The number of people starting up their own businesses is slowly rising again, after a big drop during the 2020 Covid lockdowns.
Many people can think up a great business idea but only the people who put time and energy into their idea can expect to see it take off. "Now what that something is can be very different for different entrepreneurs. It might just be that they go and speak to somebody about it and say: ‘This is my idea, I don’t know how to do it, can I partner with you?’ It might be that they've got the skills to do it themselves but they DO something.”Many people begin their start-up as a side hustle, something they do alongside the day job.
“I think it's when businesses start to begin to have a life of their own,” says Deborah. “So I describe businesses as like having children. When they're babies and toddlers you've got to wander around and make sure they're still standing, they're still walking, they're being fed. Deborah says it's important to consider what risks you can take at each life stage. “It's very different for different people. If I'm a young start-up, I've got no dependents, I don't have a mortgage, my risk is still the same risk but the effect on me if it went wrong would probably be less than if I have children to support and a mortgage to support.”
Vicks Rodwell, Director of Membership for IPSE, tells the programme many older entrepreneurs are just really well placed to take risks. “We're seeing two different reasons for people going into it. One is getting a little bit sick of the workplace, it isn’t working with their lifestyle or perhaps they were made redundant.