Starting and growing a business can be risky.

But small businesses are what drives the UK’s economy. There are around 4.5 million small and medium-sized companies in the UK. Between them, they employ over half (58.7 per cent) of the UK workforce and account for just over half of all turnover.

Encouraging more businesses to start up and others to grow is important if the UK is going to be a vibrant, competitive place to do business. Smaller businesses are often the most innovative companies and can be more flexible to changing demands from customers.

Nevertheless there are often big hurdles to setting up and growing a business, which can deter many people and seriously threaten a business’ chance of survival. Accessing finance, finding premises, recruiting skilled staff, employment issues, regulation and getting good business advice can all be barriers to growth at different stages in a business’ development.

Nearly half (49 per cent) of respondents in a poll conducted by Populus said they thought it was much harder to start a business now compared to ten years ago. 20 per cent thought it was a little harder. So despite efforts by the Government to encourage entrepreneurs, there is still a long way to go.

Enterprise levels in the UK are on the up, but they are still around half those found in the USA. A growing number of young people think entrepreneurship is a good career choice and substantial public funding has been put into promoting youth enterprise. Female entrepreneurship however, lags behind male entrepreneurship and fewer high growth businesses are owned by women.