Partner Article

Entrepreneurial origins revealed

Nearly 20% of all small business owners or entrepreneurs have been fired from their previous employment before going on to form their own company, according to new research.

When it came to the reasons why small business owners formed their own company 44.2% said it was because they were sick of their existing job and thought they could do better themselves, 37% said that they identified a niche idea or gap in an existing market, 7.6% said it was due to redundancy and 5.4% said they had no option as they could not find a job.

When asked which SME support network has most helped their business, Business Link led the way with 37.9% followed by the Federation of Small Business with 18.6%, 16.4% for online business advice forums such as UKSmallBusinessForums.co.uk and 15.5% for the Prince’s Trust. Less than 10% of people asked said that the Chamber of Commerce had helped their business.

Duane Jackson, Managing Director of accounting software company KashFlow, who commissioned the study, said: “We have found some interesting facts around the mindset of an entrepreneur. The fact that nearly 20% of small business owners have at some time in their career been fired really made me sit up and wonder if there is a potential culture clash between the SME owner and the typical 9-5 brigade.”

Wider research found that small business owners see Virgin as the best example of a large organisation that still has the entrepreneurial spirit and cited Dell as the biggest example of a once entrepreneurial company that has left its small business roots behind.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .