Let’s Celebrate…

Christmas is a time for celebration, and with that in mind lets rejoice in the fact that the UK has been declared the most entrepreneurial country in Europe! 2014 has of course had its share of downs along with its ups, and just yesterday the Financial Times reported that a price that Britons have had to pay is a fall of around 10% in real wages from their pre-recession peak. Although, reports from the Office of National Statistics has shown that things have started to look up in the three months to the end of October, so the squeeze on living standards may finally be easing! Another prediction that doesn’t spell quite such good news for homeowners is that the UK’s first interest rate rise will come next year.

However, it’s the festive season after all, so we thought we’d focus on spreading some Christmas cheer. Let’s take a look at what the UK - and London in particular - has done particularly well this year…

The year over half a million started up…

A quick glimpse at Startup Britain’s ‘startup tracker’ shows that so far a whopping 562,394 companies have been set up in the UK this year. In fact, emerging out of the recession, London is developing into an influential tech hub, and although not quite up in the big leagues with Silicon Valley, London's tech scene is on the rise, and it’s highly developed tech cluster is attracting plenty of attention, investment and talent.

And the UK’s behind them…

Another great indicator that the UK is a nurturer of emerging businesses is the fantastic reception that the initiative Small Business Saturday has received. Michelle Ovens, national campaign director for Small Business Saturday, set up the initiative to support, inspire and promote small businesses. Michelle explains that the nationwide event exists to "celebrate the diversity of small businesses" and includes enterprises from all over the country with a variety of business models. Michelle added that "it’s that celebration of brilliant stories that we think is inspirational to small businesses."

Now in its second year, Small Business Saturday’s event took place on December 6th to encourage the nation to explore and support our local independent businesses. In fact, 2014’s campaign has gone fantastically well, with a whopping 16.5 million people out supporting the cause, meaning that 64% of UK consumers were aware of Small Business Saturday’s aim of supporting, inspiring and promoting small businesses. Discussing this year’s success, Michelle explained that they "saw a massive pick up from last year. Awareness is definitely up – it’s tapped into a trend. People want to support their local businesses." FreshMinds are very proud to have been part of this initiative and our team have absolutely loved getting involved and donating their time to spreading Small Business Saturday’s message, from campaigning on the bus tour to supporting their social media efforts.

Out with the old, in with the new?

With a flurry of new business excitement gripping the country, it’s important we don’t forget London is not only doing well on the new business front, it’s proving the place to be for established businesses. Data released earlier this year shows that 40% of the globe’s biggest companies choose to base themselves in London, rather than elsewhere in Europe. In fact, 20% of the 250 largest companies in the world with a main or European headquarters have it in London, according to a study by Deloitte. That’s five times more than those who pick Paris, the second-most popular city in Europe. This gap grows even larger when looking at just the non-European companies, with 60% of them having their European headquarters in London.

And we can’t forget about the top-notch talent…

The study also shows that London is the most popular destination for top talent; in fact nearly half of all high-skilled workers in the top five European business cities are employed here. Paris is in second place again, with 19%, followed by Berlin (13.7%), Milan (11%) and Frankfurt (9.8%). So it’s clear that something that London offers is great candidates - both in the form of home-grown talent and attracting the best and brightest to our shore In this increasingly complex and data-driven world it’s proving fascinating and inspiring to see the impact our analytical candidates are having on new and old businesses alike.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us this year.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas from the FreshMinds team!”