British Youth Turn To Entrepreneurship in 2014
The news is rife with stories lamenting youth unemployment. Damning statistics such as over a million young people unemployed and the OECD claiming that people under 30 in the UK can expect to spend an average of over 2 years unemployed paint a grim picture. As well as this, changes in labour laws meaning that for the first two years employers can pretty much get rid of employees with no comeback, meaning that job security is much more of a concern. The advent of "zero hour contracts" are also contributing to a far less appealing job market than previous generations have enjoyed.
With all this taken into account, it is small wonder that the youth of Britain are looking more towards starting their own businesses. According to unltd.org.uk, nearly twice as many people aged between 18 and 30 are now in the process of starting up in business compared to a year ago, a rise from 8% to 14%. This doubles the figure for the population as a whole (7%). One such business is Digivo Ltd, a web development company based in Hertfordshire founded by two entrepreneurs under 30. Law graduate and Managing Director of Digivo Matthew Foster said "It's a big step starting your own business, so I think it's excellent that the government are doing something to reward investors. With the economy looking up and businesses feeling more able to spend money, I think this year is the first real opportunity young entrepreneurs have had since the recession hit."
When asked why they had founded Digivo at this time, Foster replied "There were several factors we looked at, but the overriding consideration was the economic climate. 12 months ago companies were not spending money. A website is not considered essential by all companies, so the opportunity to grow a web development business was not there in my eyes. Now, people are starting to spend again, plus the recession has cleared out a lot of the competition, leaving many markets much less saturated than they were 5 years ago. The companies who are left now have a massive opportunity, with the combination of the growth of online shopping and eCommerce plus renewed consumer confidence. Companies who want to capitalise on this are going to need an eCommerce, mobile optimised website to take full advantage. We wanted to be a company which provides this service. And so Digivo was born."
The younger generation are having to find new ways to forge a career and entrepreneurship is becoming a popular choice. Combine this with government backed investment incentive schemes like the SEIS and it is likely we will see further increases in the number of young UK based entrepreneurs in 2014.