PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

Last Thursday, we held the Wales Start-Up Awards in Cardiff, and it was great to be back in the familiar surroundings of the Depot with 450 finalists, friends and supporters there to celebrate the best new businesses in Wales. It was also a good time to reflect on the decision to take the awards out of Wales and on the road across the UK as part of a new National Start-Up Awards series.  Over the last four weeks, we have visited Glasgow, Newcastle, Belfast, Birmingham, Reading, Bristol and Manchester with only London left to go in September as a result of the recent train strike. It has certainly been a challenge to take the concept to different cities, especially given that there are no other similar awards recognising and celebrating start-ups across all sectors of the economy. However, I am happy to say that the response from the start-ups themselves has been overwhelming in every part of the UK and we have been fortunate perhaps to capture the real entrepreneurial spirit that h...

With new firms responsible for the creation of employment, the generation of wealth, the development of innovation, the disruption of markets and support for local communities, entrepreneurship is increasingly seen as one of the key forces behind boosting economic prosperity around the World. As we emerge from the pandemic, those entrepreneurs with amazing ideas for new businesses will be the ones who will generate the new jobs during the post-Covid recovery, reimagine our town centres and drive forward innovation in a range of sectors.  In other words, the UK will need more home-grown, innovative firms to regenerate the economy especially within the more deprived parts of the nation where supporting the development of these entrepreneurial ventures will contribute significantly to closing the prosperity with the more prosperous regions.  To make a contribution to this agenda, I am currently working with colleagues at the University of South Wales and the Alacrity Foundation o...

Earlier this week, in association with Wales Week London , we launched the sixth Wales Start-Up Awards which celebrates the success of the best new Welsh businesses every year. It was a pleasure to interview a number of the award winners that are making a real stamp on their industries and markets.  These included Project Blu , overall winner in 2020 which has signed a major multi-million pound deal to sell their environmentally friendly dog products in the USA; Yoello , the Cardiff-based payments specialist which had to pivot during the pandemic but has completed a major funding round to expand their operations substantially; t he Goodwash Company , whose innovative approach to their business is putting them on the path to becoming a major UK brand in the next couple of years; and the Enbarr Foundation which is rewriting the textbook on community entrepreneurship through its efforts in Deeside. Despite all the challenges of the last 12 months, these amazing founders had not only s...

When I launched the 2020 Wales Start-up Awards earlier this year, some wondered whether this was the right thing to do given that the economy had gone into full lockdown at the end of March.  I mean, how many new businesses would be set up business during a pandemic and, indeed, wouldn’t people avoid any type of entrepreneurial activity under such circumstances. According to the Centre for Entrepreneurs' annual analysis of Companies House data, a record 772,002 new businesses were established in the UK in 2020 representing a totally unexpected increase of 13.3% on the previous year although there was not and even pattern of new business formation from March to December. For example, the index (which is produced using the Companies House register of live UK limited companies) showed that in April 2020 when the whole of the UK was under the strictest lockdown measures, the number of new businesses in the UK fell by 29% as compared to 2019, with Scotland and Northern Ireland experienc...

Twenty years ago, I became part of the team that launched the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) as the most detailed study of entrepreneurial activity in the World.   The aim was to provide detailed information on the differences in the level of entrepreneurial activity between countries, examine those factors that lead to appropriate levels of entrepreneurship; and point to those policies that could enhance the national (and regional) level of entrepreneurial activity. Whilst I am no longer involved in the analysis of this data, I remain fascinated by the results that are produced every year. And last month, the GEM report for the UK was published and contains details from 6,787 adults aged 18 to 80 who participated in the survey in 2019. As well as providing international comparisons on entrepreneurial attitudes, activity and aspirations, it also provides results on the state of entrepreneurship across the four home nations including Wales. According to the study of entr...

One of the major concerns from the tech sector when the Covid-19 pandemic hit was that the availability of funding into those businesses that can grow quickly in knowledge-based sectors would be dramatically curtailed as individual and institutional investors withdrew from the market. This was the main reason why the Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced the £500m Future Fund to provide government loans of £125,000 to £5 million to equity-funded UK-based companies which would then be matched by investors. Whilst this intervention would have been largely targeted at formal venture capital companies, very few informal individual investors would have directly benefited given the lower levels of funding they provide.  However, these business angels are critical to any economy as they often are the ones who will put up the money for high risk investments into new exciting companies that the banks tend to ignore. More importantly, the better angels not only invest money but often, as fo...

