Yesterday (November 18) saw the launch of the UK’s largest entrepreneurship-focused campaign, Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2013, which is an international event that seeks to inspire and motivate enterprising activity in “the young and old”, and encourage people to “take the next step forward”.
Last year, the GEW reached over 279,000 people and this year it is looking to achieve greater engagement with more than 3,000 events being held across the country involving 300,000 people.
Commentators agreed that business people who believe in entrepreneurship think that this is a very special week, celebrated in more than 130 countries across the world.
According to participants, the GEW is about passing on important skills to early stage start-ups, fostering the dream of running your own business, tackling barriers and shining a spotlight on the work that is done in the other 51 weeks of the year.
Meanwhile, Sue Hayes, managing director of Barclays Business, which is co-host for the week, discussed its contribution to support Britain’s entrepreneurs, saying that the bank works closely with hundreds of small businesses every week and recognises the need for relevant, no-nonsense advice to help them transform their dream into a reality.
Barclays Bank itself will run more than 100 free Barclays Get Ready for Business seminars aimed at budding entrepreneurs within varying stages in their development.
The launch coincided with research that surveyed 156 UK entrepreneurs and found that 50 per cent of business owners predict that their revenue will increase by 30 per cent or more by 2016, with 30 per cent expecting to start another venture within the next 12 months.
