The concept of the entrepreneur at the centre of society was one of the driving visions which led Julie to develop Entrepreneur Country, the UK’s leading entrepreneurial community. “It started off by feeling and believing that in the conversations I was having with entrepreneurs that they feel they go to a different country every day and that no one really understands those pressures . They’ve got products that don’t release on time, they’ve got banks that pull overdrafts and employees that pull sick days and nobody really understands. They go someplace else, lets call it Entrepreneur Country and the only people who understand that are entrepreneurs.”
“I’ve extended that view because of a feeling that something much more profound is happening in society, that is that the social welfare state that was built up after the war where everybody looked for somebody to take care of them, whether it was the company or the state hat has now come crashing down to the ground.”
“With high levels of sovereign debt promises the government has made to take care of everything are no longer sustainable- they don’t have the money to do so. The result is that the social welfare state really cannot continue because there just isn’t any money. Add to this that kids under 30 don’t think they work for anybody – today they think of themselves as individual capitalists.”
“What that means is that as they grow up, by the time a 23 year old is a 33 year old and has a husband or a wife, mortgage and kids- they’re not going to want to pay the same amount of taxes we pay currently because they simply won’t get as many services for their money. Add to this imbalance the empowerment that people feel from the digital and productivity tools such as the ipad, skype, and super fast broadband connections and you begin to sense that something is changing in the way we live and work. I call that Entrepreneur Country.”
“What started off feeling like I and other entrepreneurs go to a different country everyday has gradually become a feeling that maybe we as a society are all actually going to Entrepreneur Country. Entrepreneurs may be the ones driving the train but everybody has a role to play. ”
“Entrepreneur Country is about being inclusive, with the entrepreneur and not government at the heart of society. One of the fears I have is that the world is going to get much more unfair, in the sense there are going to be greater differences between rich and poor. Personally I’d like to redefine what fair means because to me is about getting out of life what I put in; if I work hard I get a lot out. Unfortunately I don’t think
that’s what most people mean anymore by fair. What many people seem to want is more or less everybody making between £60k-£100k because they feel really uncomfortable that people are successful and earn £1m plus.”
“What we need to do is better engage everyone in society and not villanize those who are successful and wealthy. Regardless of what your opinion of such individuals is, the really rich are making obscene amounts of money just in the interest on their money and the fact of the matter is nobody, not the government, not the Labour party, not the trade unions can stop the fact that every society is going to have extremely wealthy people. So what I would do is keep those obscenely wealthy people in my jurisdiction by building trust and lowering taxes. But lowering taxes comes with the expectation that the wealthy need to contribute proactively to society, towards building care homes and primary schools and I would use the forces of carrot and shame not stick. The problem with the current system is that the first thing you do if someone tries to take your money is move to Switzerland and then they’re lost to the Treasury.
I would keep the
wealthy, show them a list of projects and if you want a homeless shelter on Earls Court Road to be called the Michael Tinmouth Homeless Shelter then we’re happy to have your money.”
Having become one of the UK’s leading champions of entrepreneurs and small business and being actively involved on Vince Cables entrepreneur forum, does Julie think that she would ever pursue a path in politics. “No chance. I think it takes a different skill set. I think we’ve got some good politicians in this country. I’m an ideas person. I look at business like a sandwich. You’ve got business which drives the top line growth of the country, government and the public services are the filling which you want to squeeze and keep it as small as possible. I just believe that when you put the government wrapper around it you increase the cost and you remove the accountability. I’m not about people dying on the streets but you only have to look at great entrepreneurial success stories like the health care group Circle Partnership who have given 49.9% ownership to the employees. And guess what, they have figured out how to run it unbelievably efficiently. They provide not only award winning medical services but there customer service is second to none and they get Mandarin Oriental quality staff in to cook the meals. In Entrepreneur Country we would all do that, the John Lewis style mutualisation models which are total win- win. What you put in, you get out- now that is what fairness is all about.”
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