As someone who has been involved in entrepreneurship for the last twenty years, it gives me an enormous thrill to see Welsh-based businesses succeed, and it is fantastic to see that Deeside-based moneysupermarket.com, a business established thirteen years ago, could be worth £1 billion when it floats on the stock exchange later this month.
For Simon Nixon, its 39 year old co-founder, this will mean the culmination of a long journey that will establish this North Wales company as the leading internet business in Europe.
I hope that this success will encourage others to take the step into enterprise and to develop new businesses which may not reach the stellar heights of moneysupermarket.com but will, nevertheless, create wealth and prosperity across the region.
Being successful in business isn’t always easy. With one in two new firms failing within the first two years, support is needed for many entrepreneurs when they start their journey into business. Despite this, there are indications that the Assembly is abandoning its previously excellent support for start-ups in favour of focusing the majority of its efforts on supporting existing businesses.
Indeed, it is surprising that in the programme for government agreed by Labour and Plaid Cymru, there is no specific commitment to entrepreneurship. In contrast, the All Wales document written by Rainbow Coalition would have appointed, for the first time ever, a Minister to lead on developing an enterprise culture, an exciting policy that seems to have been conveniently forgotten in the drive for a new left of centre coalition.
Such a Minister for Enterprise could have re-established the Entrepreneurship Action Plan (EAP) for Wales, the unique private sector-led strategy which, as discussed below, guided policymakers on the priorities in establishing a more enterprising Welsh economy.
Unfortunately, at a time when Wales needs it more than ever, the plan has been quietly shelved by civil servants in the Assembly, despite the fact that developing an entrepreneurial culture takes many years to embed within any society, especially in an economy where large firms and the public sector have dominated.
Whilst the last Labour Government had clear intentions to stop any substantial support for new businesses, I hope that more moderate voices within the new coalition Assembly Government will have a different view to plans to abandon help for start-ups.
I certainly hope so if we are to create more moneysupermarket.coms in the future and ensure that the Welsh economy fulfils its entrepreneurial potential.
For Simon Nixon, its 39 year old co-founder, this will mean the culmination of a long journey that will establish this North Wales company as the leading internet business in Europe.
I hope that this success will encourage others to take the step into enterprise and to develop new businesses which may not reach the stellar heights of moneysupermarket.com but will, nevertheless, create wealth and prosperity across the region.
Being successful in business isn’t always easy. With one in two new firms failing within the first two years, support is needed for many entrepreneurs when they start their journey into business. Despite this, there are indications that the Assembly is abandoning its previously excellent support for start-ups in favour of focusing the majority of its efforts on supporting existing businesses.
Indeed, it is surprising that in the programme for government agreed by Labour and Plaid Cymru, there is no specific commitment to entrepreneurship. In contrast, the All Wales document written by Rainbow Coalition would have appointed, for the first time ever, a Minister to lead on developing an enterprise culture, an exciting policy that seems to have been conveniently forgotten in the drive for a new left of centre coalition.
Such a Minister for Enterprise could have re-established the Entrepreneurship Action Plan (EAP) for Wales, the unique private sector-led strategy which, as discussed below, guided policymakers on the priorities in establishing a more enterprising Welsh economy.
Unfortunately, at a time when Wales needs it more than ever, the plan has been quietly shelved by civil servants in the Assembly, despite the fact that developing an entrepreneurial culture takes many years to embed within any society, especially in an economy where large firms and the public sector have dominated.
Whilst the last Labour Government had clear intentions to stop any substantial support for new businesses, I hope that more moderate voices within the new coalition Assembly Government will have a different view to plans to abandon help for start-ups.
I certainly hope so if we are to create more moneysupermarket.coms in the future and ensure that the Welsh economy fulfils its entrepreneurial potential.
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