An Award Winning Presentation delivered at the 2010 ONS Research Conference which attracted plaudits from practitioners and politicians alike

1. Entrepreneur Mapping:
Tracking Businesses along The
Journey from Pre-Start to Start-Up
to High Growth
RIU Conference 21st June 2010
•Neil Geoghegan – Corporate Resources Director
•Ged Mirfin – Chief Data Officer

2. Content
• Methodology
• Business Life Cycle
• High Growth Businesses
• Key Questions
• QlikView
• Start-Ups & Growth Prospects: Environmental Factors
• Star Performers: Experiential Factors
• The Take-Off Period – the Importance of Critical
Business Events
• At the end of the day its all about Confidence
• Conclusions
• Questions

3. Entrepreneurialism – is it really a
white knuckle ride?
“The life of an entrepreneur in a gazelle company is a life of
almost constant fear. Everything is uncertain. What will
happen next? This means that the entrepreneurs must be
able to control their fear, which few can. It’s like a downhill
skier before hurtling down the precipice…the fear is there
but under control.
The people who succeed are people who can tolerate the fear,
the fear of awful events, and if you learn to tolerate the fear
well, then you can do almost everything. As an entrepreneur
you need to learn how to deal with fear.”
David Birch
Originator of the Term “Gazelle”, March 2010

4. Methodology
• Tracking Businesses from Conception to Birth to High Growth
examining their shared characteristics
• What differentiates the behaviour of owners of High Growth
Companies who have sought Business Support?
• “Business Life Cycle” Tracking Key Developmental Stages of a
Business
• Entrepreneur Mapping “Matching” the details of Pre-Start Enquiries
(“Thinking of Starting-Up a Business”) with:
a. A Business Location
b. The Home Address Details of the Directors or Proprietors
c. Home-Based Businesses
• Enriching of Data Set with Additional Classification Systems to better
understand the behaviour of Business Owners
• Visualisation of the links between the Socio-Demographic
Environment where Directors and Proprietors live and Business
behaviour
• Star Performers Survey provided further detailed behavioural insight

5. Business Life Cycle
• Focus on Start-Up and Early
Growth Phase
• Focus on Businesses between 3
d
rio
and 5 years old (some “shelf Flyers
f Pe
companies” are included) these
-Of
only start up properly after
e
Tak
being dormant for a while
• We also surveyed Mature Sprinters
Businesses further on in the Accelerators
Business Life Cycle that have
been assisted by BLNW to
explore the behaviour of their
owners

6. High Growth Companies
A gazelle company is an American expression for small, fast growing companies (in reference to the fact they can
jump higher and run faster than their peers), that creates many job opportunities. Fast growing firms ("gazelles")
are defined as companies that have experienced at least 60% growth in employment and turnover (turnover
adjusted for inflation) over a 3 year period.
Accelerators: Sprinters: Flyers:
Young, and usually Fast-expanding Dynamic Sprinters who turn into
small, high growth SMEs often in new large rapidly
enterprises industries that generate expanding job
Young, start-up or spin- large amounts of creators.
out firms. Turnover. Do they also Large Mature High
“Adolescent” High-Tech generate large numbers Growth
Companies. of jobs at the same time? Companies
The subset of high-
growth enterprises.
which are 3 but typically
5 years or older.
“Early Start-up phase: “Early Growth Phase: “Exponential Growth
Up to 3 Years” 3 to 5 Years” Phase:
Years and Older”

7. Key Questions – How do we spot
Winners (Business Flyers)?
• Can these companies help to grow our way out of recession?
• How important are Start-Up Businesses to growing our way
out of a recession?
• How quickly can Start-Up Businesses grow?
• We run the QlikView microscope over key geographies and
ask “how important is place” when it comes to starting-up a
business?
• Is “Entrepreneurialism” a “Middle Class Phenomenon”?
• How do the owners of “Flying Businesses” behave?
• Are you confident to push-off on the white knuckle ride?

