Budding Entrepreneurs Need to Move Fast to Seize Opportunities

Ms Meyer was speaking at last week's Business Startup show, held at London Olympia.

She made her comments after research from Enterprise UK showed that out of 2,121 adults surveyed, 17 per cent want to launch a start-up, up from 12 % last year. The body predicts that if one in ten of the respondents realised their ambition, it could create 1.1 million extra jobs.

Carl Schramm, president of entrepreneurial charity the Kauffman Foundation, said that the number one issue facing both policy makers and families is job creation during an economic crisis. The enterprise study shows that entrepreneurs are a key factor in job creation.

For those wanting to start their own business, 49 per cent said the recession has had no impact on their decision to start-up.

Ms Meyer said that entrepreneurs must continually strive to think big. They cannot afford to sit back and ponder on the what ifs and why nots. Once you starting thinking in negative mode, it's game over. But she also added that the current market conditions dictate that entrepreneurs will start small.

The former head of the Confederation of British Industry, Lord Digby Jones, also believes that entrepreneurs can be our saviours, saying in a recent speech that small businesses alone would rescue the struggling UK economy.

So what's holding people back? Research carried out by the Prince's Trust & Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) suggests that young adults would like to see their local job centres providing more advice on self employment. 51% of those surveyed said that job centres and careers advisors do not give enough advice on starting a business and 69% said that educational establishments give little or no advice.

The Prince's Trust interviewed 1,720 young adults between the ages of 18 and 30 and found that 63% of them thought that if the government provided a clear route into self-employment, it would bring down youth unemployment levels.

The head of Group Economics at RBS, Stephen Boyle, said that the research suggests that the UK has pent-up entrepreneurial activity, just waiting for the economy to recover. Once the worst of the recession is over, young entrepreneurs will be well placed to play and important and exciting role.

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