Entrepreneurs index-volume-6

About Barclays
Barclays is an international financial services provider engaged in personal, corporate and investment banking,
credit cards and wealth management with an extensive presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia.
Barclays’ purpose is to help people achieve their ambitions – in the right way. With 325 years of history and expertise in
banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs over 130,000 people. Barclays moves, lends, invests and
protects money for customers and clients worldwide.
For further information about Barclays, please visit our website www.barclays.com
About Business Growth Fund (BGF)
With £2.5bn of capital, BGF is Britain’s largest single investor of equity in ambitious and growing British businesses.
Its origins are with the Business Finance Taskforce, formed in 2010 to generate ideas that would help return the UK
economy to growth. The Taskforce comprised the chiefs of the UK’s largest banks, including Barclays, and BGF was one
of its key recommendations.
BGF was officially launched in May 2011, and made its first investment in October that year. Since then BGF has made
more than 80 investments, providing over £500m of new capital to UK companies.
We would like to thank The Prelude Group for providing us with our gazelle case studies for the In Focus section.

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Foreword
Welcome to our sixth Entrepreneurs Index, our bi-annual study of the UK entrepreneurial life cycle in association with the
Business Growth Fund (BGF). Since setting out to create this report three years ago, we have seen the entrepreneurial
landscape undergo enormous change. For example, the UK has gained almost half a million companies during this time,
which very few commentators would have been able to forecast back in 2012. Clusters of tech and digital enterprises have
sprung up all over the country, from the Eastern region to the North West, and we have witnessed the continuing growth of
angel investor activity.
More widely, the UK’s economic downturn coupled with increasing digital innovation has opened up and democratised the
entrepreneurship space, enabling anyone with a good idea and the drive and dedication to take it forward to become an
entrepreneur – regardless of age, gender, background or vocation. In this, our first report of 2015, we explore the increasingly
lively start-up scene that was recorded in the UK last year, and evaluate a more pressing issue; how we convert these
promising start-ups into lasting growth for the economy.
We uncover that start-up activity is continuing to gain momentum, and the number of entrepreneurs creating wealth from
selling a part of, or all of, their businesses has also seen an uplift as investor confidence returns. As the number of
entrepreneurs grows, we believe that, in turn, stories of their success serve to motivate and inspire others to be more
ambitious in growing their businesses, creating a virtuous circle for the UK enterprise scene as a whole.
However, this report shows that the proportion of companies achieving high growth is beginning to show a slight fall, after we
saw a plateau in our last Index. This demonstrates that despite the improvement in the UK economy, there are still many
businesses struggling to make the change from start up to scale up. For this reason, we have devoted the In Focus section of
this report to entrepreneurial gazelles – companies that have achieved at least 33% growth in turnover during the last three
years – to glean their stories and advice for prospering in the current environment.
It is important that we give successful firms a platform for sharing their stories and pass on their learnings to a wider
enterprising audience. At Barclays we believe that entrepreneurs are the future of UK plc: SME enterprises provide two thirds of
all private sector jobs and contribute to around half of all GDP,1
whilst also playing a vital role in innovation. We understand that
entrepreneurs come from every industry sector and type of background and it is important that we realise the full potential of
their creativity, drive and expertise.
The purpose of the Entrepreneurs Index is to track the level of UK entrepreneurial activity over time and, in so doing, gauge the
health of this key economic sector year on year. We hope you find the information in this latest Entrepreneurs Index
interesting and insightful and will enable all of us to better understand and serve entrepreneurs in the UK.
Richard Phelps
Managing Director, Barclays
1 Department for Business Innovation Skills, Business Population Estimates 2011

2
Our Expert Panel
We are extremely grateful for the time and help given by the experts on our panel.
Duncan Cheatle, Founder of the Prelude Group, CEO and Founder of Rise To. Rise To is a digital
platform designed to improve employability in young people, and the Prelude Group delivers a range of
initiatives that support high growth and advanced learning for entrepreneurs. At the forefront of that is
The Supper Club, an exclusive membership club with around 350 of Britain’s most innovative, high-
growth entrepreneurs. Duncan also co-founded StartUp Britain, a private sector initiative to inspire
start-up entrepreneurs.
Sherry Coutu CBE, Chairman, Founders4Schools. Sherry is a former CEO and angel investor who serves
on the boards of companies, charities and universities including Raspberry Pi, Zoopla and the London
Stock Exchange Group. As a philanthropist she is a supporter of the Crick Institute and Your Life
Campaign, and is currently listed by Management Today as one of the top 50 most inspiring women in
Europe. She also serves as an ambassador for London and is the author of The Scale-up Report on UK
economic growth. Sherry was honoured with a CBE for services to entrepreneurship in 2013.
John Cridland CBE, Director-General, Confederation of British Industry. As Director-General of the CBI,
John is the key spokesman for the business community in the media, on public platforms and with the
government. He leads the CBI – the voice of business – in the UK and represents it internationally. John is
also a Board member of Business in the Community and a UK Commissioner for Employment and Skills.
Alice Enders, Director of Research, Enders Analysis. Alice heads the research and economic analysis
programme at Enders Analysis, a provider of intelligence on the TMT sector in the UK and other major
markets. She is a former senior economist at the World Trade Organisation and holds a doctorate in
economics from Queens University, Canada.
Guy Rigby, Partner and Head of Entrepreneurial Services, Smith Williamson. Guy is a chartered
accountant and leads the entrepreneurial services group at Smith Williamson. He sold his own
accountancy firm and has been a director and part-owner of a number of different ventures. He also
wrote the book From Vision to Exit: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Building and Selling A Business.
Jenny Tooth OBE, CEO, UK Business Angels Association. The UKBAA is the trade body for angel and
early stage investing and the voice of the angel and early stage investment market. Jenny has over 20
years of experience supporting small and medium-sized businesses to access investment, both in the UK
and internationally. She is also co-founder of Angel Capital Group and is a regular speaker on angel
investing around the world.

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Stephen Welton, CEO, Business Growth Fund. Stephen launched BGF in May 2011. He has worked in the
development capital and private equity industries for over 25 years, including roles at Henderson, Barclays
and JP Morgan Partners (CCMP Capital), where he was a founder partner and member of the Investment
Committee. In 2013, Stephen was a member of the advisory group formed specifically to guide the UK
Government on the direction and priorities for the new British Business Bank, a government-funded
institution that provides lending and broader support to small and mid-sized businesses.
Richard Heggie, Head of Proposition and Delivery for Entrepreneurs, Barclays. Richard has over 15
years’ experience in investment banking and private client wealth management. Richard has headed the
Proposition and Delivery for Entrepreneurs at the Wealth and Investment Management division of
Barclays since October 2013. Prior to this role, Richard co-headed the Proposition and Delivery team for
Barclays Global Ultra High Net Worth and Family offices. He was a key member of the working group
leading the integration of Lehman Brothers’ Private Investment Management business in New York.
Mark Hart, Professor of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Aston Business School. A 2014 recipient
of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion, Mark has played a national role in promoting enterprise
skills and supporting entrepreneurs. Mark leads the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme in
the Midlands. He is also Deputy Director of the national Enterprise Research Centre which is jointly hosted
by Aston University and the University of Warwick, and has as its mission to understand the drivers of small
business growth.
Regional Chambers of Commerce representatives
David Bharier, Policy and Research Adviser, Birmingham Chamber of Commerce
Mark Goldstone, Head of Policy and Representation, West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce
Ross Smith, Director of Policy, North East Chamber of Commerce
Liz Cameron, Chief Executive, Scottish Chambers of Commerce
Ann McGregor MBE, Chief Executive, Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry

4
The UK is at an important juncture for entrepreneurship.
While the start-up environment is becoming a success
story, with new business activity continuing to strengthen
year-on-year, there is now a pressing need to focus on
translating that activity into growth.
The financial crisis and subsequent recession acted as a
significant driver for people to start their own businesses,
and the government injected further impetus through
measures such as the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme
(SEIS) and the Start Up Loans programme. Advances in
technology and greater support from the private sector
have also contributed to today’s healthy start-up landscape.
According to Companies House data, the number of active
companies in the UK continued to grow between June and
December 2014, rising from 3,027,622 to 3,139,630. This is
part of a continuing trend we have observed since we
began the Entrepreneurs Index series in 2012.
Translating start-ups into high-growth companies
When the UK’s new government is formed following May’s
general election the key challenge in the entrepreneurial
space will be to help translate an increasing start-up
population into a greater number of high-growth
businesses. Currently, we see signs that entrepreneurs
and business owners are not achieving their maximum
growth potential. For instance, only 4% of UK start-ups
achieve £1m turnover after three years.2
In the previous
volume of the Entrepreneurs Index, we observed that the
proportion of high-growth companies in the £2.5m to
£100m revenue bracket was plateauing and, in the latest
Experian figures, covering up to March 2014, there has
been a slight decline in this percentage, from 23.2% to
21%. The message is clear: while the desire to start a
business is becoming more prevalent in the UK, there is
work to be done in getting those businesses to the next
stage, delivering growth and wealth creation.
It is for this reason that we are using the In Focus section of
this report to profile four gazelle companies – entrepreneurial
businesses that are achieving high growth – to identify some
of the key characteristics that have brought them success.
By sharing the stories of these companies firsthand, we hope
to extract some lessons for other entrepreneurs that will help
them to emulate the gazelles’ impressive growth.
About the report
The aim of the Entrepreneurs Index series is to provide a
barometer of entrepreneurial activity in the UK across
sectors and regions; to understand the barriers to growth
facing today’s entrepreneurial companies; and to assess the
extent to which the country’s entrepreneurs are now
realising wealth through their businesses.
Introduction
2 Should the focus be on ‘scale-ups’ rather than start-ups? The Start Up Donut, December 2014

5
To achieve this, we study a number of complementary
datasets, some publicly available, and others created
specifically for this report. We use Companies House data
relating to the number of active companies in the UK to
provide a broad gauge of the change in start-up activity
nationally. We also look at Experian data on the number of
high-growth companies in the UK, to assess whether these
have increased or decreased as a proportion of total
companies of a similar size, both nationally and by sector
and region. We analyse data provided by Wealthmonitor
that captures the number of deals occurring over the
previous year. And for the first time, we are also using data
on the number of VAT-registered companies sourced from
the Office of National Statistics, that indicates the number
of UK companies reaching a turnover of over £81,000 in the
previous 12-month period.
Meanwhile, the addition of qualitative analysis from
interviews with our panel of experts – including
entrepreneurs, investors, academics, business network
leaders and accountants – enables us to deliver a more
insightful view of the UK environment for businesses at
each stage of the entrepreneurial cycle.
According to Companies House data, the
number of active companies in the UK
continued to grow between June and December
2014, rising from 3,027,622 to 3,139,630.