8. You’re No More than 6 Qliks Away From An Answer
From QlikView to Local Regional View
• QlikView Dashboard Engine is revolutionising analytics
• Ability to Link Data Sources in a way simply not possible before
• Allows us to focus the microscope on a list of “enterprising prospects”
analysing key “attributes”, “shared characteristics” and essential
“differentiators” to better understand correlations between
environment, experiential behaviour and business performance
• QlikView technology has effectively allowed us to break down the six
degrees of separation (Sidney Milgram) between high growth
businesses and their operating environment
• QlikView has allowed us to produce multi-dimensional League Tables
and to understand the correlations between comparative ranking
positions of the businesses on them
• QlikView also allows to picture the results of our analysis in a highly
visual way

9. Customer Volumes

10. Attributes of Growth Prospects-
Geography
1. Simple split of region reveals expected volumes for Greater Manchester.
2. Strong performance from Lancashire
3. Cumbrian total outperforms expectations

11. Growth Prospects Attributes - RES
Includes:
Builders & Building Contractors 168
Interior Building Services 289
Personal Services 179
Education 103
Medical Services 94
Garages & Vehicles 45
1. Vast majority of “Growth Prospect” companies operate outside of RES Sectors
2. Larger Service Sector companies in Business & Professional appears to be an area
from which people look to set up a business.
3. Very Few Advanced Engineering companies are starting and thriving.

12. Geographic League Tables
To 20 Towns / Cities for start up
City / Town Survivors Initial Enqs Conversion
MANCHESTER 489 4200 12%
LIVERPOOL 363 3393 11%
PRESTON 271 1920 14%
STOCKPORT 152 934 16%
WARRINGTON 134 910 15%
CARLISLE 127 902 14%
BOLTON 120 840 14%
BLACKPOOL 108 839 13%
WIGAN 94 789 12%
WIRRAL 91 512 18%
BLACKBURN 84 514 16%
CHORLEY 81 594 14%
OLDHAM 79 565 14%
KENDAL 76 531 14%
SOUTHPORT 69 450 15%
ROCHDALE 65 461 14%
CHESTER 58 526 11%
NORTHWICH 54 311 17%
BURY 52 451 12%
ALTRINCHAM 48 260 18%
ROSSENDALE 48 340 14%
LANCASTER 47 457 10%
MACCLESFIELD 47 223 21%
ORMSKIRK 40 326 12%
SALE 40 220 18%

13. League Tables
Top 20 SIC Codes
SIC Code Total •Most are from
Unknown 864 unknown SIC
F Construction 518 codes
N Administrative And Support Service Activities 489
M Professional, Scientific And Technical 447
G Wholesale And Retail Trade; Repair Of Motor Vehicles And Motorcycles 339 •Sole traders in
S Other Service Activities 326 the construction
C Manufacturing 267 sector constitute a
P Education 168
large start up
J Information And Communication 167
Q Human Health And Social Work Activities 155
group
R Arts, Entertainment And Recreation 113
I Accommodation And Food Service Activities 100 •Comparatively
H Transportation And Storage 85 low levels of
L Real Estate Activities 81
manufacturing
A Agriculture, Forestry And Fishing 31
K Financial And Insurance Activities 25 companies start
E Water Supply; Sewerage, Waste Management And Remediation Activities 17 up
O Public Administration And Defence; Compulsory Social Security 9
D Electricity, Gas, Steam And Air Conditioning Supply 2
U Activities Of Extraterritorial Organisations And Bodies 1

