Do you want to grow your business? Perhaps you’d like to take on investment, hire new staff or expand overseas? With growth comes risk, but how much should you gamble on your business ambitions? Starting a business is a risk in itself – the latest figures from the Office for National statistics show that just 41.7% of startups last beyond five years.
Taking risks requires confidence, something which is at a four-year low among businesses, according to a recent report by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). In the FSB’s annual small business index, carried out before the UK’s June decision to exit the European Union, small firms reported a fall in profits and a rise in outgoings. The increased costs included labour, which has been influenced by both the introduction of the national living wage and pensions auto-enrolment. Meanwhile, economic uncertainty following the Brexit vote might encourage entrepreneurs to favour caution.
If you’re looking to scale up your enterprise, however, you must be willing to risk failure – but the risk should be calculated. During this live Q&A we’ll discuss how to manage risk sensibly including organising your finances, navigating supply and demand and thoroughly researching the market before taking a punt on a startup idea or a new product line.
Put your questions to our experts from 1-2pm on Wednesday 5 October.
Taking part is simple: just register to comment. Once you’ve signed up, you can post your questions in the comments thread below this article. Alternatively, tweet @GdnSmallBiz with your questions, or email them to smallbusinessnetwork@theguardian.com and we will put them to the panel for you. Comments are currently open and we welcome questions in advance.
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