Financial News
- 18 March 2013, 14:26
'Mumpreneurs' Could Be Lifeline To Recovery
Companies run by mothers contribute around £7bn a year to the economy but there are calls for the Chancellor to introduce measures to make it easier to start a business from home.
It has been five years since the depths of the financial crash and still the key to kick-starting growth eludes the coalition Government.
The British economy started 2013 with zero momentum, but could helping mums open businesses help get Britain growing again?
According to StartUp Britain, a group that supports entrepreneurs, 60% of small businesses are started from home.
And a growing number of those are being started by women who have left the workforce to have, or care for, their children.
Julia Hunter is a former City bond trader, and mum. Starting a family prompted her to start a business.
"I was looking to start my own business rather than work for somebody else purely because of the family side of things. It is important to me to just be around."
Mum-run companies are contributing a significant amount to the economy already.
According to Mumpreneur UK, there are 300,000 mum-run companies in the UK today.
As a group, they add about £7.4bn a year to the economy. Yet the average startup cash they require is only £500.
That's a low-risk, high-reward ratio that the Chancellor would admire.
Ms Hunter says British business needs more support from the Chancellor. She believes cutting VAT would be one way to encourage enterprise in the upcoming Budget.
Becky Jones from StartUp Britain says big banks and established companies should be encouraged more to support smaller startups.
She told Sky News: "Giving them support at the early stage can be a complete game changer for the life of a small business."
After all, these are the firms that will hire, produce, sell and export - at each stage contributing to the tax that the Government so desperately needs to slowly pay down debt.
what do you think?
bjnk
Well Ms Hunter ex city bond trader,seems to have the same idea as Ed Balls concerning VAT. £500 startup capital,I should think very few have managed that and become large businesses employing people.Of course the government would/should encourage them,its also a way to get people off the books and unemployment figures.But good luck to anyone with the aptitude and will to start up a business,because we need them badly.
Windows Live User
1:34pm on 16/3/2013
This has been said for years, yet still the depts waste your time with reams of paperwork/ time wasting meetings and form filling while they justify their own existence. Introduce you to circling marketing sharks and ad agencies, business lawyers. Soon your £500(ha ha) start up is gone and your in debt to them Worst thing you can ever do is let a bank sniff you out a a new start up so they can meet, meet,meet and stick your overdraft % up and up. "average startup cash they require is only £500."? well thats half a P.C. to get you going. Rowlocks. Keep away from them and go it alone
stewgwyn
10:12am on 17/3/2013
Absolutely right, Windows. I became involved with a small business start-up scheme many years ago. The local enterprise agencies are constantly calling you in to submit business plans, cash-flow projections and progress reports, to the point that you are constantly having to postpone the very work that you have been striving to secure. You have to open a business account which costs an arm and a leg. Jobs for the boys.
stewgwyn
10:30am on 17/3/2013
....they also impose restrictions on who you work for, i.e. you cannot sub-contract to a bigger outfit, because it is not, strictly speaking, ''your own work''. Rather defeats the object of the exercise.