At a time when governments are looking for radical new ideas to deal with the looming unemployment crisis that many economists still believe is inevitable following the economic slowdown caused by the Covid Pandemic, few would have thought that we go back to the early 1980s for solutions. Perhaps the greatest irony is that at a time when the Futures Generations Commissioner for Wales suggested the introduction of a Universal Basic Income to give everyone a minimum amount of cash, there has been a call to resurrect a free enterprise scheme started under Margaret Thatcher that is already a model for basic income for entrepreneurs. Earlier this week, a paper from the Policy Exchange think-tank proposed the reintroduction of the Enterprise Allowance Scheme (EAS) to encourage more people to consider self-employment as a response to the potential jobs losses from the current recession. When the EAS was introduced in 1983, it provided support to out-of-work claimants who wanted to start thei...

Earlier this week, the judging for the 2020 Wales Start-Up Awards was completed. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the normal face-to-face interviews with the finalists did not take place. Instead, all of those shortlisted had to produce a short ten minute video about how they had set up their business, the challenges they faced and plans for the future.  Whilst it was something we would never have contemplated previously, the concept worked brilliantly well and enabled those entrepreneurs who had spotted the opportunity and taken the risk to turn an idea into a business to show how they had done that in their own way. What was even more interesting was that out of 108 finalists that were competing across 26 categories, none had actually closed down and only a couple had stopped their operations during the Covid pandemic.  In fact, the vast majority had thrived during this period despite some considerable challenges with a number having to pivot into new products, services...

Despite the massive challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems that entrepreneurship remains alive and well within the Welsh economy. Take, for example, the Wales Start-Up Awards, which will be announcing its shortlist for 2020 next week.  The annual competition to find the best new firms in Wales had over 540 entries from every part of the nation - the highest in its five year history - with 40 per cent of these submitted by women-owned start-ups.  More importantly, there were some incredible businesses across all industries from traditional sectors such as business to business services, food and drink and construction, to emerging new areas such as cyber, fintech and mobile technologies.  Recognising the achievements of these new businesses is critical as research shows time and time again that it is newer and smaller businesses that create most of the employment as we come out of a recession.  In contrast (and as we have seen over the last few days), it ...

They say a week is a long time in politics and the last seven days has certainly demonstrated that old adage remains true. Last Saturday, I again made the case in this column that those entrepreneurs who had started new firms in Wales in 2019 and 2020 would not be supported by the Welsh and UK Governments’ interventions to support businesses during Covid 19 and needed help urgently. Simply put, this meant that at a UK level, 12,000 Welsh startups would not get a Covid-19 self-employed grant as are clearly unable to provide self-assessment data for 2018-19 nor would they be able to get a business rates grant as most do not have premises and either sub-lease or work from home.  In Wales, the fact that they are less than two years old and with the vast majority not VAT registered, those start-ups based in Wales cannot get access to the £500m Economic Resilience Fund announced by the Welsh Government including the new £100m loan programme from the Development Bank of Wales. The respons...

This week, the long overdue Economic Resilience Fund was launched by the Welsh Government. With £400 million available in grants to Welsh businesses, it forms part of a series of initiatives in Wales to support businesses at a time of crisis.  Operating on a first come first served basis, the first tranche of £200 million includes money for micro-businesses with an operating address in Wales employing between one to nine people.  To qualify, they have to have experienced in excess of a 40% reduction in turnover since March 1st 2020, demonstrate efforts have been made to sustain business activity and are not pursuing other forms of Welsh Government non-repayable grant funding support. They should also not be entitled to business rate relief (and already received at least £10,000 in support) and pay staff through the PAYE system.  Unfortunately, and despite calls from business organisations including the CBI, Chambers of Commerce, FSB and IOD as well as leading entrepreneur...