14. Economic Contributions

15. High Growth Geography -
Sales
Top Twenty Local Authorities 20/39
Manchester 52
Cheshire East 39
Cheshire West and Chester 36
Liverpool 33
Sefton 33
Trafford 30
Stockport 28
Warrington 25
Blackburn with Darwen 24
Salford 23
Bury 21
Oldham 21
Wigan 20
Wirral 20
Chorley 19
South Lakeland 19
St. Helens 19
Rochdale 17
Bolton 15
Top Twenty Towns & Cities Preston 15
MANCHESTER 108 ROCHDALE 14
LIVERPOOL 63 WIRRAL 14
20/97
PRESTON 33 SOUTHPORT 13 •Greater Manchester has the highest return 34%
WARRINGTON 25 WIGAN 13
STOCKPORT 24 ST HELENS 12
•Manchester (City) has 16%
BLACKBURN
OLDHAM
21 CARLISLE
18 ROSSENDALE
11
11
•Top 5 Performing Post Codes BB2 (Blackburn 13) BB4
CHORLEY 16 BURY 10 (Rossendale 11) M19 (Manchester 11) PR7 (Chorley /
BLACKPOOL 15 ALTRINCHAM 9
BOLTON 15 NORTHWICH 9 Charnock Richard 11) M28 (Worsley 10)

16. High Growth Sales – Which Areas
Generate High Growth?
• Deprivation Areas – 198
• Non Deprivation Areas - 513 of which 168 are
from “Prospering Suburbs”.
• “Prospering Suburbs” account for 25% 0f all high
growth start ups and 33% of high growth start
ups in in Non Deprivation Areas.
• Is Entrepreneurialism a middle class
phenomenon?
• Is this accentuated by the current recession?

17. Business Synapses
• Does living in certain places make business decisions, easier / more
effective?
• Is it easier for certain socio demographic groups to set up and grow a
business?
• Challenges in business are ubiquitous, the synaptic gap is the difference
between cause and effect in the creation of a high growth company
• Business Synapse Theory suggests that the greater intensity and
frequency (“busy-ness”) of Business Neurons make it easier to cross the
business development gap.
• The speed of response increases proportionate to the level of business
stimulation (support) activity.
• Business Stimuli can be many and varied (public and private) but it is the
quality of stimulus operating within receptive settings that is the key.

18. Where are the busy business neurons
from?
• The more the merrier. Neurons in biology speed up
reactions the quality of the Neurones is important.
Synapse gaps are bridged by Neurones and this
bridging generates action (response)
• The optimum result is that reaction times are
shortened and levels of responsiveness improved
• An absence of Neurons will cause paralysis, this is
true both biologically and in business
• Business Neurons are many and varied - it is quality
that is the key
• Business Support is a key element in the generation
of business neurons.

19. High Growth In Deprived Areas - Sales
Towns / Cities Sales Growth
Top 15 Deprived Areas
MANCHESTER 46
LIVERPOOL 34
PRESTON 12
OLDHAM 9
ROCHDALE 8
BOLTON 7
BLACKBURN 6
RUNCORN 6
ST HELENS 5
BLACKPOOL 4
NELSON 4
SOUTHPORT 4
BARROW IN FURNESS 3
•City Regions have the largest return BURY 3
Percentage of Total High Growth CHORLEY 3
•Liverpool has the most growth companies from
MANCHESTER 46 43% deprived areas 54%
LIVERPOOL 34 54% •Runcorn has the highest proportion from
PRESTON 12 36% deprived areas (75%) with Rochdale and Nelson
OLDHAM 9 50% joint second (57%)
ROCHDALE 8 57% •Average for the region 28%
BOLTON 7 47% •Most areas have very little high growth in
BLACKBURN 6 29% deprived areas
RUNCORN 6 75% •Cheshire & Warrington have only 4%, Cumbria
ST HELENS 5 42% have 11%
BLACKPOOL 4 27% •Greater Manchester 34%, Merseyside 48%, Lancs
NELSON 4 57% 24%

20. High Growth In Prosperous Wards -
Sales Output Area Classification
Typical Traits 172
Prospering Suburbs 168
Countryside 92
Blue Collar Communities 32
Constrained by Circumstances 22
City Living 20
Multicultural 5
Not Known 2
•Manchester has the highest return with 62 companies
Top 15 Sales Growth
Non Deprivation areas
as a %age
of Total
•Stockport, Rossendale, Northwich and Warrington produce more
MANCHESTER
LIVERPOOL
62
29
57%
46%
than 90% of their growth companies from prosperous areas
WARRINGTON 24 96% •OA Classification “Prospering Suburbs” are primary drivers for High
22 100%
Growth Companies
STOCKPORT
PRESTON 21 64%
BLACKBURN 15 71%
CHORLEY 13 81%
BLACKPOOL 11 73%
WIGAN 11 85%
WIRRAL 11 79%
ROSSENDALE 10 91%
CARLISLE 9 82%
NORTHWICH 9 100%
OLDHAM 9 50%
SOUTHPORT 9 69%

