19 Entrepreneurial nation
Coffin Mew’s Mark O’Halloran acts for some of the region’s most entrepreneurial businesses and their owners. Here he reflects on entrepreneurship and what needs to be done to further support these engines of the economy
new ways of working. If they’re going to
work for another 20 years in a rapidly- changing world, many are saying, they’re going to do it on their own terms.
What’s exciting now is the extent to which professional advisers and the Government are recognising the importance of entrepreneurial businesses and the need to support them as they get off the ground. The UK provides many favourable tax breaks, particularly for research and development, and has sought to loosen red tape applying to small businesses in many areas. But there is always more to be done.
For our part, Coffin Mew is launching a new service for start-ups and small companies called Buzz, aimed at ensuring they have access to affordable, results-driven legal support and are able to spread the costs in line with their income stream.
From the 1,500 new media businesses in ’Silicon Beach’ to the high-tech companies backed by innovation centres and universities from Brighton to Bournemouth, the south is a hotbed for entrepreneurial talent.
Ben Ainslie Racing is a prime example. From its new facility in Portsmouth, it’s determined to commercialise all the intellectual property it develops as it pushes the boundaries of boat design in its race to win the America’s Cup. And it’s not just media and sport – the region’s entrepreneurs encompass a broad range of traditional manufacturing, property, retailing and the service industries.
Irrespective of the sector in which they operate, many entrepreneurs share common characteristics.
Entrepreneurs often tell me that they consider themselves unemployable. They are used to constantly pushing boundaries and questioning everything. Being adept at understanding their own weaknesses, they surround themselves with the right people filling those gaps. They also tend to be natural leaders, with a charisma that attracts people who want to work in a challenging environment where they are not constrained by bureaucracy but are encouraged to trust in their own strengths and instincts.
Surprisingly, many entrepreneurs are not particularly good with numbers and, as long as the business is doing well, often do not focus too much on them. The motivation is
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – SEPTEMBER 2015
often in building the business by delivering products and services that they can be proud of and believe in. There is a great sense of the need for authenticity in all things which is also something increasingly demanded by customers. You might even say authenticity is essential in the age of social media and real-time, often public, communication with customers.
If your selling point is that you’re
not a big business (or, at least, do not behave like one), then you’d better be sure to stay true to that claim as customers are no longer fooled by marketing claims which aren’t backed up by the actual way the company operates.
Creating a new business in the UK is, compared to many other countries around the world, very easy. That, and the irresistible rise of technology, is seeing people deciding very early in their lives to work for themselves.
Every week I meet people who are looking to break into and disrupt established markets which traditionally might take 10 years just to build a single career in. How are they doing it? By using technology and social media, by re-imagining the customer’s requirements from the customer’s point of view and not listening to anyone trying to tell them how things should be done.
And it’s not just ambitious and fearless young people. Established people, in their 50s and 60s, seeing little prospect of a comfortable early retirement, are increasingly open to
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So there’s support out there for people who already see themselves as business leaders. Where we need to do more is in schools and colleges. While the instinct for entrepreneurship is not something that can be taught, we need to encourage our young people to trust that instinct, if they have it, and prepare all of them for the changing nature of the workplace. Business owners, as well as advisers, need to take the time to work with schools, to talk to tomorrow’s leaders about what it really takes to succeed in business – about the joys and the challenges, and the fact that you don’t need to wait for a spot on Dragon’s Den to have a go.
This is the latest in a series of articles on entrepreneurship supported by Coffin Mew, lawyers to entrepreneurs. Coffin Mew is a leading South Coast firm providing legal services and advice to owner- managers and business founders across the region
Details: Mark O’Halloran 023-9236-4959
markohalloran@coffinmew.co.uk www.coffinmew.co.uk
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