6
Active companies – Companies that are ‘live’ in the
sense that they are not in the process of liquidation or
being dissolved.
Deals – Any stake sale of a target company that is publicly
announced and results in individual wealth creation of at
least £0.2m.
Enterprise – A term used by the Office for National
Statistics (ONS) to refer to the smallest combination of
legal units (generally based on VAT and/or PAYE records),
which has a certain degree of autonomy within a group
of legal units under common ownership.
High-growth companies (also gazelle companies for
purposes of Section 2) – Companies with revenues of
between £2.5m - £100m that have increased turnover by at
least 33% over the preceding three years and produced at
least 10% year-on-year growth for a minimum of two years.
Start-up – A general definition meaning a company that has
recently been set up and is in the first stage of its operations;
a fledgling business or enterprise.
Total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) –
Percentage of population aged 18-64 who are either a
nascent entrepreneur or owner-manager of a new business
(a running business that has paid salaries, wages, or any
other payments to the owners for more than three months,
but not more than 42 months).
VAT-registered companies – The number of UK companies
registered with HMRC to collect VAT (which is compulsory for
companies with a turnover of over £81,000 in the previous
12-month period). Latest data available is up to March 2014.
Glossary

7
Methodology
Data sources
The key datasets used in this report are:
• Active companies. The number of active companies in
the UK as published in the Incorporated Companies in
the United Kingdom statistics from Companies House.
The data covers up to December 2014.
• Deals. A publicly announced stake sale of a target
company that results in individual wealth of £0.2m and
above. Data is supplied by Wealthmonitor, part of the
Mergermarket Group, and runs up to December 2014.
• Enterprises. The number of VAT and/or PAYE based
enterprises in the UK as contained in the Office for
National Statistics’ (ONS) UK Business: Activity, Size and
Location report. Latest data available is up to March 2014.
• High-growth companies. Data on companies in the UK
with revenues of between £2.5m and £100m, and at least
a 33% increase in turnover over three years, as well as at
least 10% year-on-year growth for a minimum of two of
these years, supplied by Experian. The data runs up to
March 2014.
• VAT-registered companies. The number of UK
companies registered with HMRC to collect VAT (which
is compulsory for companies with a turnover of over
£81,000 in the previous 12-month period). Latest data
available is up to March 2014.

8
Executive summary
The UK’s start-up activity remains very strong
Companies House data on active companies suggests
there has been strong growth in the number of new
businesses in the six months to December 2014. Global
Entrepreneurship Monitor’s UK 2014 Monitoring Report
also shows that total early-stage entrepreneurial activity
(TEA) in the UK has risen to 8.6% of the working-age
population (18-64), up from 7.3% in 2013.
The population of businesses (revenue
£2.5m-£100m) is expanding most quickly in the
business services and finance sectors
Between March 2013 and March 2014, of the sectors
measured by Experian in its analysis of UK businesses
with revenues between £2.5m and £100m, the number
of companies in the business services and finance
sectors grew, yet the number of firms of that size fell in
all other sectors.
The exit environment continues its return to health
The number of deals that result in individual wealth
creation of £0.2m and above has grown again, up to
1,562 during 2014, compared with 1,476 in 2013.
20142013
March 2013 –
March 2014
March 2012 –
March 2013
21.0% 23.2%
1,476 deals
1,562 deals
Business services Finance sector All other sectors
Between March 2013 and March 2014
2014
8.6%
2013
7.3%
The proportion of people in the UK involved in
early-stage entrepreneurial activity on the rise
The proportion of entrepreneurs who are achieving
high growth is falling
Of companies in the £2.5m to £100m revenue bracket,
just 21% were high-growth companies in the year to
March 2014, down from 23.2% for the previous year.

9
The construction, retail and property sectors
show encouraging signs of growth
Of all the sectors covered by Experian data, the
proportion of high-growth companies in the
£2.5m-£100m revenue bracket has grown in only
three sectors: construction (up to 22.7% from 19%
in 2013); retail (up to 19.1% from 18.3%); and
property (up to 11.5% from 11%).
Gazelles provide important growth lessons for
UK entrepreneurs
There are a number of significant barriers to firms
scaling up in the UK, such as access to skills and
finance, and building leadership capability, among
others. Our In Focus section seeks to draw out lessons
from gazelle companies that have succeeded where
others are experiencing difficulty.
22.7%
19% in 2013
11% in 2013
Construction
Property
19.1%
11.5%
18.3% in 2013
Retail
The north-south divide is still evident
The number of deals in Southern England grew
during 2014, up to 839 from 773 in 2013. In the
north of the UK, however, deal numbers flatlined.
There was also a steeper decline in the proportion
of high-growth companies in northern regions
than was seen in southern ones. At 5.7%, Scotland
saw the biggest rise in the proportion of high
growth companies of any region in the UK -
one of only two regions to register a rise.
839 deals
recorded in the South in 2014,
773 deals in 2013
Rise
in high growth
companies
Number of deals
flatlined
in Northern England
Scotland

10
Growing: The total proportion of high-growth
companies has declined.
Starting: The number of active companies has
continued to increase.
Chart 1: Key themes
Note: TEA is percentage of 18–64 year olds who are in the process of starting or are already running new businesses
Source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
Totalearly-stageentrepreneurialactivity(TEA)
Chart 2: Starting/Funding – Entrepreneurial Activity
2%
0%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
2008
5.9%
2010
6.4%
2009
5.7%
2011
7.3% 7.3%
2012
9.0%
2013 2014
8.6%
Source: Barclays/Ledbury Research
Exiting: The number of deals taking place continues
to climb, though at a slower rate.

11
Headline findings
Companies House data indicates that start-up activity in the UK continues to grow, with
around 280,000 newly incorporated companies recorded between June and December
2014, an increase of 9.3% over the comparable period last year. Supporting this, Global
Entrepreneurship Monitor’s (GEM) UK 2014 Monitoring Report found that total early-stage
entrepreneurial activity (TEA) in the UK rose from 7.3% of the working-age population for
2013, to 8.6% for 2014.
Many of the factors underlying this trend are by now well explored. When the financial crisis
hit in 2008, almost 2.7 million people in the UK were made redundant3
and many were
driven towards entrepreneurship out of necessity. At the same time, there has been
a concerted effort by government to encourage people to start their own businesses, which
has involved a variety of initiatives, including access to funding, training and helping to put
support networks in place for entrepreneurs.
Richard Heggie, Head of Proposition and Delivery for Entrepreneurs at Barclays Wealth and
Investment Management, says a growing number of people are attracted by the idea of
entrepreneurship as a career choice too.
“I think we’ve seen the emergence of more high profile entrepreneurial role models and that
has helped to create an aspirational mindset around starting your own company,” says Mr
Heggie. Meanwhile, the introduction of tax incentives for start-ups and early-stage investors
has further added to the appeal of entrepreneurship.
Section 1
3 Redundancies since start of jobs recession cost UK employers £28.6 billion, CIPD, March 2012
cipd.co.uk/pressoffice/press-releases/redundancies-since-jobs-recession-140312.aspx

12
Is stronger start-up activity here to stay?
Duncan Cheatle, Founder of The Prelude Group, a
membership group for founders and CEOs of high-growth
businesses that aims to support their development, says
the past few years have seen a convergence of the
conditions required to create a healthy start-up
environment. “Demographic changes have certainly played
a part, as people have longer to live after retirement,” says
Mr Cheatle. “They need a new income source or just want
to apply themselves in a new area. Meanwhile, technology
developments have cut the upfront costs of starting a
business, and have made it easier to find a route to
market.” Technology is helping to embed a more
aspirational mindset among business owners too.
“Entrepreneurs are better connected than ever before
as a result of social media channels and online networks
emerging,” says Mr Heggie. “By accessing these
networks, entrepreneurs are gaining more support and
a better understanding of their company’s longer-term
potential,” he adds.
One of the challenges for the UK will be ensuring that this
momentum is not lost, particularly given the impending
general election. Mark Hart, Professor of Small Business
and Entrepreneurship at Aston Business School, feels that
regardless of who forms the new government, there will
remain a firm commitment to supporting the burgeoning
start-up environment. A range of government-backed
initiatives have been directed at boosting entrepreneurial
activity in the past few years, including the Growth
Vouchers programme, GrowthAccelerator for small
businesses, and the Business is GREAT campaign that offers
help, funding and guidance to small business owners. It is
unlikely that these measures will be overturned.
These initiatives have had success in boosting the numbers
of new businesses. If we look back to Companies
House data from June 2012 when we began the
Entrepreneurs Index series, we can see there has been a net
gain of nearly half a million companies (491,828), from
2,647,802 to 3,139,630. Sherry Coutu, a serial entrepreneur
and angel investor, says that while the success of these
policies has been good for the UK, there now needs to be a
shift in emphasis, with more measures aimed at helping and
encouraging leaders of businesses to grow, rather than just
start. “The policies to date have encouraged a huge number
of micro businesses, but evidence shows that micro
businesses are actually a net drain on the economy, rather
than a boom,” says Ms Coutu. “More than half the
companies that were created in the past ten years employ
no people and there are only 8,932 businesses growing at
20% or more per year. This is much lower than you’d expect
to see. So it is important and urgent to rebalance the
portfolio of policies aimed at economic growth to include
initiatives specifically designed to facilitate a greater number
of companies to grow in scale.”

