With the current economic climate and political uncertainty from Brexit and the General Election, business confidence has certainly been fluctuating.

However, according to new research from self-storage provider, Space Station, four out of five people are confident enough to want to start their own business. They carried out the research by interviewing 1,000 aspiring business owners to find out their reasons for wanting to go into business for themselves and the potential barriers to doing this.

Reasons for wanting to start a business

A large percentage of people say they plan to start a business one day. It was revealed that more women (65%) than men (59%) said that they wanted to own their own business.

When it comes to reasons for starting a business, women tended to cite flexibility as their main reason. Flexibility can often be an issue for women in particular after having children as not a lot of companies are so open to the concept of flexible working.

Even with those that are, there’s only so much flexibility you can have as an employee. 27% of women said flexible location and 58% said flexible working hours were their main motivations.

Money is the main motivation for men with 28% of them saying they wanted a business for this reason. 38% said that they wanted to become financially independent, which is compared to only 22% of women.

Both male and female respondents said that the sense of self-achievement you get in business (54%) and being able to choose who you work with (35%) were key factors in wanting to start a business.

Barriers to self-employment

Although wanting to start a business is popular, 35% said that they were unsure where to start it. 33% of women felt unsure compared to 28% of men.

Of the issues holding them back, financial risks come out on top with 54% of people stating this. A further 40% said a fear of failure was also a barrier to going ahead with starting a business.

The study also found that raising start-up funding was one of the most challenging and off-putting parts of starting a business. This isn’t stopping many though, with 62% of Brits saying that they want to be their own boss one day.

Vlatka Lake, marketing manager at Space Station commented: “‘over the years we have seen many entrepreneurs use our self-storage and office facilities to take their first steps in their business venture. It’s great to see more people gaining confidence to start up their new business despite potential barriers.”

Are you confident about starting or maintaining a business in the current climate? Why do you think people are more motivated now? Please share your thoughts!

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About The Author

Kara Copple

An experienced business and finance writer, sometimes moonlighting as a fiction writer and blogger.

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