In focus: Nerve and verve
The king is dead, long live the king, as the old saying goes. And this came to mind earlier this week when I was at the Inafishbowl.com awards ceremony at Antenna in Nottingham. Entrepreneurialism has never been more popular, it seems.
We're not talking Del Boys here, either. We're talking people who have a grounding in working for a business for a few years and who have thought: "I can do that." And they've gone and done it. Maybe it's got something to with the success of Dragons' Den. Maybe it's the myriad funding that's available nowadays. Or, if we're looking on the gloomy side of things, maybe it's the fact that so many people have lost their jobs over the last two years that has brought on this new wave of future captains of industry.
But let's not get pessimistic. As you might expect, I deal with PR agencies a fair bit, and I know of at least three people who have set up on their own over the last couple of years. Two have had stellar starts to company ownership, and the third is just about to kick things off. When I've asked them why they've set up their own business, they've come back with roughly the same answers: they wanted the freedom to work flexible hours; they wanted to test themselves; they wanted to do things their way; and, of course, they thought they could make more money.
Common themes, then. But it takes a brave person to set up on their own in the teeth of the worst recession in living memory - a recession where most of the rules have gone out of the window. Yet bravery abounds, and it pays off... most of the time.
However, I think the real test of entrepreneurship will come after the Spending Review in a few week's time. With hundreds of thousands of jobs set to be axed, how will our new business champions be affected? It's the unwritten truth that most of the public sector cuts will also affect the private sector somewhere down the line, and when you're in the throes of getting a new company up and running, the last thing you want to find is that half of your potential customer base has disappeared down the drain.
Testing times call for nerve and innovative thinking - the same thinking that saw them break free of the shackles of those nine-to-five office jobs and strike out on their own. Let's see if our East Midlands entrepreneurs are up to it.
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