13
“More than half the companies that were
created in the past ten years employ no
people and there are only 8,932 businesses
growing at 20% or more per year.”
Sherry Coutu, entrepreneur and angel investor
Chart 3: Number of active companies in the UK
Source: Companies House
June
2012
2,500
2,400
2,600
2,700
2,800
2,900
3,000
3,100
3,200
4 million
Dec
2012
June
2013
Dec
2013
June
2014
Dec
2014
Activecompanies(‘000)
Percentage change (previous period)
2,647,802
2,727,758
2,821,190
2,915,353
3,027,622
3,139,630
3.0%
3.4%
3.3%
3.9%
3.7%

14
The high-growth question
In the previous Entrepreneurs Index, we observed a
levelling effect in the percentage of high-growth companies
within the revenue bracket of £2.5m to £100m during
2013. The latest Experian data on these companies actually
shows a slight reduction in the percentage of these firms
achieving high growth, down from 23.2% in March 2013
to 21% in March 2014.
In its 2014 study of high-growth firms, Moving on from the
‘Vital 6%’, (which uses a definition from the OECD different
to that used within this report), the Enterprise Research
Centre in the UK concluded that: “There are a very small
number of firms in the UK that can be classified as high-
growth firms (HGF) using the OECD definition (firms with
at least ten employees in the start-year and annual
employment or sales growth exceeding 20% during a
three-year period). Further, the HGF prevalence rates have
remained largely unchanged, although there has been a
fall in their contribution to job creation.”
It seems that, despite the UK’s improving economic outlook
– the economy grew by 2.6% in 2014, the fastest pace since
2007 – there are many businesses struggling to take
advantage and achieve high growth. While it is true that
nearly 280,000 companies were incorporated between June
and December 2014 according to the Companies House
register, almost 200,000 companies dissolved during
the same period. In addition, the percentage of VAT-
registered companies in the overall population of active
companies has decreased from 41.3% in March 2010, to
39.5% in March 2014, indicating that a lower proportion of
firms are surpassing the £81,000 turnover threshold for
VAT registration.
So while the focus on driving start-up activity has borne
fruit, it seems the UK is yet to see a large enough proportion
of those firms translate into high-growth companies. The
solution of how to drive a greater number of start-ups
towards high growth is not a simple one, however: “In order
to turn these start-ups into gazelles you need a number of
different factors,” says Stephen Welton, Chief Executive of
the Business Growth Fund (BGF). “It starts with raising
awareness that it will take more than just targeted policy
efforts to turn start-ups into high-growth companies – you
need to support the management of these businesses, as
well as improve access to growth financing.”
Ms Coutu’s research showed that the most significant
reason companies were unable to grow to a significant scale
in the UK was down to their being unable to find employees
with the right skills. “These scale-up companies are turning
away customer orders because they can’t hire people,” says
Ms Coutu. “If they could find people with the right skill-set,
they could accept those orders and their turnover and profit
would grow faster, which would then make it easier for
them to get finance.”
It seems that, despite the UK’s improving economic
outlook – the economy grew by 2.6% in 2014, the
fastest pace since 2007 – there are many businesses
struggling to take advantage and achieve high growth.

15
Chart 4: Percentage of high-growth companies
Source: Experian
2009
5%
0%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
27.4%
19.4%
16.2%
17.9%
23.2%
21.0%
Chart 5: Percentage of VAT-registered companies in the overall population of active companies
Source: Companies House / ONS
Mar
2003
Mar
2005
Mar
2009
Mar
2007
Mar
2011
Mar
2013
Mar
2004
Mar
2006
Mar
2010
Mar
2008
Mar
2012
Mar
2014
34%
36%
38%
40%
42%
44% 43.1%
39.9%
38.7%
37.1%
42.7%
41.3% 41.2%
40.7%
40.1%
39.5%
40.7%
38.8%

16
To actually solve the problem, rather than treat the
symptom, the most important thing the UK can do is to
ensure that the skills are available in the population to fill
the open jobs, says Ms Coutu: “Companies growing fast
don’t have time to create apprenticeship schemes to make
potential employees capable of helping them fulfill their
customer orders. Finance is a symptom, not a cause.”
Part of the solution would also involve making it easier for
high-growth companies to bring in staff they need from
overseas, and ensuring that students in educational
institutions gain greater exposure to the entrepreneurs
running the best performing businesses in their region.
Meanwhile, Professor Hart suggests that a lack of
experience in how to grow a business is hurting many
entrepreneur-led companies. “There’s help available to get
them access to grants and loans, but it’s the vision and
culture of the senior management team that really makes
the difference,” he says. Mr Heggie agrees, adding that
getting the right person in the chairman’s seat can be
enormously important: “It’s a hugely challenging transition
to move from starting a business with an idea you’re
passionate about, to becoming a professional and scalable
business. Having someone available who can act as both
a critical mentor for the founder as well as an adviser can
be invaluable.”
In a recent research report from the Department for Business
Innovation and Skills – Understanding Motivations for
Entrepreneurship4
– the majority of entrepreneurs surveyed
said they would have valued a free, experienced business
mentor to provide tailored, practical advice during the early
stages of growth.
John Cridland, Director-General of the CBI, agrees that a
lack of mentorship and advisers is a problem: “You can’t
expect the entrepreneur to think about getting on a plane
to Jakarta and opening up markets in Indonesia, or to realise
that Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing markets in Africa,
if they don’t have people with their ear to the ground telling
them that,” says Mr Cridland. “We need a coalition of the
willing that includes university vice chancellors,
organisations like the CBI, and leaders in the City focusing
on this constituency of companies.”
There are a number of schemes now emerging – particularly
out of university business schools – that seek to effect
positive change in the leadership of entrepreneurial
businesses. These programmes offer a pure learning
environment whereby growth-orientated businesses go
through a shared experience of intensive mentoring and
support. “The results are quite interesting in terms of the
additional growth these businesses get over and above
what they would have achieved,” says Professor Hart.
Meanwhile the Small Business Charter, an accreditation
scheme initiated by Lord Young and launched in 2014, is
designed to build on such experience and enhance the
ability of business schools to engage with small businesses
on aspects of strategic growth.
Guy Rigby, Head of Entrepreneurial Services at Smith
Williamson, believes that non-executive directorships have
an important role to play in this respect: “Whereas the
concept of the non-executive director is pretty common in
the public company market, it’s not as well adopted in the
private company market. Whether they’re a non-executive
director or a mentor, or a mixture of the two – business
owners don’t need to try and reinvent the wheel here,” he
says. “It’s normal for the founder to be inexperienced
beyond a certain stage of growth, so why not bring in
experienced mentors to help you figure out which strategies
have failed in the past and what may have a better chance
of succeeding?”
4 Understanding Motivations for Entrepreneurship, Department for Business Innovation and Skills, March 2015
gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/408432/bis-15-132-understanding-motivations-for-entrepreneurship.pdf

17
Rebalancing policy
The business community has largely praised government
policies that have helped to drive start-up activity, but
there are now calls for a rebalancing of policy to focus on
helping to scale entrepreneurial businesses, rather than
focusing primarily on starting them.
“There is a forgotten army of companies in the £20m-£60m
turnover region that I call the British mittelstand, that
could triple turnover in a couple of years with the right
growth strategy and support network,” says Mr Cridland.
According to Mr Cridland, the biggest single thing that
government can do to help these businesses is to address
the current lack of patient capital available to them from
investors that are willing to make longer-term bets. One
positive development in this area is the Government’s
announcement of its Help to Grow initiative that will deliver
financial support to 500 mid-market firms each year
through the new British Business Bank, an institution set
up to manage government programmes that help smaller
businesses to access finance. “I would like to see something
on the equity side to complement that,” says Mr Cridland.
“I would like to see ordinary retail investors getting more
capital gains tax relief so that they can take a longer-term
stake in non-listed companies.”
The Scale-up Report on UK Economic Growth makes 12
specific recommendations to government.5
Central to this
is the idea that releasing existing data collected by
government would help to identify and monitor fast-
growing companies in real-time, making it easier to
accelerate growth for these firms (see Driving growth
through data on p25). In addition, the report recommends
that any organisation seeking funding from central
government – such as Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP)
– should be funded only if they demonstrate that they
direct a range of effective measures specifically towards
increasing the proportion of high-growth businesses in
their area. Ms Coutu also argues that organisations such
as UK Trade Investment (UKTI) should ensure a certain
proportion of these companies are on trade missions, to
help raise the profile of these highly innovative companies.
“There is only glory to celebrating and assisting these hard
working heroes of our economy, and for too long, they have
been unsung,” says Ms Coutu.
Another area where the government can provide greater
assistance to high-growth companies, which is arguably less
widely reported than issues such as skills shortages and
access to finance, is in providing the infrastructure they
need: “Government needs to put pressure on real estate
companies, so that growing companies can be released
from contracts more easily,” says Ms Coutu. “As a fast-
growing company in the UK, you find that you’re in ten
different locations and you have to sign ten different leases
that you can’t escape when you find that you’re growing
faster than you were expecting. That is actually a real drag
on the ability of these companies to grow.”
“There is a forgotten
army of companies in the
£20m-£60m turnover
region that I call the
British mittelstand, that
could triple turnover in a
couple of years with the
right growth strategy and
support network.”
John Cridland, Director-General of the CBI
5 The Scale-up Report on UK Economic Growth, Information Economy Council, November 2014
scaleupreport.org/scaleup-report.pdf

