customers, accessing funds and having no job security.

You might be sprinting over these hurdles, but what other challenges did you find in your way? And what needs to change for us to be crowned as the top start-up-friendly nation?

Tell us in the comments…

[barrythompson]

While researching the feasibility of the me:now platform, we took a close look at UK ONS data as well as the U.S. business census (which is only compiled every 5 years). It is staggering just how many small businesses there are in both countries. We went on to use these statistics in our investor pitch during our seed funding round. An overview is in our blog that was posted yesterday.

http://menow.co/posts/micro-business-growth/

There are also a couple of U.K and U.S. government resource links advising those setting up their own business.