The government’s aim of making the UK the best place to set up a business may need a rethink – because company owners find growth a tougher task than start-up.
A YouGov poll of 800 small businesses found the top challenges to expanding a business is lack of money – the biggest obstacle, followed by excessive red tape and lack of time.
But supporting the fact that most company owners took the plunge to gain more independence, the biggest restriction to actual growth was preserving work-life balance, the poll found.
In other words, company owners wish to retain the attractions of self-employment, to the extent that expanding their venture can become too problematic, according to the poll, commissioned by Panasonic.
The company seized on the finding as evidence that its development work should focus more on offering firms technology that can streamline the owner-manager’s business operations.
This would allow the self-employed person to devote more time to growing their company and still deliver them a better work-life balance, the company said.
Professor Gerry George, of the London Business School, reflected: “It's a common misconception, but people often think of the start-up phase as most critical, only to discover that growing the business raises a whole different set of challenges they are not always prepared for.
“As seen in the research findings, organisational factors, such as resource constraints and time, and personnel issues, like hard work and building the right team, can be major roadblocks to break-through growth.”
In the research, commissioned to ascertain why just 3% of firms grow to over 100 employees, nine out of ten said making their own decisions was the top treat of self-employment.
In fact, having the independence to decide for themselves in business was the main attraction for 89%, while a lesser but significant majority cited factors like work-life balance and flexible working. Over 70% also cited the appeal of self-achieving.
Elsewhere, almost half of company owners said ‘gut instinct and making the most of every opportunity’ would be their guiding formulae for 2007.
New products and services were seen as most important asset of growth until 2012, while almost a third pinned their expansion hopes on winning a big client.
Feb 12, 2007
Email this article
Printer friendly page
Previous Page