18
Growing investor confidence
Wealthmonitor’s data showed a rise in the number of
deals resulting in wealth creation of £0.2m and above
during 2014, with 1,562 such deals recorded, up from
1,476 in 2013.
This steady growth in deal numbers may be indicative
of returning confidence among investors. Jenny Tooth,
Chief Executive of the UK Business Angels Association
(UKBAA), says that angel investors have continued to show
high activity in the past 12 months. A study of UK angels
carried out by the UKBAA suggested that their confidence
is strong: respondents expected over four out of 10 of
their investments to generate a return in the range of 1-5x
the initial investment6
– a higher rate of expected returns
than found in earlier studies. “There is a sense they will
have fewer failures and higher numbers of good growth
prospects,” says Ms Tooth.
There have also been higher proportions of younger and
female entrepreneurs entering the angel investment
marketplace, driven by a combination of confidence
about rewarding opportunities, and tax reliefs for early-
stage investors. Almost nine out of 10 angel investors
have invested either through the Enterprise Investment
Scheme (EIS) or the SEIS7
.
Mr Welton agrees that there is more capital available to
entrepreneurs than was the case a few years ago, as
improving economic conditions are making it easier for
businesses to raise funds. He feels, however, that a lot
more capital needs to flow into the market to support the
universe of growing businesses. “I think we need to see a
deeper pool of money in the venture capital market, and
greater possibilities for angel investors to form syndicates,”
says Mr Welton. “We also need to have a vibrant junior
market, so some of the recent tax changes encouraging
investors on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative
Investment Market (AIM) are also really important,” he adds.
Part of the solution will be to further strengthen the
co-investment occurring in the angel market, which is an
area where banks can play an important role, argues Richard
Heggie. In the UKBAA’s report, 23.1% of angels were shown
to invest alongside providers of loan/debt finance. “We’re
beginning to see a more sophisticated approach to
optimising the finance model from ambitious early-stage
businesses – they’re looking for the right balance of debt
and equity from a wider range of sources to help facilitate
the scaling process,” says Mr Heggie.
Chart 6: Number of Deals
Source: Wealthmonitor
Dec 2012 Dec 2013 Dec 2014
Number
of Deals
1,293 1,476 1,562
% change 14.2% 5.8%
6 A nation of angels, UKBAA, January 2015
ukbusinessangelsassociation.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/files/erc_nation_of_angels_full_report_0.pdf
7 Ibid.

19
Bridging the north-south divide
The growing influence of London as the powerhouse of the
UK economy has been well documented. Office for National
Statistics figures released at the end of 2014 showed that,
while London’s economy grew by 24% between 2007 and
2013, the rest of the UK experienced only 15% growth
during the same period.
The data used for this report suggests that, to some
extent, this divide is actually felt more widely as a
difference in performance between north and south.
For instance, when Wealthmonitor’s deals data is grouped
into northern regions (including North East, North West,
Yorkshire and the Humber, and Midlands), and southern
regions (including the East, London, South East and South
West), the south of England saw an 8.5% increase in the
number of deals recorded during 2014, while there was a
slight (0.2%) decline in the north of the country.
The same regional groupings also reveal a similar pattern
in Experian’s high-growth company data. While the decline
in the percentage of high-growth companies in the south
has been slight, falling from 22.2% in 2013 to 20.7% in
2014, the fall has been more pronounced in the north,
dropping from 25.3% to 21%.
An imbalance in the location of angel investors is a key
challenge – two-thirds of those in the UKBAA’s survey
were based in the south for investment reasons. “I don’t
think there are enough focal points for angels to find good
deal flows elsewhere at the moment,” says Ms Tooth.
“It means great businesses from other regions may be
coming to London to find the investors instead of finding
them locally.”
* North = North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, Midlands
* South = East, London, South East, South West
Source: Experian, Wealthmonitor
Chart 7: UK North vs South
Number of deals
North South
2013 529 773
2014 528 839
% change -0.2% 8.5%
% of high growth companies
North South
2013 25.3% 22.2%
2014 21.0% 20.7%

20
Mr Heggie feels that the increasing use of digital platforms
to connect investors with entrepreneurs should begin to
bridge this gap. “I think we’re moving towards a more
digitalised venture capitalist and angel market. In this day
and age there should be no reason why you can’t find the
most suitable investors for your company wherever you
are located, provided you have a digital interface to
enable you to do that,” he says.
Meanwhile Professor Hart says that, while London’s
Tech City grabs a lot of the national headlines, there is
actually a higher level of net job creation happening in the
East Midlands. For example, a December 2014 research
report from recruitment firm Manpower UK suggested
that job prospects across the region would increase by
13% in the first three months of 2015, almost double the
national average of 7%. The survey revealed that the jobs
market was boosted by growth in demand for staff in the
transport, logistics and construction sectors.8
Mr Welton says that BGF made several investments in
Yorkshire and the North East during the last three months
of 2014. “We see the north as pretty buoyant, and we
expect quite a lot of investment activity there in 2015,”
says Mr Welton.
Despite some positive signs, Mr Welton says that London
and the South East remained the single biggest investment
regions for BGF in 2014, though he feels there is enormous
potential to be unlocked across the rest of the UK. And, as
Alice Enders, Research Director at Enders Analysis, points
out, the UK continues to be viewed by many – particularly
foreign investors – as a London-centric economy: “You look
at companies like Google setting up its campus in London
and it sucks in a lot of the talent. There is a view that unless
you’re where potential investors are located then you’re
missing the boat – and the concentration of investors seems
to be in London,” she says.
Concentration of skills is another issue. Figures released by
the Office for National Statistics at the end of 2013 found
that inner London has a working-age population in which
60% have degrees, much higher than anywhere else in the
UK9
. The shortage of skills is a challenge being keenly felt in
the North East, according to Ross Smith, Director of Policy at
the North East Chamber of Commerce. “Growing the skilled
workforce in the region is the most critical challenge we
face. We need to improve careers advice for young people
and ensure they have courses that can help them find jobs
in our growing industries. “We also need apprenticeship
funding that backs businesses looking to invest in their staff,
and an immigration system that helps us retain some of the
top international talent coming to North East universities.”
8 Manpower Employment Outlook Survey UK, Manpower Group, 2014
manpowergroup.com/wps/wcm/connect/4c64f21c-b8cd-4a62-a255-297c4b4c33e2/UK_Q115_MEOSbro.pdf?MOD=AJPERESCACHEID=4c64f21c-
b8cd-4a62-a255-297c4b4c33e2
9 Graduates in the UK Labour Market 2013, ONS, November 2013
ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_337841.pdf

21
Liz Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Chambers of
Commerce, says the chambers are focusing on working
with schools, colleges and universities to identify specific
opportunities in the market. “We are developing across
Scotland, led by business, our ‘Invest in Youth Panels’ to
break down this barrier and ensure that we have skilled
people in the areas we need,” says Ms Cameron. “Another
barrier for Scottish entrepreneurs is the lack of knowledge,
finance and confidence relating to exporting. In this regard,
we have developed specific support aimed at connecting
small business entrepreneurs through our International
Chamber Network and supported by financial networks,”
she adds.
Another factor that may begin to persuade entrepreneurial
talent to lay their company foundations in regions outside
of London is the increasing cost of doing business in the
capital. Mr Cheatle says it is becoming more common for
entrepreneurs to operate a satellite office in London to
ensure access to key investors and clients, but to move
other operations to other regions where they can be
performed at significantly lower cost.
Meanwhile, part of the solution from an investment
perspective will involve raising awareness of good
opportunities in other regions. Some local authorities
are taking a proactive approach to garner investment.
As one example, Manchester City Council has set up a
co-investment initiative aimed at building new syndicates
of angels around local businesses.
“The EU will be delivering further funding to the LEPs
during 2015, and government investment via the Growing
Places Fund could act as key mobilisers for networks that
help good quality deals find early-stage investors,” says
Ms Tooth.
It is becoming more common for entrepreneurs
to operate a satellite office in London to ensure
access to key investors and clients, but to move
other operations to other regions where they can
be performed at significantly lower cost.

22
The sector picture
According to Experian’s data, high-growth companies
within the construction, property and retail sectors have
shown the most positive growth in the 12 months up to
March 2014.
Given that the UK’s economic recovery began in 2013,
it is perhaps unsurprising to see these traditionally cyclical
industries showing stronger signs of growth during this
period. Mr Welton says there is strong evidence within
BGF’s portfolio to suggest a healthy entrepreneurial
environment in property and construction: “We backed
our first housebuilder towards the end of 2014 in the
North East. We see the opportunity there to significantly
increase our investment because the demand is high,”
says Mr Welton.
Retail is another sector in which the percentage of high-
growth companies in the £2.5m-£100m revenue bracket
has risen. This is clearly linked to the rise in consumer
spending seen during 2013 as economic confidence began
to return10
, a trend that continued in 201411
. And, with oil
prices falling dramatically during the second half of 2014,
consumer spending power should be increased yet further.12
Greater consumer spending does not tell the whole story in
the retail sector, however. Ecommerce is the fastest growing
retail market in Europe13
and successful entrepreneurs in the
retail sector need to capitalise on this trend. “Bricks and
mortar are getting a bit better at doing online,” says Mr
Cheatle. “Those that have fallen by the wayside, like
Woolworths and HMV, have freed up a bit of space for those
that are nailing the online business.”
Ms Tooth says this is an area that continues to attract
attention from angel investors, pointing to the flotation of
angel-backed firm Attraqt in August last year, which helps
retailers to improve the effectiveness of their online
businesses. According to the UKBAA’s A Nation of Angels
report, the top five sectors for angel investments are:
professional services, healthcare, ICT-software, food and
drink, and digital media.
Wealthmonitor’s data also found that the media sector had
seen a jump in investment during 2014, with 77 deals resulting
in wealth creation of £0.2m and above recorded, compared
with 64 during 2013. Ms Enders says significant opportunities
arise for UK entrepreneurs in the creative industries because
10 Consumer Trends, Q3 2013, ONS, December 2013
11 Consumer Trends, Q3 2014, ONS, December 2014
12 Europe Brent Spot Price FOB (Dollars per Barrel), US Energy Information Administration, March 2015
eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PETs=RBRTEf=M
13 Online Retailing: Britain, Europe, US and Canada 2015, Centre for Retail Research
retailresearch.org/onlineretailing.php
The top five sectors for angel investments are:
professional services, healthcare, ICT-software,
food and drink, and digital media.

