I'm indebted today to the Small Business Trends site for pointing up new figures from the Small Business Service in the UK, which confirm that more businesses are starting up than ever before.
Unfortunately we don't know much about them as yet, and aren't in a position to discover just how many of them will survive long term. But here are a few questions I'd like to ask the proprietors if I had the chance:
1. Did you choose to start this business or was it an alternative to job seeking? 2. Does your business plan include an exit point - or do you plan to simply continue trading indefinitely? 3. Are you going to employ other people or is this simply a means of earning yourself a living?
I intend no particular value judgement on any of the above and particularly not the last one as I'm self-employed and have no intention of offering anyone any jobs myself. But the picture that would emerge is different. From the SBS' phrasing, Britain is on the cusp of a huge entrepreneurial revolution. In my version that's not necessarily the case - some of the new businesses might simply be scrambling around avoiding the dole queue.
It would be nice to know.
