Last year appears to have been the year of the British entrepreneur as the UK saw a record number of new businesses start up.
Research has shown that 581,173 businesses were registered with Companies House last year.
Previously, the highest numbers were 526,446 in 2013, up from 484,224 start-ups formed in 2012.
The majority of new businesses, 184,671, were in London followed by Birmingham’s 18,337. Manchester was the next biggest start-up zone, with 13,054.
Surely this is demonstrating a big change in British working habits.
“Entrepreneurs have higher profiles than in the past and are seen as role models. Traditional jobs for life have largely disappeared, as have occupational pensions,” said Luke Johnson, chairman of the Centre for Entrepreneurs.
The number of business failures appears to be falling. Those leaving the Companies House register last were were 238,000, a fall of 6% from the 253,000 the year before.
Meanwhile, research from Barclays showed that small businesses (those with a turnover of under £5m) reported the highest rise in annual income since the turn of the century.
Revenues were up by an average of 8% for the small businesses which are customers of the bank. And from 2000, revenue levels have gone up 20%.
Businesses concerned with property, e.g., real estate, construction or management, generated the largest proportion of revenue growth.
Revenue growth in the accommodation, education, health and professional services industries was also strong last year.
But the retail, manufacturing and IT sectors have not performed as well as expected.
Barclays believes that small business income had recovered and by 2013 had reached what it had been before the Great Recession. In 2014, there was further business expansion.
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