23
Key
2013 2014
Source: Experian
Business
Services
Finance WholesaleConstruction Agriculture Transport Manufact-
uring
Retail Consumer
Services
Public Property
Chart 8: Percentage of High Growth UK Companies, by sector
5%
0%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
24.3%
22.7%
22.1%
21.5%
21.0%
20.8%
20.6%
19.1%
18.4%
16.7%
11.5%
Key
2013 2014
* Top 11 sectors in the UK by 2014 deal value
Source: Wealthmonitor
Services
(Other)
Industrial MediaFinancial
services
Computer
software
Leisure Medical Consumer
Retail
Computer
services
Internet Consumer:
Other
Chart 9: Number of deals, by sector*
100
50
0
150
200
250
300
350
278
117
84
80
77
62
61
55
51
47
44

24
14 Financial Services: contribution to the UK economy, House of Commons Library, February 2015
parliament.uk/business/publications/research/briefing-papers/SN06193/the-financial-sectors-contribution-to-the-uk-economy
15 The Royal Society Science 50 Index, Royal Society, 2014
svc2uk.com/the-royal-society-science-50-index/
16 Ibid.
there is strong global demand for UK content. “The UK
really punches above its weight in terms of the creative
sector, whether it’s music, books, film, TV programmes
or newspapers – we’re good at producing content,” says
Ms Enders.
It is unsurprising to see a high level of angel investment in
the professional services sector too, given the increasing
dominance of services in the make-up of the UK economy.
For example, government statistics show that financial and
insurance activities have grown as a proportion of total
gross value added (GVA) to the UK economy since the late
1990s, and in 2014 the sector accounted for 8.0% of GVA.14
Experian’s data also shows that the population of firms in
the £2.5m-£100m revenue bracket grew within the
business services and finance sectors, yet declined across
all of the other sectors measured.
And while the science sector is not specifically measured
within Experian’s data, Ms Coutu says its performance
should not be overlooked: “Sometimes, people don’t think
science is that sexy, but in terms of being a powerhouse for
the UK economy, it’s deeply sexy,” says Ms Coutu. The Royal
Society’s Science 50 Index shows that the average annual
growth rate in turnover of the 50 fastest-growing science-
based companies in the UK is 92%,15
and these are spread
right across the UK, as opposed to existing predominantly in
clusters, as is sometimes perceived to be important for the
success of such businesses. Encouragingly, 36 (72%) of the
top 50 fastest growing science-based companies are located
outside of London:16
“It’s very interesting that these firms
can grow and scale on an international basis far faster than
a construction company or consulting company for example,
because once you get the science right, it’s a case of just
scaling on a global basis. The growth these firms are
experiencing is phenomenal,” says Ms Coutu.
Experian’s data shows that
the population of firms in the
£2.5m-£100m revenue bracket grew
within the business services and
finance sectors, yet declined across
all of the other sectors measured.

25
Driving growth through data
Sherry Coutu is an entrepreneur, non-executive
director, investor and adviser to companies,
universities and charities. She explains how freeing
up government data on companies that are growing
at more than 20% per annum could deliver a major
boost to growing businesses.
Ms Coutu would like to see the UK government make
VAT payment data and National Insurance data of
fast-growing companies available in real time, enabling
identification of the quickest growing firms in the UK by
virtue of the number of people they are employing and
the revenues they are receiving from customers.
“The reason that I want to identify the fast-growing
businesses is so that we can help them with their
number one problem – attracting talent so they can
fulfil customer demand,” says Ms Coutu. “Historically,
people are slightly reticent to join start-ups when given
a choice between a multinational and a fast-growing
young company. If, by releasing the information on
which companies are the fastest growing and best
performing, we help them to hire more people, that will
be solving their number one problem.”
The second area where public access to such data could
help growing businesses is in bringing them to the
attention of more customers: “If you hear that there’s
a company that is selling 30% or 40% more products
than everyone else, and they’re in your space, it lets you
know that maybe you should be talking to them,” says
Ms Coutu. “If you have no idea that they’re growing that
well, and all your competitors for instance are buying
their products, you’re missing an opportunity.”
Ms Coutu says the current lack of awareness about
such high-growth companies is detrimental for overseas
trade missions too. “At the moment, I think if you
analyse who is invited to go on government trade
missions, you would find very, very few companies that
were between 50 and 200 employees, and growing
really fast,” says Ms Coutu.

27
In focus:
The markings of a gazelle
Start-up activity in the UK has continued to strengthen over the past few years as policies have
focused on encouraging people to start businesses. At the same time, awareness has been
raised around options to finance new businesses, and investors have been directed towards
early-stage firms through initiatives such as EIS and SEIS.
The Experian data used in this report shows a slight decline in the percentage of high-growth
companies in the £2.5m-£100m revenue bracket, however. In addition, the Department for
Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) estimates that at the beginning of 2013 there were over
1.5 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK that were not growing and
had no wish to grow.17
Recent BIS analysis also showed that almost 2.7 million SMEs in the
UK wished to grow but were not growing (growth defined as a more than five per cent annual
increase in employment or turnover terms), and just 640,000 SME firms were growing in
accordance with this measure.18
“If you think about this as an escalator, we are getting more companies at the beginning of
that escalator, and that is a good thing,” says Stephen Welton, Chief Executive of the Business
Growth Fund. “What we are not yet seeing, which will inevitably take longer, are enough of
those companies moving up the escalator, getting bigger and growing more quickly.”
Section 2
Defining the gazelle companies
For the purposes of this report we use Experian’s high-growth company criteria to
define a gazelle. That is, a business that has increased turnover by at least 33% over
the preceding three years and produced 10% year-on-year growth for a minimum of
two years.
17 Business Population Estimates, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 2013
18 Small Business Survey, Department for Business Innovation and Skills, 2013

28
There is no guarantee that starting more businesses will necessarily translate into a larger
population of high-growth companies. There are a whole range of factors that act as barriers
to growth, and these must be better understood. The recent Scale-up Report on UK Economic
Growth, authored by Sherry Coutu, lists, in order of importance, the following key reasons why
companies are unable to scale in the UK:
• Finding employees to hire who have the skills they need
• Building their leadership capability
• Accessing customers in other markets / home market
• Accessing the right combination of finance and
• Navigating infrastructure.
In this section of the report, we have chosen to profile four gazelle companies in the UK that
are experiencing high growth, whose owners are members of The Supper Club, a membership
club exclusively for fast growth entrepreneurs and CEOs. We have spoken to the entrepreneurs
running these businesses to find out first-hand how they have successfully navigated some
of the common challenges young businesses face on their paths to growth, in the hope that
these lessons will prove useful to others seeking to emulate them.
EModeration
About the business
EModeration was founded in 2002 with an aim of delivering high-quality
multilingual community management and social media consultancy to
clients across a range of industry sectors. The company now has offices
in London, New York, Los Angeles and Miami, with around 370 staff.
EModeration was listed at no.65 in The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track
100 in September 2014.
CEO and Founder
Tamara Littleton
Head office
London
Average
revenue growth
(past three years)
Headcount growth
(past three years)
+43% +26%
full time employees
and freelancers

29
The importance of collaboration
As EModeration has grown, Ms Littleton says that
forming collaborative partnerships with other firms has
become increasingly valuable: “We work with other
agencies, and sometimes that’s because we’re
supporting large advertising groups, but it’s also about
how we stay agile and stay aware of how the market is
changing,” she says. The firm has forged close ties with
technology companies because the industry around
social media changes so rapidly, and it helps them to
follow trends and can benefit both parties’ clients too.
Developing the vision
One reason entrepreneurial businesses can struggle
with growth is that founders often remain too hands-on
in the day-to-day running of the company, leaving no
time to plan for the future: “Working on the business
not in the business is an important theme for me, and
one of my key strategies over the past couple of years
has been how to push myself away, because I see my
role as creating the strategy and vision of the company,”
says Ms Littleton. “I need space to network and look at
what people are doing in different businesses as well.
Some of the best ideas are about seeing what other
companies are doing that are not in your industry,
and learning from them. For instance, we looked at
the way Addison Lee uses technology to make things
so process driven, such as the use of apps to manage
the team, and tried to incorporate some of that into
the way that we work.”
Tapping the best talent
EModeration operates using a remote-working model,
with only around 12 of its 370 employees regularly
attending the office. This approach has huge
advantages in terms of accessing top talent from all
over the world. “Sometimes where people have left
some of the top agencies, maybe to go and start a
family, it might be hard for them to get back into the
workforce, but we can benefit because with us, they
can choose their hours and work from home,” explains
Ms Littleton.
Low cost expansion
Though it was founded in London, around 55% of
EModeration’s business now comes from the US. The
company is growing its presence in Australia too. One
way it keeps costs down is that its overseas offices are
not staffed. One of the biggest challenges with winning
more overseas business has been bringing in people
fast enough. Ms Littleton has now solved this problem
by building a reserve team of freelancers around the
world, allowing her to rapidly scale-up capacity when
required: “It means that we’ve got some in-built scale
which is so much easier, because every time we win a
big client, we don’t have to open an office, but do often
need to bring in new people,” she says.
A different approach to marketing
One of the first things Ms Littleton did was to hire a PR
agency. She also committed to using thought
leadership as a marketing strategy from the outset.
“We do a lot around white papers, I blog for Huffington
Post and write various different blogs,” says Ms
Littleton. “In the last few years, you can really see that
was a good tactic for our business – over time you build
gravitas and our search ranking is good. It’s been a
PR-driven marketing approach – our sales team is
remarkably small, with only two people that are
dedicated to sales – but if you’re selling software, you
have to take a very different approach.”
Leadership support
Ms Littleton has also benefited from tapping into the
right support and guidance at key times during
EModeration’s growth journey. “I joined an
entrepreneurial network after I’d hit the £1m revenue
milestone, which was like having the mixture of an
advisory board and a support group, and almost feels like
I earned an MBA,” she says. “We also brought on a
non-executive chairman a year ago which has helped us
be more ruthless about what we’re trying to achieve,
setting our goals and monthly reporting.”

