News and features

Mon, 8 Dec 2008

Small businesses 'contributing over £1bn' to UK economy

Hard working entrepreneurs account for 37 per cent of total business turnover.

The UK's small business owners and entrepreneurs are contributing more than £1 billion to the country's economy every year, clocking up more than half a billion hours of work in the process, a new survey has found.

According to the Entrepreneurial Domestic Product (EDP) report from insurance firm Hiscox, this averages out at around 2,500 hours for each entrepreneur in the UK - some 700 hours more work a year than the average nine-to-fiver.

Overall, the company said, some 37 per cent of small business owners put in a 50-hour week, while 14 per cent top 60 hours.

It added that these long hours mean entrepreneurs are contributing 37 per cent of the UK's total business turnover each year.

Yet despite the hard work, the company's poll found that entrepreneurship remains attractive to many. New start-ups rose by 60 per cent in 2007 compared to the previous year and 58 per cent of entrepreneurs said the prospect of being their own boss was the main motivation for striking out alone.

Figures from Barclays show there were 471,500 new companies started in the UK last year.

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