Entrepreneurs are unsung heroes – so should you become one now?

Why are Entrepreneurs Unsung Heroes?

Entrepreneurs are vital to the success of our society and economy.  In my mind, they are unsung heroes. They raise capital, organise resources, produce goods or service and add value to both the economy and their own staff.  They are the engine of our economic growth.

But why are they unsung heroes?  Well, today I don’t think business or business-people get the credit they deserve.  Too often in our press, business get tarred with the ‘all business is tax-dodging and evil’ brush.  Whilst this may be true in some well published larger cases, in my experience it couldn’t be further from the truth for small hard-working businesses.  These folks work hard and pay all the taxes they correctly owe.

Why are Entrepreneurs Important to our Economy and Society?  

• Social mobility is most rapid for entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur’s prospects are not limited by education grades or past employment history.  Success is based purely on the strength of the business idea and its execution!

• Entrepreneurs are risk-takers and will take a chance on that crazy idea that more established firms just don’t see or get. Just ask people like the late Steve Jobs who founded Apple in a garage in California back in the 70s.

• A thriving entrepreneurial sector benefits us all with higher tax revenue. Entrepreneurs pay National Insurance for their staff, corporation tax on company profits and VAT if they are Business-to-Consumer firms (B2C).

• Provision of training for their staff that means the staff will upskill and have access to improved further employment opportunities down the line

How easy is it to become an entrepreneur today? 

So, entrepreneurs are important. But is it a good time to start up a business?  

Well, I firmly believe there’s never been a better time to start a business than today. Barriers to entry are lowest they have ever been. Here are 4 good reasons why:

• Overhead demands are lower today than ever. Only a few short years ago, to start up you would have needed at the minimum some office space and probably some sort of computer server setup. You probably can do without both today as remote working and cloud computing are now the norms

• Also, our economy has transitioned of late to a much more variable cost model, or what you and I might call the “Subscription Economy”.  You don’t need to put all the skills you need on the payroll, instead you have access to an unparalleled wealth of suppliers who can provide the exact service you require for a subscription price.

• Unparalleled access to knowledge and training. If you need to access specialist training in any particular field, it’s there on-demand.  Youtube videos, webinars, online books, audio books – the information is out there, easy to find and reasonably priced.

• It’s becoming so much easier to market your product or service. In the past, you would have needed to consider expensive traditional media advertising campaigns that would have taken a long time to reach your audience. 

Today, with social media, the consuming world is always available 24/7 to hear about your business.  Search engines can deliver millions of people to your website if you are positioned correctly. And, it’s not necessarily expensive to access this pool of consumers either.

Online word of mouth about a good new product of service can now proliferate at the ‘speed of thought’.

4. Consumer behaviour is changing today. Not long ago, consumers were tied to certain brands that were valued and trusted.  Today, consumers are crying out to try a good quality ethically produced products, and if it so happens that a small new startup is providing this, then all the better.  Just consider the microbrewery trend of late that has broken the stranglehold of the big-breweries.

Businesses and consumers are much more open minded today.  Campaigns such as ‘buy local’ are gaining traction, and large corporates are treated with increased suspicion. Consumer behaviour is changing more favourably for entrepreneurs today.

Summary

We love entrepreneurs here. We think they are the driving force of our economy and have access to rapid social mobility.

We love entrepreneurs so much, we spend all of our days helping out entrepreneurs in Welwyn Garden City, St Albans and the wider Hertfordshire area! Helping small businesses grow and realise their ambitions is why we get up in the morning, and after all, we’re a small business ourselves so we totally get it!  

If you would like some help growing your small business into the operation you know it can be, then give us a call. We’d love to hear from you!

Julian Hobbs & Co

01707 830 500

julian@julianhobbs.com