You can only admire the indomitable spirit of those who spot the opportunity, take the risk and start a new business, even at the darkest of times.  During the last few weeks, I had expected entries for this year’s Wales Start-Up Awards to have petered out given that filling in an online form would have been the last thing on any entrepreneur’s mind.  In fact, last week I contacted the two hundred plus entries received so far for the 2020 awards to ask if they would want to withdraw from this year’s competition. Not only did no-one pull out but a significant number wrote back to say they were looking forward to celebrating at the awards if things got back to normal in September.  Whether that is the case or not will depend on factors well beyond their control but it shows that the indomitable attitude that makes these entrepreneurs so special is alive and well across all sectors of the Welsh economy. And we will need that spirit, drive and enthusiasm over the next few mon...

The Centre for Entrepreneurs (CFE) thinktank recently published their 2019 Business Start-Up index dataset which was produced using the Companies House register of live UK limited companies.  According to the index, a record 681,704 new business formations took place across the UK in 2019, a 2.8% increase on the previous year.  With the growth of tech firms being a particular focus for policymakers, it is worth noting that over 45,000 tech startups were launched across the UK in 2019, representing 6.6% of all new businesses. Not surprisingly, 17,401 of these were registered in London with other hotspots being Bournemouth, Brighton, Winchester and Cambridge. In Wales, there were 17,758 new businesses created in 2019 (or 2.6% of the UK total) which represented an increase of only 0.4% on the previous year and the lowest growth of any part of the UK apart from the North West of England. Of these, 4.3% were tech start-ups with the highest proportion to be found along the M4 corrid...

Last Monday, I had the privilege of attending an incredible exhibition at the National Assembly of Wales’ Senedd building on graduate enterprises and the way in which universities are supporting start-ups by their students.  Organised by Universities Wales (the body representing Welsh higher education) and sponsored by Hefin David AM, the event saw presentations from an amazing group of young people who, on leaving their university studies, had taken the plunge into setting up businesses in a range of diverse areas including web design, homeware and fashion accessories, virtual reality, mobile coffee shops and online careers advice. Of course, the fact that universities are supporting the Welsh economy should not be a surprise given that an independent study recently showed that, through direct employment of staff, research and links with employers, they generate £5 billion of output and nearly 50,000 jobs. But with the economy generating more new businesses, a greater imperative f...

Next week, we start the search for the 21st Wales Fast Growth 50, the annual list of the fastest growing firms in Wales.  Even before our official launch, we have already had a dozen entries that have demonstrated growth of more than 100 per cent over the period 2016-18, which bodes well for this year’s competition and, more importantly, for the Welsh economy. This is not surprising given that the Fast Growth 50 awards are the one that firms aspire to more than any other and means that entries - which need to be confirmed by copies of annual reports - come from all sectors and parts of Wales, with a high number of businesses being listed that few have heard about before.  However, I am always trying to improve the coverage of the list and it was at the 2015 Fast Growth 50 dinner that I realised a more enjoyable way of adding to the fastest growing firms in Wales.  I was sitting with Roger Maggs, one of the most successful venture capitalists in Wales (and a recent recipie...

This year, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) celebrates 20 years of measuring entrepreneurial activity around the World. When the first GEM report was published back in 1999 as a joint project between London Business School and Babson College in the USA, the study initially comprised data on all the G7 nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, and USA) as well as Denmark, Finland, and Israel. Over the next two decades, more than 100 different countries have worked with GEM to produce detailed studies on the state of entrepreneurship in their nations. When GEM was expanded in 2000, I was honoured to be asked to lead the GEM study into Wales, a project that produced the first detailed analysis of entrepreneurship in the Welsh economy and which, for the first time, looked at key differences across a range of factors including start-up rates across the key regions of Wales, the effect of deprivation on enterprise and the first ever study on Welsh language and entr...

Since the financial crisis of 2009, the number of people in self-employment in the UK has grown by about a million to 4.84 million workers and now accounts for 15 per cent of the workforce. In fact, the latest Labour Market statistics show that self-employment accounted for 27 per cent of all of the increase in employment during the period 2009-2018. Whilst some have argued that this is partly down to the increase in companies servicing the so-called “gig economy” such as Uber and Deliveroo, the vast majority of those taking the plunge to work for themselves have done so for positive reasons. According to research into this area, the main driver is the identification of a new business opportunity which is often related to an area in which the future entrepreneur is currently active, possibly through employment or their personal interests. But there are also a range of other factors which may encourage an individual to set up their own business. It can be due to a need for r...