One-in-eight people are considering setting up their own business
- Gen Z & Boomers the most confident about the UK economy
- One-in-four Gen Z considering starting a business
- Number of people considering starting a business jumps almost 50% in two years
ONE-in-eight people (12%) are considering setting up a business up from one-in-14 (7%) two years ago according to a poll by SME growth experts Mushroombiz.
The number jumps to one-in-four (24%) for Gen Z (18-24-year-olds) and one-in-five (20%) for Londoners.
Figures from the Office of National Statistics, last week, showed Britain fell into recession in 2023.
But Mushroombiz’ annual poll of more than 4,000 Briton’s showed this has not stopped people’s confidence in the UK economy’s ability to bounce back.
Almost half of people (45%) said they got a pay rise last year, up from a quarter of people (25%) saying they had got a pay rise in 2021.
While 38% of people expect to get a pay rise in 2024 with half (50%) of Gen Z employees expecting one.
Both Gen Z and pensioners were the most optimistic about the UK’s economy with more than a third (34%) of 18-24-year-olds and over 65s saying they ‘have confidence in the UK’s economic prospects over the next five years’ compared to an average of 27% across all age groups.
Meanwhile some 39% of Gen Z said they plan to start a business ‘at some point in the future’ compared to 17 per cent of the general population.
SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) account for 99.9 percent of the UK business population with an estimated 5.51 million small businesses (0 to 49 employees) in 2023.
Ed Surman, Managing Director of Mushroombiz, said: "It will be Britain’s SMEs and budding entrepreneurs that will get us out of recession. While Gen Z are written off as ‘snowflakes’ this polling suggests they are the ones most likely to take the entrepreneurial risks needed to give our economy a shot in the arm.”
Russell Winnard, COO, Young Enterprise commented: “Young Enterprise has first-hand experience of this entrepreneurial appetite amongst young people in the UK. The challenge we face is how to provide crucial opportunities and experiences of this within education, ensuring we reach all young people, including those who will experience the greatest barriers to social mobility. Doing so not only helps them learn and apply an essential set of transferable skills and mindsets but can also make a significant contribution to UK productivity.”
Andreas Adamides, CEO of Helm (formerly The SupperClub), the UK’s leading community for scale-up founders said: “Whilst we see UK’s growth is being driven by SMEs, and scaleup founders, to see proof that the next generation down is already more ambitious and ready to take the entrepreneurial plunge is very encouraging. The optimism in these figures should reassure us that the baton is being passed to even more eager sprinters.”
“Considering Gen Z came out of Covid having lost almost three years of their early adulthood in isolation, and instead of leading to insecurity and uncertainty to see the green shoots of innovation, and the courage and desire to build a better future, and take more risks, feels me with optimism.”
Mushroombiz provides professional services and business support to SMEs.
For more information and to see the statistics in full go to: www.mushroombiz.co.uk