APPG for Entrepreneurship Digest: November 2022

November heralds the start of a frenzied flourish of activity, bringing together millions of people drawn from around the world, with only one thing on their minds. No, I’m not talking about the FIFA World Cup – but the 15th year of the Global Entrepreneurship Network’s Global Entrepreneurship Week. Kicking off next Monday (14th), GEW describes itself as: “a massive campaign to celebrate and empower entrepreneurs in every country and community around the world – especially those individuals who face structural barriers or may have never considered the idea of launching their own startup.”

GEW will prioritise four themes this year – education, ecosystems, inclusion, and policy. From our perspective at the APPG for Entrepreneurship, we’re delighted to see each of these being plumped for – given how closely they map onto our own interests.  

Education was the subject of one of our most recently published reports. In Entrepreneurship Education, we drew attention to how teaching the skills necessary for preparing the next generation of successful entrepreneurs is not properly integrated into the English curriculum. It also noted the confusion over where responsibility for this sits within government, either BEIS or DfE – and how links between the two departments on the matter are “tenuous at best.” 

Entrepreneurialism may seem like a trait people are either born with or not, but study after study suggests that even small interventions early on can instil an innovative spark and equip younger – and even not so young – people with the tools and mindset necessary to start and build a successful business.

GEW refers to ecosystems as the communities, networks and markets that underpin enterprise. We echo the importance of all of these. In our last report, Space Startups and Scaleups, we looked at the burgeoning community of entrepreneurs working in that most cutting edge of industries – the UK’s space sector. We made a series of recommendations which would cultivate the space ecosystem, from lowering barriers to immigration so that firms could more easily and more cheaply bring in the talent they need (networks are nothing if not living and breathing people), to changing how the government purchases space technologies (in other words, opening up the huge ‘market’ that is public procurement). 

Inclusion is, again, a primary focus for us too. If swathes of the population are arbitrarily excluded from entrepreneurship – whether by dint of race, background, or gender – it shouldn’t be surprising if the economy is less fruitful than it otherwise could be. Our work on this can be seen most obviously in our Women in Leadership report, which not only argued for increasing the number of women-owned businesses, but also for raising their performance and growth potential. To achieve this, we identified solutions such as lowering the cost of childcare to allow mothers to return to work more quickly, and tackling STEM drop-off rates. 

Our secretariat organisation, The Entrepreneurs Network, has also worked tirelessly over the years through its Female Founders Forum to advocate for women-led businesses – as well as shining a spotlight on how to empower entrepreneurship among Britain’s most socio-economically disadvantaged communities.

With respect to policy, this is frankly something which cuts across just about everything we do. More than simply drawing awareness to challenges various entrepreneurs face – itself an important job nonetheless – our APPG exists to champion specific policy changes which the government could implement to actively improve the business landscape entrepreneurs find themselves in. Despite the turbulence Westminster has seen of late, we will continue to put forward practical, evidence-based policies that we think everyone with an interest in seeing British entrepreneurs succeed can get behind.

GEW might just be a week-long thing, but the importance of such initiatives can last a lifetime. If an individual is inspired to become an entrepreneur off the back of attending an event, that can only be a good thing. We’re looking forward to seeing the ideas that come out of GEW – and hope that some of our own thinking finds its way into the multitude of discussions and debates that will be had over the week. If you’d like to find out more about GEW, just click here – and GEW events happening in the UK can be found here.

Friends of the Network

Our friends at Enterprise Nation have published a piece of work looking at the impact of mentoring on UK businesses. In Mentoring Matters, they note that 66% of SMEs they surveyed who had accessed mentoring agreed that it was crucial in helping their business to survive, while 76% agreed that mentoring was vital to their business’s growth.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Entrepreneurs and Founders Forum Group have launched a new partnership to support entrepreneurs at every stage, and will be working together on new research projects and events. You can find out more here.

The CBI is hosting its Annual Conference 2022 later this month in Birmingham – promising ample networking opportunities and in-depth insights from the UK’s top business and policy leaders. We have 25 complimentary tickets (normally £325) that we would like to offer to newsletter recipients on a first come first served basis. This is for Day 2 of the conference, on November 22, which is focused on startups, scaleups and unicorns. It will feature talks with Deborah Meaden (Dragon’s Den), Euan Blair (Metaverse), Greg Jackson (Octopus Energy), Mark Bailie (Compare the Market), Romi Savova (PensionBee), and Poppy Gustafsson (Darktrace). More information can be found here and if you would like to attend or ask any questions, please get in contact with Kapila Perera from the CBI.

In Parliament

Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship have received a healthy smattering of attention in both Chambers over the past four weeks. 

We were pleased to see a number of MPs standing up for entrepreneurs. Virginia Crosby MP asked whether the government agreed that “entrepreneurs are the backbone of our economy,” to which the then Minister for Women, Katherine Fletcher MP, gave a resounding “yes”. Paul Bristow MP, meanwhile, raised the importance of entrepreneurs in a debate on economic responsibility and the Plan for Growth – noting “entrepreneurs create jobs, pay people and grow our economy”, and adding that “we need to be more positive and to recognise the efforts made by businessmen and women.”

Two of our very own Officers made references to entrepreneurship. Jo Gideon MP highlighted how “a young entrepreneur must wait until they reach the age of 18 before they can open a business bank account”, before asking the Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP if she would “set aside parliamentary time for a debate on how we can encourage and support young entrepreneurs.” 

The new Leader of the House of Commons responded positively, saying: “We want to support all young people in their talents and ambitions. She has identified a barrier that stops people setting up their own businesses and starting to develop their ideas at a young age. I shall certainly write to the new Secretary of State and raise the matter with him.”

Then Jerome Mayhew MP spoke of the importance of “pro-growth reforms to back entrepreneurs and businesses”, and asked whether “the Government will continue to review EU-inspired regulations to make them bespoke for the UK economy, deliver pro-growth investment zones right across the country, and boost our energy supply?” Penny Mordaunt again replied approvingly, noting the “enormous number of expressions of interest” investment zones have already received. 

Finally, in a debate on international students and their contribution to the UK, MPs were quick to identify the role they can play in entrepreneurship. Carol Monaghan MP spoke of how she was pleased that the government “reintroduced the post-study work visa”, affirming that its absence meant the UK “lost brain power and entrepreneurs.” In the same debate, Matt Western MP cited research from our secretariat, arguing that: “international students add enormous value to the UK economy and research base. The Entrepreneurs Network estimates that nearly half of Britain’s 100 fastest-growing start-ups have at least one immigrant co-founder. That leads me nicely on to the economic value of international students. Their precise economic value is really secondary to the wider social and cultural benefits that they bring, but it is still an important contribution to the UK.”