Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
One in ten of us want to start our own business this year
Vicky Parry
13th Jan 2022
In a new study by Intuit Quickbooks, 1 in 10 employees in the UK want to start their own business in 2022. Almost half of UK employees would like to own a business one day, revealing that the independent UK workforce is raring to make a difference despite the ongoing impact of the pandemic.
In fact, two thirds of wannabe entrepreneurs claim the COVID-19 crisis has merely boosted their plans to start a business. The pandemic has brought about new ways of thinking working, like zoom meetings and online conferencing. It has also given millions of people pause for thought about how they’d like to live their personal lives and run their work lives.
The Stats
84% of UK workers believe small businesses are vital for the future of the UK economy, with London scoring highly as the strongest entrepreneurial region – 64% want to start a business – with Northern Ireland (51%) and the North West (48%) in second and third places.
With inflation rates going ever upward and incomes falling, 91% of people claim that inflation will force a reduction of spending over the next six months… which is also precisely why many people want to start their own businesses: to gain more income and stay on course with their outgoings.
63% plan to fund their startups with personal savings, while a 31% plan to find extra funding once the business is off an running.
What Jasmine Says
MoneyMagpie’s Jasmine Birtles says:
“It’s so interesting that nearly half of the UK’s employees dream of starting their own business, according to this research. As someone who has always run their own business I quite understand the lure of being your own boss. It is generally more fulfilling to do your own thing than to work for someone else’s business.
“However, it is very hard work and generally long hours. You really need to love what you do to compensate for that. Also, there are many hidden tasks that a small business owner needs to do which can be annoying and costly such as business strategy, accounts, dealing with staff issues and keeping up with government legislation.”
She continues: “So although I applaud anyone who decides to set up their own business, I would say that it’s not for everyone and the best way to approach it is to set something up on the side while you’re still working for someone else and getting a regular salary. If you start small, work in your spare time and gradually see how things progress with your side business you will get an idea of whether your concept is a good one and if working for yourself really suits you.
“If you’re not sure what business to set up on the side, take a look at the hundreds of articles we have in our Make Money section where there are loads of ideas for you to set up a money-earner of your own.
“If you find that running a small business on the side doesn’t suit you, you will still have your 9-5 to fall back on and you will have learnt something valuable about yourself. There are a lot of advantages to working for someone else, not least being that you can forget about work at the end of the day and also the fact that you get your holidays paid for and extra put in your pension, so enjoy what you have and put your heart and soul into that instead.”
Not for me though.