30
Wheels 4 Sure
Passing on the reins
As the business was growing during its first year, Mr
Larry-Cole began to gradually remove himself from its
day-to-day running, staying at home longer to spend
time setting strategy, and taking time to build
relationships with legal and accounting advisers as well
as other business owners: “This led to a few of the other
guys in the small team we had at the time taking the
reins and responsibility,” recalls Mr Larry-Cole. “It’s
important you can entrust that to a secondary team of
managers early on.”
Embedding the vision
Placing trust in his people and involving them in the
strategic direction of the business is something that
has been core to Mr Larry-Cole’s talent management.
“I created a weekly staff meeting to share the vision of
why we’re in business beyond making a profit and
what we we’re trying to achieve in terms of growth
objectives,” he says. This even came to form part of
the firm’s approach to recruitment – managers would
invite job applicants to these meetings ahead of
interviews, and one recruit even attended them
consecutively for five weeks.
Adaptable people
One of the most important things Mr Larry-Cole has
looked for in recruiting is people who will fit into the
start-up environment, whose ambitions match that of
the business: “We need a willingness to learn and
adaptability, as it gives us the agility we need,” he
explains. “We’re not interested in people who are just
there to pay their bills.” The company’s training
programme is core to this too. Mr Larry-Cole sets group
reading tasks as part of this, aimed at developing
ambition and drive, and educating employees on what it
takes to be part of a small team in a fast-growing
entrepreneurial business.
Innovative approach to finance
Mr Larry-Cole has found an innovative way to finance
Wheels 4 Sure that frees him from the constraints of
traditional financing routes. “If you talk about normal
banking/funding routes, you would either have
somebody coming in taking equity or someone backing
your assets based on invoice which is limited in terms of
your growth, because you have to wait for that asset to
start working for you in numbers before getting some
CEO and Founder
Reginald Larry-Cole
Head office
South Godstone,
Surrey
Average growth in
lease income – 2013-
2015 (2015 projected
income based on live
opportunities)
Headcount growth
(past three years)
+855% +320%
Grown from five people
in 2013 to 21 today
About the business
Wheels 4 Sure is a car leasing business that was founded in 2012 in
Kent. It has grown rapidly from an average of £10,800 per month
in lease income during 2013, to an average of £97,400 per month by
the end of 2014.

31
cash to fund the business. We’ve found a way to
structure everything whereby, just getting the asset on
the road, gives us money as well,” he says.
Leveraging partnerships
As part of its successful marketing strategy, Wheels 4
Sure has established and developed relationships with
firms in related areas. For example, it has become a
preferred partner for Uber, the app-based transport
network, providing vehicles to taxi drivers who join the
network. “We also have a nationwide dealer referral with
one of our main manufacturers,” says Mr Larry-Cole.
“If you’re in Glasgow for example, but went into this
particular manufacturer and for some reason – perhaps
due to tightened credit criteria – they can’t help you, they
will refer you to us to see whether we can supply you
with a vehicle on the lease terms that we have,” he says.
“We need a willingness to learn and
adaptability, as it gives us the agility we
need. We’re not interested in people
who are just there to pay their bills.”
Reginald Larry-Cole, CEO and Founder of Wheels 4 Sure

32
Secured Mail
Technology delivering competitive
advantage
Secured Mail has benefited from growing strong
long-term relationships with its customers. Of its top ten
customers, eight have been with the firm for more than
three years. One key facet of this has been building trust
through employing technology.
“Customers want to know where their items of post or
parcels are in the network and when they’re going to
get delivered. Being able to provide information at such
a granular level with such a high volume requires a big
effort – sophisticated IT systems are needed,” explains
Mr Bigley. “Having transparency of what we do is
central to the commitment we have to our customers.
They have access to all of the systems, creating a
very transparent proposition and enabling us to
develop longer-term collaborative relationships with
our customers.”
Attracting (and valuing) good people
Mr Bigley says another core factor in building customer
loyalty has been a commitment to invest in improving
the firm’s talent base. Part of his strategy for attracting
and motivating the best talent has been to involve
people in the wider vision of the firm from the outset.
“You’ve got to sell people a vision of where you’re trying
to get to and what you’re trying to achieve, you don’t
want people just coming for a job,” he explains. “As a
business is growing, you’re not working 9-5, you’re
working 24/7. You need people to buy-in to that ethos,
because that’s the nature of the journey that you’re on.
Making sure that you’ve got people with the same
mindset around you and the same enthusiasm and
commitment is really important. The other thing that
we’ve always been a great believer in is that nobody has
a monopoly on good ideas. You’ve got to accept and
encourage and embrace challenge, because if you want
to attract good people, they’re going to have their own
view. If you aren’t prepared to listen to that, you won’t
keep those people.”
About the business
Established in 2006 as a licensed postal operator, Secured Mail is now
one of the largest technology-enabled ecommerce and postal logistics
businesses in the UK. Secured Mail focuses on ecommerce, bulk mail,
unsorted mail and international. The company has diversified into the
rapidly growing economy parcels market, capitalising on the boom in
online shopping. The company has taken turnover from zero to almost £80m in the last
eight years. Secured Mail has also been ranked several times in the The North West’s
Fastest Growing Company report and The Insider’s Growth 100 Report.
Founder and
Chief Executive
Mark Bigley
Head office
Warrington
Compound Annual
Growth Rate
(past six years)
Headcount growth
(past three years)
+58.3% +119.8%
(from 91 in FY11
to 200 in FY14)

33
Relinquishing control
Having created a business, Mr Bigley acknowledges
that letting others take control is not easy, but he has
recognised the need to free his time for other activities.
“I’ve consciously tried to build a senior management
team to develop an operating board within the business
to try and retain and share knowledge across the
business,” he says. Doing so has freed the business
founder to learn and apply lessons from successful
businesses in other sectors. “There are certain
businesses that have a total commitment to the
customer and will do whatever it takes to ensure they
receive the very best service. Those businesses really
inspire me and I’ve learnt from that,” explains Mr Bigley.
“We try to be a partner rather than just a service
provider to our customers – what we can do makes
a massive difference, because we’re part of the
supply chain and we are part of the delivery of a
customer promise.”
Two NEDs are better than one
Secured Mail has a non-executive chairman who has
taken a more active role to support the business as it
has grown. As he looks towards further growth that will
include further acquisitions, Mr Bigley says he will
continue to invest in non-executive directors (NEDs).
“As long as you’ve got a really good NED with good
sector experience, or experience in what it is that you’re
seeking to achieve, they really add value. Non-exec
directors should be challenging but in a positive way.
As a management team, we challenge ourselves. We
are challenged in the boardroom as well – it is an
important principle,” says Mr Bigley.
Capital that delivers more
It has been a deliberate strategy for Secured Mail to seek
out financing through venture capitalists, on account of
the additional benefits they can deliver.
“What they’re able to do is provide expertise in the
wider financial markets, which has been really useful
for us as we seek to get additional funding for growth,”
says Mr Bigley.
Remaining nimble
Mr Bigley says that businesses are becoming more
collaborative out of necessity: “Partners along the supply
chain, or across different markets, are starting to work
together and use the good bits of everybody.” He adds
that in today’s environment, the businesses that grow
quickest will be those that can fill a niche and do it
effectively. “What you’re finding now is businesses are
concentrating on core services and doing that very well.
You will find those organisations that can operate in
complex markets and complex supply chains will thrive,”
says Mr Bigley. Meanwhile, he says, those businesses
that still try to provide as many services as possible will
become big and cumbersome, unable to capitalise on the
way markets are growing and changing. “That flexibility
is key. Therefore you do need to be nimble. The only way
you’re going to be able to maintain that nimbleness
and flexibility is to remain focused on the core strengths
of what it is you’re trying to offer,” says Mr Bigley.

34
Seraphine
Thinking global
Taking the business into overseas markets was an
important part of Ms Reinaud’s growth strategy from
early on. In part, this was a natural step in the search for
growth given Seraphine’s narrow product niche. It was
also a case of diversifying geographical risk at a time
when the financial crisis was making market
performance incredibly tough to predict: “We’ve been
able to really take advantage of the fact that the UK is
an international platform for ecommerce and shopping,
and by doing that build brand awareness in lots of
countries, and develop distribution points with
department stores and independent stores in many
countries across the world,” says Ms Reinaud. According
to Ms Reinaud, the ease of compliance within other EU
member countries, and low freight costs, meant that
entering these markets was relatively easy. The biggest
challenge was entering the US market.
“As soon as you start doing any form of marketing, you
can take your budget for the UK and times it by ten. The
investment is much more significant – a lot of people
underestimate that, and I certainly did,” says Ms Reinaud.
A tight focus on the cost model was crucial for Seraphine
as it grew overseas to ensure it was still generating profit
despite increasing distribution expenses. “I’ve also tried
to use my network of other entrepreneurs and business
people, to ask for advice and piggyback on some of their
systems or service providers, rather than hiring external
consultants,” explains Ms Reinaud.
Making a media splash
In the last few years, Seraphine has managed to gain an
enormous amount of media coverage relative to the size
of the business, mainly through a string of endorsements
by A-list celebrities, including the Duchess of Cambridge,
and Hollywood stars like Jessica Alba and Gwyneth
Paltrow. This was initially achieved through having stores
in prominent London locations, though when they
branched out into the US, it was a very deliberate
strategy. “We started to have a more active relationship
with the celebrities in Hollywood because we knew they
were very influential. It was about being proactive and
telling them about the brand and introducing them, and
seeing if they’d be interested in wearing the brand,”
says Ms Reinaud.
About the business
Seraphine provides high-quality maternity fashion. The firm was founded
in 2002, opening its flagship boutique on Kensington High Street in
London, and its online store was launched in 2005. Today, its site serves
over 20 countries and Seraphine fashion is distributed in stockists all
over the world, including Peter Jones and John Lewis in London, Galeries
Lafayette in Paris and A Pea in the Pod in the US. Paris-born founder Cecile Reinaud now
leads a team of 60 people from its London creative studio.
Founder
and Designer
Cecile Reinaud
Head office
London
Average
revenue growth
(past three years)
Headcount growth
(past three years)
+51% +48%
(from 41 people in
2013 to 60 today)