21. Significant Contributions with
employment growth
Sales of more than £400k and
employing more than 10
people

22. High Growth - Sales of £400k+ and Staff 10+
Even Geographical Spread - only 42 businesses
5 3
Easier to grow in Cumbria 16% of high growth companies
achieve more than £400k & 10 people, only 3% achieve this
34 in Greater Manchester, 6% everywhere else
Vast Majority turnover less than £1m
Total Jobs in sample – approx 2500

23. High Sales Growth (£5m+) Companies
Employing more than 10
Even Geographical Spread of businesses
Very Few Companies achieve this size
Although Sales Volumes are good employment is
predominantly in the 10 – 49 bracket
Employing – 445 with sales of £125m aprox

24. Business Activity Matrix - Start Up
Companies and Growth
Annual Turnover
< £90k £90-£400k £400k - £2,5m £2.5m+
100 - 250+ 0 0 0 2
50 - 99 0 2 0 7
B
d
n
a
10 - 49 11 13 29 6
0- 9 1433 626 598 43
H
o
n
u
d
e
a
c
t
•There are few companies that make the leap up the high growth curve!
•Turnover and Number of Employees are mutually interdependent
•Growing employee base beyond 9 is very difficult and requires turnover of
more than £1.0m
•From start up to high turnover and employment in a 3 year window is very
rare

25. Conclusions - Environment
• Manchester good new co generation
• Liverpool has the most high deprivation locations
• High Class Suburbs generate most high growth companies
by a factor of 3:1
• Deprived locations valiant effort – heroes!
• Regeneration Areas perform well for start up activity but
struggle to achieve significant growth within 3 years
• Job Creation in general struggles to get over 10 employees
• Few achieve high turnover (£5m)
• How long does it take to establish a significant business –
is a 3 year window too small?

26. Star Performer Survey
• Conducted a survey amongst Business Link
Advisors to highlight businesses in their
portfolios that they considered to be their
strongest performers
• Survey designed to capture behavioural
characteristics of the owners of these high
performing businesses
• Unique insight into high performing businesses
in receipt of direct business support

27. Method
• On Line Questionnaire (Sharepoint) completed by
qualified business advisors in the North West of
England
• 259 questionnaires were completed
• Response rate of 40% of advisor population
• Geographic spread of respondents was forced and
matches the locale of the advisor
• Questions required advisors to choose from a list of
priority options and rank key behavioural
characteristics
• Response drivers focussed on intrinsic v’s extrinsic
motivations of the business owners

28. Questionnaire Format

29. Word Cloud for Responses
Drive Phase

30. Business Sectors
•Highest number of respondents from the Digital & Creative
Industries and the Finance and Professional Services sectors
•Energy & Environment offers the largest percentage response
from the BLNW team
•Advanced Engineering delivered a proportionately low response

31. Entrepreneurial Characteristics
a) Drive and ambition - Do the key personnel
of the business have the drive and
ambition to succeed?
b) Control/Decisive - Are the key personnel
decisive and prefer to take full control of
the business (autocratic)?
c) Proactive leader - Are the key personnel
proactive in their approach and show
strong leadership qualities?
d) Risk taking - Do the key personnel take
risks in venture opportunities even if they
don't know what the outcome is going to
be?

32. Entrepreneurial Characteristics
• Drive and Ambition and Pro-activity were
more important than control or the
propensity to take risks
• The risk = reward concept seems not to apply
to our sample
• View risk from the position of experience –
allows a more calculated approach

33. Innovation
• Do the key personnel have creative ideas
/new solutions?
b) Does the company culture encourage and
support new ideas, creative processes and
R&D?
c) Do creative ideas come from anyone in the
company?
• Is from inspired leadership and empowered teams.

