News and features

Mon, 8 Dec 2008

Technology helping to create 'more diverse start-ups'

'Enriched' entrepreneurs carving out own niches thanks to growth in IT skills.

The widespread adoption of IT systems and the growth of skills in the sector has made it easier for budding entrepreneurs to strike out on their own and build a career in areas that best suit their personal attributes and interests, it has been claimed.

Professor Scott Moeller of the Cass Business School and Simon Hopes of Natwest Private Banking said this move away from traditional professions to self-started, "niche" enterprises has created a new demographic - the "enriched".

According to the pair's Enriched List, these are affluent men and women who place equal emphasis on personal and career fulfilment and financial success.

Sheffield-based film producer Mark Herbert, whose work includes This Is England, topped the list alongside non-traditional success stories such as a Scottish water buffalo farmer, a wedding cake designer from Merseyside and a plimsoll guru working in the Midlands.

Mr Hopes said: "We see a lot of people who are increasingly looking for special avenues for their own skills."

Natwest is the UK's second-largest bank in terms of market capitalisation.

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