We keep hearing how we are a nation of entrepreneurs and that more and more young people are trying to set up businesses, but in reality how much funding is there really out there for these budding entrepreneurs. We've frequently reported on the lack of funding from banks, but there are other options out there and new suggestions constantly being thrown about. Richard Branson, for example, has put forward the idea that young people who do not go to university could use their student loan to start a business instead. This would give them access to much needed finance, but with the low interest rates and long payback terms that undergraduates receive with the student loan system.
You may have come across the Get Mentoring scheme, which aims to create a network of thousands of business mentors that will give SMEs access to the wealth of experience from entrepreneurs. This is all well and good, but advice is of no use if businesses haven't got the funding to get started in the first place. So, it has been suggested this idea of mentoring be used in a different manner with the help of large corporations.
We recently 
When starting up a business, unless it's part of the core ethos of that company, it's very possible that environmental considerations do not rank very high when it comes to getting your business up and running. This, of course, is very understandable given the amount of time, money and effort that goes into launching a business. However, it's worth thinking about some of these stats, which will actually help you save money as well as helping your business to be at least a little but green.
We already knew it, but a recent report by the Made Simple Group has shown that the oldest person to become a limited company director in the last three years was 94 and the youngest was 16. This is a fantastic reflection of business in the UK today, and just goes to show that the UK is full of new business ideas from all quarters. The fact that so many young are setting up companies bodes very well for the future of private enterprise, and we can only hope that they are getting the help and support they require to help them succeed in this difficult arena. Sadly, having a good idea simply isn't enough in this day and age. It's about how you get your message out to the masses. Similarly, with older entrepreneurs, if they are setting up their first company then they will probably still require support of some sort even if they have the benefit of business experience. It would be interesting to see the types of businesses these two groups have been setting up and whether there are any clear differences - and also the success rates.