amexopenforum: Click here to embiggen (see full infographic) The number of angel Investors and the amount of dollars they’ve invested have significantly increased over the last ten years, allowing aspiring entrepreneurs more opportunities than ever to achieve success for their early stage companies. (Via Visual.ly)
14% of UK’s workforce is now self employed! xeniosblog: According to data published by the Daily Telegraph today 14% of UK’s workforce is now self-employed. And this excludes all those second jobbers and moonlighters which, as I mentioned in my recent interview on the BBC ,  is in fact the highest growing sector within PeoplePerHour’s community of 350,000 freelancers . According to data published by the Office of National statistics there are now 367,000 more people who are self-employed than there were in 2008.  I commented both to the Telegraph and the Guardian today on what’s driving that growth. The recession is not the driver of change, it has been the catalyst. In a recent poll we conducted on PeoplePerHour, more than a third said the reason was to get a better work-life balance, and a quarter said it was to pursue a hobby or passion. Freelancing is not a recessionary fad. It’s a structural change in the labour market. As in many step changes in the economy over the last century, recession has been a great catalyst and awakening call to accelerating that change.  

14% of UK’s workforce is now self employed!

xeniosblog:

According to data published by the Daily Telegraph today 14% of UK’s workforce is now self-employed. And this excludes all those second jobbers and moonlighters which, as I mentioned in my recent interview on the BBC ,  is in fact the highest growing sector within PeoplePerHour’s community of 350,000 freelancers .

According to data published by the Office of National statistics there are now 367,000 more people who are self-employed than there were in 2008. 

I commented both to the Telegraph and the Guardian today on what’s driving that growth. The recession is not the driver of change, it has been the catalyst. In a recent poll we conducted on PeoplePerHour, more than a third said the reason was to get a better work-life balance, and a quarter said it was to pursue a hobby or passion.

Freelancing is not a recessionary fad. It’s a structural change in the labour market. As in many step changes in the economy over the last century, recession has been a great catalyst and awakening call to accelerating that change.  

“When two American economists, Stephan Goetz and Anil Rupasingha, carried out a detailed study of the links between Walmart Stores Inc. and dwindling social capital – the community cohesion and mutual support that makes neighbourhoods work – they found that if there was a Walmart nearby all the measures of social capital went down over the decade studied… Communities that gained a Walmart during the decade had fewer local charities and local associations such as churches, campaign groups and business groups per capita than those that did not. Walmart’s presence was also shown to depress civic participation. Strikingly, communities that had or gained a Walmart store in the 1990s also had lower voter turnout… Walmart and its ‘big box’ retail model it seems harmed not only local retailers, but also a wide variety of other businesses and professionals that served local retailers, such as banks and accountants. In the process, Goetz and Rupasingha concluded that ‘The social capital they embody is destroyed, and their entrepreneurial skills and other forms of location-specific human capital are forever lost to the community.”
“I would not encourage anyone to start a company unless they really want to. Knowing what I know about running a company, I would not wish that task on anyone. There are times when people cannot find employment, where starting a company is a solution for them. The odds are against success: Nine out of 10 companies fail in five years. Of those that survive the first five years, nine out of every 10 of those eventually fail, as well. So only if you really have the desire to own your own company do I recommend it.”
businessclimate: A Glimpse into the Future Global Economy: Exports, Innovation Will Drive Growth What will the future economy look like, and what will cities need to do to compete in it? In addressing this question at the recent International Economic Development Council conference, economist Richard Florida described a nation of megaregions, with economic activity centered around bustling downtown cores populated by innovative firms and entrepreneurial networks. READ THE FULL ARTICLE…
mappamundo: What Makes a Nation Rich? 
Entrepreneurs creating fewer jobs futuresagency: Here in the U.S. it is an article of faith that the economy is driven by entrepreneurs – job creators in the current political parlance. And there is no question that the U.S. maintains an entrepreneurial culture. But, something is happening that may represent an emergent trend. Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics illustrates that the years 1993 to 2001 were peak years in the creation of new companies. It is not surprising that new company “births” fell off after the dot com bust in 2000, increased a bit in 2004-2006, the peak of the debt bubble, and then fell off a cliff with the arrival of the recession in 2007. The fall off in new company formations is the steepest in the history of this data series. At the same time, company deaths kept climbing. Read More

Entrepreneurs creating fewer jobs

futuresagency:

Here in the U.S. it is an article of faith that the economy is driven by entrepreneurs – job creators in the current political parlance. And there is no question that the U.S. maintains an entrepreneurial culture.

But, something is happening that may represent an emergent trend. Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics illustrates that the years 1993 to 2001 were peak years in the creation of new companies. It is not surprising that new company “births” fell off after the dot com bust in 2000, increased a bit in 2004-2006, the peak of the debt bubble, and then fell off a cliff with the arrival of the recession in 2007. The fall off in new company formations is the steepest in the history of this data series. At the same time, company deaths kept climbing.

Read More

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