35
Turning people into pillars
Where possible, Ms Reinaud is keen to develop people
from junior level right up to senior managers. “I’ve had
some very good success of building talent within the
company. That is always the best and most satisfying
approach, if you can achieve that. I’ve got a number of
very successful case studies of people who have come in
as juniors and have risen rapidly and are now important
pillars of the company,” says Ms Reinaud. It has been
more of a challenge recruiting external candidates to fill
positions however. “I still feel that there aren’t enough
recruitment agencies out there which are specialised in
finding people who have the right assets to perform in
entrepreneurial companies,” she explains.
Benefiting from EIS
Ms Reinaud raised finances to grow Seraphine through
the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), tapping into the
business angels network. “As a result, the financing of
the business at the initial stage was very stable, and
because we were profitable from nearly year one, we
were able to self-fund the business growth from there
which means we’ve had this controlled growth strategy
so that we wouldn’t burn all our money too fast and have
to raise more and more funds,” says Ms Reinaud. “EIS is a
fantastic system that creates a virtuous cycle of
entrepreneurs who have done well who then re-invest in
other entrepreneurs – they often pass on valuable advice
too,” she adds.
“I’ve had some very good success of
building talent within the company. That
is always the best and most satisfying
approach, if you can achieve that.”
Cecile Reinaud, Founder and Designer of Seraphine

Emulating gazelle companies
Clearly, every entrepreneur will face a specific set of challenges as they work to grow
their business, but after talking to four successful gazelle companies spanning a range of
sectors for this report, there are undoubtedly some commonalities and shared attributes
that have been important in their path to high growth. We have sought to capture the top
ten of these lessons below.
• Work on the business not in the
business
The entrepreneurs running the gazelle businesses we
have profiled are unanimous in agreement that while it
can be difficult for owners to remove themselves from the
day-to-day tasks of running the company, it is crucial to
future growth to make time to plan, network and develop
the vision of where the business is heading. This means
putting a trusted management team in place and
have confidence in them to make decisions.
• Bring in a mentor figure early on
All the gazelle leaders we profiled have engaged
mentor/advisers or non-executive director figures to
benefit from their experience in growing a business
beyond a certain size.
• Be proactive about networking
The founders and owners of the gazelle companies we
have profiled say their membership of an entrepreneurs
network has been a valuable source of learning for all
of them. It enables them to meet peers who are tackling
the same growth issues as they are, and to share
solutions to problems.
• Apply lessons from successful firms
in other sectors
Whether it’s eModeration seeking to replicate Addison
Lee’s smart use of mobile apps to better manage its
people, or Secured Mail adopting new customer
service practices, the entrepreneurs running the gazelle
firms we have profiled see huge opportunities in studying
successful businesses in other sectors.
• Get collaborative to get ahead
To some degree, all the gazelle firms we have profiled
place value in forging strategic external partnerships or
close ties with outside firms. Wheels 4 Sure, for example,
has become a preferred partner for Uber, while
eModeration has close links with technology firms that
help it stay up to date with the latest trends in its market.
• Harness technology to gain competitive
advantage
Whether the business is built on technology or not, it is
being harnessed for competitive edge in some way by all
of the gazelles we looked at. Secured Mail, for instance,
has opened up its entire network so customers can track
and trace parcels in near real-time, while Seraphine has
used its online store to help it break into more than 20
international markets.
36

• Share the company vision with
employees
In order to attract the best talent, and keep that talent
motivated to remain with the business as it grows, there
is a clear approach by the gazelle companies we have
profiled to involve employees and recruitment targets in
discussions on the future of the business and what its
key objectives are.
• Recruit people with the right mentality
for growth
The entrepreneurs we spoke to make a point of
recruiting people who are prepared not just to buy into
the company vision, but to go the extra mile to
contribute to the firm’s success. They were are not
interested in hiring employees who simply want a 9-5 job
– they want people who are flexible and agile, who can
help them overcome the inevitable stumbling blocks a
fast-growing company will face.
• Keep financing simple and get more for
your money
Some of the gazelle companies we looked at have had
the luxury of self-funding because of high profitability,
which keeps them in control of financing. Where they
have turned to external support, they have used a
measured approach, and often looked for more than
just finance from their investors. Seraphine, for example,
took on finance through EIS, and Secured Mail had
venture capitalist funding – in both cases the investors
delivered guidance too.
• Think outside the box with marketing
eModeration pursued a thought leadership marketing
strategy from the outset, at a time when it was still a
relatively new discipline. Seraphine has gained massive
media coverage through celebrity endorsements, while
Wheels 4 Sure has linked with external partners such
as Uber.
37

38
Entrepreneurship
across the UK
In our last Entrepreneurs Index we observed a mixed story among the regions. The greatest
increases in wealth creation were seen in England, particularly in the East, the Midlands and
London. Meanwhile, there was positive change in the proportion of high-growth companies in
regions outside of England – Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Our latest data shows that London and the South East continue to perform strongly in
terms of wealth creation, with the highest number of deals occurring there. We also saw
deal numbers growing in Wales and Scotland.
For high-growth companies however, the picture across the regions reflects the broader
trend discussed in the report, with all but two regions – Scotland and Northern Ireland –
experiencing some level of decline in the proportion of firms achieving this status.
Section 3

39
Chart 10: UK and Ireland regional enterprise activity
Key
Number of enterprises Proportion of high-growth companies Number of deals
Source: ONS; Experian for BGF; Wealthmonitor.
North West Scotland
North East
Yorkshire and Humberside
South West
South East
Midlands
227,000
20.5%
123
The East
401,000
20.7%
373
London
Northern Ireland
Wales
217,000 21.8% 176 157,000 24.0% 75
59,000 19.2% 30
156,000 20.9% 131
330,000 20.8% 191
67,000 20.7% 11
90,000 21.6% 62
207,000 20.6% 109
353,000 20.9% 234

40
London
19 Powering the digital economy, Tech Nation, 2015
techcityuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Tech%20Nation%202015.pdf
London saw the largest number of deals resulting in wealth
creation of £0.2m or greater during 2014, at 373, up 13.4%
from the number in 2013. Its businesses have not been
immune to the challenges of reaching high growth however,
as the number achieving this fell from 1743 to March 2013,
to 1672 to March 2014.
A 2015 report from Tech Nation found that Inner London
has seen a 92% increase in new digital companies
incorporated between 2010 and 201319
. The digital sector
employs around 251,590 people in London and its
ecosystem contains more than 36 business accelerators.
For further detail please refer to the methodology. Source: ONS; Experian for BGF; Wealthmonitor.
373 deals in 12 months
to December 2014
13.4%
1672 high-growth
companies
-5.8%
401,000 enterprises
as at March 2014
7.8% change in number of deals (12 months
to December 2014 vs 12 months to
December 2013)
change YOY (2014 vs.2013) change in percentage of high-growth
companies (12 months to March 2014
vs 12 months to March 2013)

41
South East
The South East also saw an increase in the number of deals
that occurred during 2014, with 234 recorded, as compared
with 221 during 2013. The region saw a decline however in
the number of high-growth companies in the £2.5m to
£100m revenue bracket, falling from 983 to March 2013, to
848 to March 2014.
The South East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) recently
agreed an expansion to its Growth Deal with the government,
which will see an extra £46.1m invested in the area between
2016 and 2021. This is in addition to the £442.2m of funding
committed by the government in July 2014. The additional
proposed projects include the Southend and Rochford Joint
Area Action Plan, which provides for further expansion of
London Southend Airport onto a 55-acre, greenfield site to
create a high-end Business Park.
to December 2014
5.9%
848 high-growth
companies
-4.4%
353,000 enterprises
as at March 2014
December 2013)

42
Midlands
David Bharier is Policy Research Adviser at Birmingham Chamber of Commerce
What local government initiatives are currently
promoting entrepreneurship in your region? The Green
Bridge Supply Chain Programme is a new competition for
SMEs who are invited to apply for funding to develop their
businesses within the West Midlands green sector. The
competition is funded with £20m from the Regional Growth
Fund and businesses can apply for grants ranging from
£10,000 to £1m. In addition, the Birmingham Skills for
Enterprise and Employability Network (BSEEN) programme
offers students and graduates a package of intensive
start-up support for new ventures including workshops,
business grants and free workspace opportunities.
In which sectors have entrepreneurial businesses been
growing most strongly within your region in the last 12
months? Birmingham’s technological and creative sector is
currently growing strongly, with many creative hotspots
emerging around the city. The Custard Factory in Digbeth,
home to over 500 businesses, has become the heart of
Birmingham’s digital district, hosting some of the city’s best
young creative talent. The hotspot now provides creative
workspaces and incubation to young entrepreneurs.
What do you feel are the biggest growth barriers facing
entrepreneurs in your region and how could these be
addressed? The skills gap currently being experienced
throughout the region is proving to be a major barrier for
business growth and development, with 65% of West
Midlands firms facing recruitment difficulties in Q4, 2014 .
Skilled manual jobs are proving problematic for
manufacturers, while managerial staff are the hardest to
recruit for service sector firms. The Skills Hub, a partnership
between regional further education colleges and the
Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, aims to
alleviate this problem by providing a vital link between
business and academia.
to December 2014
6.1%
688 high-growth
companies
-21.5%
330,000 enterprises
as at March 2014
December 2013)

