Charlie Mullins: The “advance of the entrepreneurs” rally has come true

The measures he introduced, which continued in last week?s Budget, created a landscape that has also delivered the “advancement of the entrepreneurs”. ?

The ranks of the country?s army of self-employed and self-motivated business owners has swollen dramatically in the last few years and we are definitely seeing a new age of the entrepreneur.

In particular, 2014 was an outstanding year for new businesses. According to StartUp Britain, more than 580,000 businesses were registered with Companies House ? a jump of more than 40,000 on the year before.

And we also have the highest ever number of self-employed people ever in the UK. There are some 4.6m self-employed across the country, which is around 15 per cent of the workforce.?

There is also fantastic cross-section of ages among the country?s self-employed. A survey by UKTI at the end of last year revealed that setting up a business is the top career choice of the 18-25s. But entrepreneurialism isn?t just for the young ? there?s those who have gone it alone in their 40s and there are more people over the age of 50 starting out than ever before.

Some, whatever their age, may have been steered towards self-employment by the recession, but that in no way belittles their drive and ambition. We should celebrate those that have reacted positively to circumstances rather than joining the resource-sapping benefits culture.?

Whatever the reason, more and more people are choosing to join the entrepreneurial movement.?

Importantly, at the numerous business events I have attended I have seen how these entrepreneurs are encapsulating the true principles of enterprise.?

Read more from Charlie Mullins:?

• The lack of apprenticeships in the UK still comes down to one big issue, money
• Zero-hours contracts just reinforce a culture of benefits
• Think Netflix and Burger King, not cocktails by the pool

Of course, self-preservation will always be top of the list of priorities, but these entrepreneurs are in this game for more than that. Their business is their passion and the successes that comes with it, be they financial or not, is what is driving them on.

However, financial success is not about pounds in the pocket. It?s about creating revenues that can be reinvested to grow their business. Just like the food, shelter and love we provide our children to help them grow strong, entrepreneurs apply the same principles to their businesses, which has so many wide-reaching benefits.

Since Gordon Brown packed his bags and left Number 10, around 1.9m new jobs have been created. I?d suggest a decent proportion of those jobs have been generated by the country?s entrepreneur-led 5.2m small and medium-sized businesses.

These emerging entrepreneurs saw the state the country was in seven years ago and they didn?t like what they were looking at. Therefore they are more inclined to look to the long-term. They?re not in this to make a fast buck, but to provide a solid and sustainable business that creates employment and makes a constructive contribution to the economy.

These ambitions have been helped by increasingly supportive changes to the tax system, for businesses and their employees, as well as a pile of dynamite being detonated under the mountain of red tape that has strangled small business.

Any backward steps in these areas as a result of the outcome of the general election would stunt the growth of UK?s blossoming entrepreneurial landscape. The “advancement of the entrepreneur” has to continue to move forward and its importance to the economy should never be underestimated.

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