Welcome to the Make Your Mark campaign’s Enterprise Insights where only the most interesting enterprise developments and stories are delivered to you fortnightly.
 

Unlocking enterprise potential

United Kingdom 2008 Monitoring Report (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor: pdf – 2.9MB)

Attitudes to entrepreneurship in the UK did not decline in 2008 – although there was an 8% decline in the perception of entrepreneurial opportunities throughout the population – the results of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s (GEM) UK study show. GEM, the ‘world’s most authoritative comparative study of entrepreneurial activity’, shows that early-stage entrepreneurial activity did not decline either in 2008, although regional variations in early-stage entrepreneurialism become more apparent, with London, in particular, being markedly different from the rest of the UK. The majority of interviews conducting for the research took place in summer 2008 and may not yet fully reflect the entrepreneurial outlook of the UK following the autumn financial crisis.

Creating enterprising places

Rethinking Recession (Prince’s Trust and ESRC Centre for Giving and Philanthropy: pdf – 101KB)

Almost half a million under 25 year olds are now claiming Job Seekers Allowance – an 80% rise in the past year – according to a report for the Prince’s Trust by Cass Business School. Despite young people being heavily affected by the recession, not enough help is given to them by the public, with youth causes receiving just 1% of the voluntary sectors income – just a fifth of that received by animal welfare charities. They also found that almost a third of companies expect their corporate giving to fall in the recession, creating even greater pressures on those doing so much valuable work.

Speakers' corner

Recent winner of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, and Employment and Youth Enterprise Manager at Hull City Council, Charles Cracknell, steps up to mic to talk about taking a risk on young people, in the first of our new monthly guest interviews:

• Importance of local flexibility in finance
• Trusting young people
• Learning from Hull’s experiences

In the media

The FSB is calling for a new Small Business Sector Skills Council after their research found that micro-businesses (those with fewer than five employees) were not taking advantage of the ‘Train to Gain’ scheme.

Research by Business Link suggests that would-be entrepreneurs who are disabled are being held back in their business endeavours; with 54% saying that they had struggled to change the attitudes of investors and over half saying that there is a lack of appropriate role-models.

Despite a sense of optimism shown in other surveys, entrepreneurs are finding the recession tough, according to the results of a survey by Grant Thornton, with 66% seeing things getting worse and 77% saying that current conditions were putting pressure on their personal lives.

Communications targeting potential entrepreneurs should be focused on their enterprise needs and motivations, and not solely on demographics, preliminary findings of research by Make Your Mark suggests.

Transforming Places, Changing Lives: Taking forward the regeneration framework (DCLG: pdf – 336KB)

The Government has launched a new framework to ‘shape the way that regeneration is carried out in England’, following a lengthy consultation period over the past year. The Government has announced spending of more than £6.5 billion over the next two years on regeneration work, and this document sets out the Governments vision for aligning regeneration activities, targeting key groups and sectors, and ensuring strong evaluation of regeneration work. Make Your Mark’s response to the initial consultation is available on our website.

Siding with the Angels (NESTA: pdf – 605KB)

Tax incentives should be used to encourage more angel investment in the UK, according to a report by NESTA. There is three and half times more of this early-stage investment in the United States than the UK, and various policy measures should be taken, including increasing the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) tax relief from 20% to 30% and boosting awareness of angel investing, they argue.