[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Earlier this year, Michael O’Dwyer at City A.M[1]. reported that more than 216,000 new businesses were registered in the greater London area in the last 12 months, a 6.45% increase on 2017.
Furthermore, the number of new companies registered across the whole country in the last year rose by 5.7% to over 660,000. A record high, especially when you consider the political and economic gloom we currently find ourselves in.
It’s exciting and, as Matt Smith, director of the Centre for Entrepreneurs (CFE) commented: “These figures demonstrate the resilience and confidence of entrepreneurs across the country, confirmed by … the strengthening of London as Europe’s leading start-up hub.”
While this is incredibly positive news, I wonder just how many of these new business owners really appreciate what they’re up against? It’s a cliched phrase I know… but it’s so true for business owners, especially start-ups, that the founder is often the one who works long hours in the business and never has real time to work on it. I know because I’ve been there, not just for my own business interests, but also in supporting others.
Over the last fifteen years I’ve worked with SMEs across the UK, China and the USA. And I’m sad to say I’ve seen the same thing happening over and over again. Business owners work long hours to keep it running. Of course, the ironic thing is that many of these people set up their own enterprise to give them more time to do things ‘outside of work’, yet now they find themselves stuck working in their business.
Listen and act on advice
I set up my first business in 2004. At my first meeting with my new accountant, she handed me a copy of Michael E. Gerber’s book, “The E myth revisited”. She told me to read it before we next met.
Like most entrepreneurs at that time, I was busy working on my new business, creating contacts, networking and writing proposals so I didn’t have time for reading about business while actually in business. After all, I thought to myself, I have an MBA from a top business school, and years of corporate experience so why did I need another book?
It wasn’t until a few years later that I picked up the book again and began to take it in… if only I had read it when my accountant had instructed me to!
Value time
Fast forward to 2010 and I started to work with business owners wanting to grow and exit their businesses. The strategies we developed started with ‘getting the owner out of the way’. Too often, the owner is the blockage to the growth of the business, and therefore obstructs the potential value the business could achieve.
Contact us to discuss how we can help.
[1] https://www.cityam.com/london-drives-increase-number-new-uk-startups/[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][/vc_row]