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Gap between perception and reality when starting a business

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A new report reveals the large disparities which exist between the perceptions and realities of starting up and running a small business in the UK. The survey - "Age of The Entrepreneur" provides an interesting insight into the world of business startups in 2007 Britain. According to the report, released by T-Mobile and Kingston University, 46% of people start up a new business to improve their life/work balance, although the reality is that 38% say that their new businesses have impacted personal relationships. A further 36% struggle to manage their time effectively after starting a new business.

The report also reveals that owner-managers believe that their status within the UK economy has significantly improved over recent years. 44% of small business owner-managers felt that entrepreneurs are regarded with more admiration by the general public that ten years ago, compared with just 12% who that felt that that their standing had fallen.

A significant number of respondents (42%) felt that SME owners are now held in higher regard than they were 10 years ago - possible as a result of the exposure entrepreneurs have had on prime time TV shows, such as Dragon's Den and The Apprentice.

Interestingly, 42% of the survey respondents feel that such Reality TV shows help to increase status of entrepreneurs but fail to inspire people to start businesses.

Professor Blackburn, Director of Research at the Small Business Research Centre at Kingston University, said:

“Money is not the motivating factor that you would expect based on programmes such as Dragons’ Den and Tycoon. People enter business to take charge of their own destiny and to improve their work-life balance – although this report highlights that SME ownership has more of a negative impact on the latter.”

Posted December 7, 2007
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