The small business advent calendar: 10 December Another treat as Christmas creeps closer
Behind door number ten are some inspiring statistics about the older entrepreneurs making the most of retirement to start new businesses.
Some ten per cent of self-employed people were over 65 years old in 2014 according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the average age of a self-employed worker is 47, making them seven years older than the typical employee.
A recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) UK report revealed that a record number of over 50s were starting their own businesses with over seven per cent engaged in some sort of entrepreneurial activity in 2014.
this is particularly the case for men and one possible interpretation is that older men find it difficult to get back into the labour market, said Mark Hart, one of the academic at Aston Business School who worked on the GEM project.
Additional research by Barclays published in October showed that ageism hindered many over 50s looking for new jobs.
But analysis by Saga in March found that only five per cent of self-employed older people would prefer to be working for someone else. Some 77 per cent of all self-employed respondents to the survey cited the lure of the independence offered by running your own business as the primary reason for their situation.
Hannah Wilkinson is a reporter for Business Advice. She studied economics and management at Oxford University and prior to joining Business Advice wrote for Kensington and Chelsea Today about business and economics as well as running a tutoring company.
For many the festive period is a dreaded season when the thrill of leaving the office at lunchtime on Christmas Eve is soon squashed by the fear of having to spend a week with family. But behind door number nine is a cheering fact about the large number of families that choose to spend every day working together. more»
Research published by EE recently found that there were 10, 000 pop-up venues in the UK in 2015 and eight per cent of retailers opened a temporary venue to complement a permanent location. more»
Research from Barclays published in January found that some seven per cent of British small business owners were motivated in their entrepreneurial ambitions by a childhood dream with the figure rising to more than one tenth of female owner-managers. more»