34. Market
a) Right place/right time - Has an element of
luck influenced the success of this
business?
b) Is it a growing market and is it favourable
for the type of product/service the
business is offering?
c) Does the product/service have a
USP/competitive edge compared to the
current marketplace?
d) Access to market - Does the business have
easy access to its marketplace?
e) Import/Export - Is the business an importer
or exporter and is this a key to their success?

35. Market
• The right place right time question has a very
normal distribution, “luck” is not a factor
• Growing Markets and Niche products are
important
• 79% of the respondents offer a unique selling
point
• 79% of respondents did not consider Import
Export activities to be important
• 54% believed this strongly
• Access to Market is vital

36. Unique Selling Point
Only 5% of the responses said that price was their USP
48% believed it was quality
47% believed it was market positioning

37. Finance
• Are the key personnel financially
committed to the venture?
b) Has the business secured investment/asset
backing?
•91% of the respondents had a significant personal
financial investment in their businesses
•Third party finance was not a major driver

38. Skills
• Are the key personnel classically trained or self
taught? Do/does the owner/director/s have
the necessary business management skills to
facilitate innovation/process development? i.e.
accounting, marketing and strategic planning.
b) Have the key personnel an established track
record for success contributed to the
performance of the business?
c) Do the key personnel of the business have
expert market knowledge/experience with the
ability to create "niche", "me too" and "new"
products?
d) Does the business have a clear/streamlined
structure of skilled staff that work well
together and how much has this contributed to

39. Skills
• Skills are critical to performance
• Track record and “expert” market knowledge
are as important as formal skill set
• Skill and Confidence are very closely linked
• Organisational skill and empowerment
complement core subject specific skills

40. Business Support Themes for the
“Star Performer” group

41. Business Support Themes - Notes
• Most action plans were “strategic” rather than
“tactical”.
• Huge focus on skills & training
• Emphasis on new premises
• Marketing was a very common feature
• Business Development focused on developing
opportunities, R&D and intellectual property
• Most of the interventions were directed at “high
end” business processes

42. Different Age Profile for the respondents
•Much broader spread of age – Minority being less than three years
•Only 34 (12%) were in the 3 year “start up” phase
•Vast Majority older than 7 years.
•Most companies from affluent areas, proportion (66%)much less than start
up statistics (73%)

43. Sales Banding of Respondents
•Even distribution of turnover bands
•More established companies have higher turnover
•Maturity equals volume

44. Headcount Banding of Respondents
•Still an emphasis on companies employing less than 10 people
•Largest band employ between 10 - 49
•Much greater company count for larger companies
•Maturity equals size

45. High Growth Companies – “The
Critical Event”

46. Critical Events
• This is where opportunity meets hard work
• Events can be planned, they can be
accidental but they are not always
recognised!
• Even when recognised they are not always
developed
• Few fledgling entrepreneurs derive
maximum benefit form the opportunities
• Many step away from the inherent risk

47. Critical Event – Essential
Characteristics for Success

48. Snapshot of a High Growth Company
• Twice as likely to emerge from a Prosperous area
• Will register tangible growth in its first three years
• Will seek (strategic) business support
• Is likely to emerge from new technology / markets
• Will be a round for a while
• Will be “educated or experienced” and focus on skill
• Drive, Ambition and Commitment will be evident
• Will make the most of critical business developments
• Will have enough confidence to take measured risks
• Flyers will look before they leap, but they WILL
leap.

49. Conclusion
• We Need to prepare for the “Event” spike on the
growth curve
• We need to provide the “Nurture” aspects of a high
growth company (Finance & Robust Business Process)
• We need to understand how Entrepreneurial
Confidence can be bolstered, prepare them for the
leap
• Pro-actively encourage partnerships and other
personal business relationships
• Create critical business neurons
• Questions?