Written by Sam Coventry.
28th October 2013
A study of 300,000 small businesses across the UK has shown a rise in the number of people setting up businesses online.
The study undertaken by Freelancer.co.uk assessed 300,000 businesses over the past 12 months and found that an online entrepreneurial boom was taking place right across the country, with the people just as willing to start a new business in the north as those in the south.
The study found that Brighton and Newcastle saw the highest growth with 24% respectively, followed closely by Manchester and Southampton with 23% growth.
The picture was consistent across the whole country with London seeing 21% growth, Edinburgh and Liverpool 20%, Birmingham and Edinburgh 19%, with Sheffield seeing the lowest growth across the whole country on a still impressive 8%.
The figures back up recent economic data that the UK is slowly moving out of recession. Yet the study also shows that as the economy grows more people are looking for extra work as the value of real wages falls. As real wages have fallen, Freelancer.co.ukhas seen an increase in earnings for people undertaking short-term jobs of 73%.
The study found that the UK microbusinesses need a range of skills to help them set up a businesses, with a 19% rise in microbusinesses getting an ecommerce sites designed, orders for shopping carts to be installed on their websites were up 18%.
Email marketing was up 20% as microbusinesses were looking to increase sales. Social media is becoming ever more important as microbusinesses are some of the most tech savvy with twitter jobs up 17%. Graphic design was up 12%, telemarketing up 10%, and logo design up 6%, lead generation up 10%.
“This study shows that a clear picture is emergings,” said Bill Little, European Director for Freelancer.co.uk. “Starting a microbusinesses online is easier than ever and is less risky with small start up costs. Many of the people in this study set up businesses alongside their own jobs hiring in freelancers for short projects to help get the business off the ground before leaving their job to run the business full time.
“The jobs that businesses are outsourcing are essential to setting up and growing a business, so it is not surprising that so many of these jobs are growing so quickly. It provides extra evidence that there is an entrepreneurial microbusiness boom happening across the UK.
“Many of these freelancers are looking to earn extra money as the value of real wages has decreased over the past few years. And as more businesses are looking to hire, people are able to plug the gap in the value of their wages of taking on extra work,” he said.
Source: Director of Finance Online