43
North West
The North West is another region performing relatively well
in terms of the number of deals taking place. This figure
increased to 176 in 2014, up from 171 in 2013.
Liverpool City Region LEP and the North West Fund for
Loans Plus recently announced a joint initiative, whereby
SMEs operating in Merseyside that take advantage of the
35% subsidy available under the Liverpool City Region
LEP’s New Markets Programme to fund their growth, can
also benefit from a 50% reduction in the arrangement fee on
a loan of up to £250,000 from the North West Fund for
Loans Plus. These loans will be available until the end of
2015 in an attempt to support local businesses seeking
funding for growth.
to December 2014
2.9%
502 high-growth
companies
-11.2%
217,000 enterprises
as at March 2014
December 2013)

44
Yorkshire Humberside
Mark Goldstone is Head of Policy and Representation at West North Yorkshire
Chamber of Commerce
How has access to funding evolved within your region
over the last couple of years? What developments are
expected in 2015? There is funding available through
Local Enterprise Partnerships in our region and the West
and North Yorkshire Chamber has its own loan fund that
provides funding to those businesses unable to raise finance
through traditional channels. We have also seen a rise in
crowdfunding which appears to be better understood by
business owners in the region now.
growing most strongly within your region in the last 12
months, and what do you think is driving that growth?
The Yorkshire region continues to record growth in new
businesses within the media and digital sector, as the
relatively low cost of entry provides less of a challenge than
most other sectors. The Chamber has also seen interesting
growth in artisan food and drink, with consumers becoming
increasingly aware of provenance and willing to pay extra for
premium products. Yorkshire, with its rich heritage in food
manufacturing, access to quality ingredients and ready
access to UK and world markets is a great location for this
type of activity.
What benefits do you think your region offers to
entrepreneurs that choose to set up their businesses
there? Yorkshire has a well-established business support
network that includes chambers of commerce, community
development finance institutions (CDFIs) and angel investor
networks. There are some world-class universities that
provide support, collaboration and incubator space for new
businesses. Leeds is also one of the largest centres for
finance and legal professionals in the country, and as a
consequence there is a very large and well-connected
network of advisers.
to December 2014
0%
364 high-growth
companies
-16.6%
156,000 enterprises
as at March 2014
December 2013)

45
South West
The number of deals in the South West has fallen slightly,
from 114 in 2013, to 109 in 2014. There has also been a
decline in the number of companies achieving high growth,
from 375 to March 2013, to 332 to March 2014.
The Heart of the South West LEP has announced a £5m
loan programme to support business growth in the region
that will be delivered as a partnership between North
Devon+ and Plymouth University. HM Treasury also
announced the south-west infrastructure package in
March, which will see the government focusing on
improving the region’s road, rail and businesses. These
investments are expected to provide a huge boost to the
region’s economy: a total of 38 projects, worth nearly
£23bn, are in the south-west infrastructure pipeline.
to December 2014
-4.4%
332 high-growth
companies
-3.0%
207,000 enterprises
as at March 2014
December 2013)

46
North East
Ross Smith is Director of Policy at the North East Chamber of Commerce
What impact have local enterprise partnerships had on
entrepreneurship within your region? Tees Valley
Unlimited, the local enterprise partnership for Tees Valley,
has introduced two very helpful schemes. The Tees Valley
Catalyst Fund provides security for performance bond
guarantees and so helps firms bid for bigger contracts
than they would typically be able to. The Jobs and Skills
Investment Scheme provides a wage subsidy to support
new jobs, and has been particularly helpful in enabling
entrepreneurial firms in the digital sector to take on
local graduates.
growing strongly within your region in the last 12
months? The North East has always had expertise in the
field of energy, and new, fast-growing firms are continuing
this legacy – such as Nortech, who are providing a wealth of
engineering services to the energy sector, and Utilitywise,
who take innovative approaches to help businesses reduce
their bills. Digital is another fast-growing sector, with a host
of young tech start-ups following in the footsteps of Sage,
one of the region’s greatest business success stories.
over the last two years? The North East has achieved
disproportionate success within the Regional Growth Fund
(RGF), and programmes like Let’s Grow – backed through
RGF to provide smaller packages of support for growing
SMEs – have been very successful. North East firms are also
benefiting from exciting accelerator programmes – notably
Ignite 100 in Newcastle – while North East-based Growth
Funders is helping to introduce crowdfunding as a fresh
finance option. Securing the next wave of JEREMIE funding
from the EU for the North East has been a crucial project to
ensure growth finance is available in the next six years.
to December 2014
-36.2%
108 high-growth
companies
-12.0%
59,000 enterprises as
at March 2014
December 2013)

47
East of England
The East of England saw the third highest percentage
growth in deal activity measured by Wealthmonitor, after
Wales and London. The number of deals rose from 109 in
2013 to 123 in 2014. There was however a 14.2% decline
in the number of firms achieving high growth, from 588 to
March 2013 to 454 to March 2014.
Tech Nation’s recent Powering the digital economy report
highlights Norwich and Norfolk as a newly developing digital
cluster, with an ever-increasing body of technology
start-ups emerging, including online carpooling service
company Liftshare, and customer feedback survey company
Servicetick.
In February, the government approved a £2bn project for
a major wind farm off the coast of East Anglia that has
already led to £15m of contracts being awarded to
businesses in the region.
to December 2014
12.8%
454 of high-growth
companies
-14.2%
227,000 enterprises
as at March 2014
December 2013)

48
Scotland
Liz Cameron is Chief Executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce
How has the Scottish government been promoting
entrepreneurship? In November 2013 the Scottish
government announced its ‘CAN DO’ entrepreneurship and
innovation framework. Part of CAN DO has involved a review
of the private sector-led mentoring environment within
Scotland. Scottish Chambers has played a pivotal role in this
work as the leading deliverer of business mentoring in
Scotland. We have also introduced financial investment
programmes aimed at supporting businesses to export.
What financing challenges are facing Scottish
entrepreneurs? Access to funding continues to be a
significant challenge for entrepreneurs and businesses in
Scotland. Demand for credit/funding is still very low among
Scottish businesses and the Scottish Chambers Quarterly
Economic Indicator has found that recent impressive levels
of capital and training investment across the economy have
been funded through retained profits and cash, and not
through applications for new credit. We are aware of an
increase in the activities of angel investor networks but
it is not clear if this has transpired into improved credit
conditions for business.
What benefits do you think Scotland offers to
entrepreneurs that choose to set up businesses there?
Entrepreneurs will have access to a very skilled and diverse
workforce on their doorstep, and the country’s compactness
makes its talent and its businesses highly accessible.
Scotland has excellent universities that are putting students
through world-class courses and delivering highly sought-
after qualifications. Scotland’s airports lie within a short
distance of the urban population centres, delivering
effective links to many of the world’s key aviation hubs. We
also have a devolved Parliament which enables us to be
more flexible in our investment packages and tailor support
to suit potential investors.
For further detail please refer to the methodology. Source: ONS; Experian for BGF; Wealthmonitor.For further detail please refer to the methodology. Source: ONS; Experian for BGF; Wealthmonitor.
to December 2014
5.6%
400 high-growth
companies
5.7%
157,000 enterprises
as at March 2014
December 2013)

49
Wales
Wales had the largest percentage increase in the number of
deals recorded between 2013 and 2014, albeit from a
relatively low base. There were 62 deals that resulted in
wealth creation of £0.2m or greater during 2014, compared
to 49 in 2013.
In November 2014, Welsh Finance and Government
Business Minister Jane Hutt announced the European
Commission’s approval of the European Social Fund (ESF)
for Wales. The European Regional Development Fund
(ERDF) programmes, worth around £960m for West Wales
and the Valleys, and £162m for East Wales, will include:
• £310m for research and innovation
• £198m to boost competitiveness, including through
business finance
• £439m for connectivity and urban development, which
includes £252m for transport, including scope to support
transformational public transport investments and
• £154m for renewable energy and energy efficiency.
For further detail please refer to the methodology. Source: ONS; Experian for BGF; Wealthmonitor.For further detail please refer to the methodology. Source: ONS; Experian for BGF; Wealthmonitor.
to December 2014
26.5%
135 high-growth
companies
-13.1%
at March 2014
December 2013)

50
Northern Ireland
Ann McGregor is Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry
growing most strongly in Northern Ireland? Northern
Ireland is fast becoming a location of choice for international
film and TV companies, including Universal, BBC, C4, UTV
and a host of others, opening up new opportunities for
entrepreneurs. The Knowledge Economy Index has also
highlighted that during the last year, Northern Ireland
started 295 technology companies and increased
employment within knowledge-based companies to over
35,000 people.
over the last couple of years? What developments are
expected in 2015? Invest NI, InterTradeIreland, NISPO, Halo,
NISP, and others in the private sector have put significant
investment into supporting entrepreneurial growth in
Northern Ireland in the last few years. Invest NI has already
developed a suite of funds under its Access to Finance
Strategy through the Northern Ireland Small Business Loan
Fund and the Growth Loan Fund, which provides £55m of
debt finance over the next five years. There is a willingness
amongst local businesses to look at alternative sources of
finance too. Halo, run from the NI Science Park, acts as a
route to NI companies to be considered for crowdfunding
from the two biggest equity crowdfunding sites in the UK
– Seedrs and Crowdcube.
What benefits do you think your region offers to
entrepreneurs that choose to set up their businesses
there? With Northern Ireland designated as a European
Entrepreneurial Region for 2015, this could raise the profile
of Northern Ireland-based entrepreneurs to potential
investors and make over €1bn of finance from a range of EU
programmes accessible to them.
to December 2014
-8.3%
103 high-growth
companies
5.5%
at March 2014
December 2013)

Entrepreneurs index-volume-6

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