A Comprehensive Guide: Entrepreneurship and Startups in London, UK

This report serves as an entrepreneurial guide for individuals aiming to launch a business in Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom. It emphasizes the benefits of entrepreneurial ventures, including job creation and economic development, and highlights Birmingham's favorable startup environ...Read More

Running head: A GUIDE THROUGH LONDON
A Guide through London
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Entrepreneurship:.............................................................................................................................2
The start-up scenario in Birmingham:.............................................................................................3
Benefactors of entrepreneurial guide provided:..........................................................................5
Support opportunities and networks available in Birmingham:......................................................6
Case study example:........................................................................................................................7
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................8
References:......................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction:
The entrepreneurial ventures usher a lot of benefits to the market. Entrepreneurial
ventures lead to generation of new employment opportunities in the market besides leading to
new product development. They also increase the revenue generation in a country and
encourages economic development. The governments of different countries to reap these benefits
of entrepreneurial ventures, provides them with financial support. The paper would present an
entrepreneurial guide to entrepreneurs who look forward to enter Birmingham in West Midlands,
the United Kingdom. The guide would point out the facilities which Birmingham can offer the
business ventures to encourage their growth.
Entrepreneurship:
Entrepreneurship refers to the process and starting of new business ventures in order to
earn profits. One can point out that as far as business contexts are concerned, entrepreneurial
startup businesses create new opportunities in the market. The entrepreneurs recognize new
business opportunities and business requirements in the market. They use the opportunities to
start new businesses by acquiring raw materials and human resources. Thus, in this context in
can be said that entrepreneurial ventures create new employment opportunities (Burns et al.,
2016). The entrepreneurs have the propensity to take risks which they encounter during the
course of establishing the businesses. One of the risks they face is limitation of available
financial resources which in fact limit their capability of acquiring human resources and
materials context and relevant concepts. However, start-up entrepreneurial ventures play a great
role in creating employment opportunities, revenue generation and economic development in the
economies. One can also note that some of the leading companies in the world like Google
started their journey as entrepreneurial start-ups. The entrepreneurs recognize new needs in the

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market which the present goods cannot fulfill. They use these gaps as opportunities to bring
about new product developments. There are several factors which factor development of
entrepreneurial ventures like availability of finance and availability of markets. The markets
provide opportunities to entrepreneurs sell their products which may be services or goods to earn
revenue (Bridoux and Stoelhorst 2014). The developed and emerging economies in the world
provide these opportunities to start-up entrepreneurial ventures which has led to emergence of
more of these ventures compared to poor economies. These emerging ventures in the developed
and developing markets have boosted their economic growth whereas dearth of such ventures
has limited the growth of underdeveloped markets. One such market which favours start-ups is
Birmingham, West Midlands in the United Kingdom (Toma et al. 2014).
The start-up scenario in Birmingham:
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
350,000
400,000
450,000
Chart Title
West Midlands London
United Kingdom Percentage (West Midland : UK)
Percentage (London : UK)
Figure 1. Statistics hsowing sucess rate of Startups in Birmingham compared to the UK
(Source: data.london.gov.uk 2018)

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2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
350,000
Chart Title
West Midlands London
United Kingdom Percentage (West Midland : UK)
Percentage (London : UK)
Figure 2. Statistics showing death rate of Start-ups in Birmingham compared to the UK
(Source: data.london.gov.uk 2018)
The two figures shown above compare between the emergence of new start-up businesses
and death of start-up businesses. The statistics above shows that as far as emergence of
entrepreneurial ventures are concerned, Birmingham shows higher percentage to the United
Kingdom compared to London. London shows 1 percent increase in the start-ups and remains
uniform throughout the 2010 to 2016. Birmingham, in comparison to London shows increase in
the number of entrepreneurial ventures after statics increase in 2014. The city in West Midlands
shows a steady increase to 8 percent in 2015 and 2016. Similarly, as far as the death of
enterprises are concerned, West Midlands shows a fall from 8 percent to 7 percent in 2016.
London in comparison to West Midlands has shown an increase by a percent in death rate of
entrepreneurial ventures. This analysis shows that among West Midlands has emerged into a
more friendly location for entrepreneurial ventures.

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Benefactors of entrepreneurial guide provided:
The entrepreneurial guide of Birmingham would prove beneficial to a large number of
stakeholder groups. The first group which would benefit from the guide would be entrepreneurial
firms which seek to enter the United Kingdom, especially Birmingham. They information about
sources of finance mentioned in the guide would help them to choose the most appropriate
sources of finance to fund their venture. The entrepreneurs which are finding it difficult to
establish their ventures in London and are looking for a comparatively less competitive market
would find the guide about Birmingham extremely helpful (Tantalo and Priem 2016).
The second group of stakeholders who would benefit indirectly from the guide consist of
local government bodies in Birmingham. This is because entry of new entrepreneurial firms in
the market of Birmingham would mean new sources of taxes for them. Moreover, new
entrepreneurial ventures create new job opportunities which would raise the employment rate in
the city (Spence 2016).
The third group of stakeholders which would benefit by opening of new entrepreneurial
businesses in Birmingham would be the financial institutions: This is because entry of new firms
would means new business opportunities for these financial institutions to sell their loan
products. This would generate additional business opportunities for them (Zahra and Wright
2016).
The fourth group of stakeholders who would profit by the entry of the new
entrepreneurial business organisations would be customers. The customers would be able to
consume new products which would be able to meet their new requirements. This analysis shows
that though entrepreneurs are directly benefitted by entrepreneurial guides, the other groups of
stakeholders benefit from these guides as well (De Massis et al. 2014).

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Support opportunities and networks available in Birmingham:
The economy of the United Kingdom is experiencing a boom in the entrepreneurial
ventures especially in the cities like Birmingham, in West Midlands. Birmingham compared to
London has more number of start-up companies. This is because London being the capital of the
United Kingdom and one of the international financial hubs in the world has large number of
established companies. These established companies give stiff competition to the small newly
established companies which ultimately die out (ft.com 2018). This is evident from the high rate
of company deaths in London. Birmingham, the financial hub of West Midlands compared to
London has experienced slower but more sustainable growth of start-ups. This is because the
growth of start-up companies has given boost to the economy of Birmingham.
The second factor which Birmingham experienced is increase in the retail sector. For
example, after London, Birmingham is the most sought after retail destinations in the United
Kingdom. The city has experienced considerable development in sectors like manufacturing,
financial services and business services. This factor has boosted the entrepreneurial ventures in
these sectors as well as the retail sector (Naudé 2014).
The third factor which has boosted the growth of industries in Birmingham is availability
of networks. The city in West Midlands is the second most sought after cities in the United
Kingdom after London and as a result is served by a strong network of transport. The city of
Birmingham is connected to London and the other parts of the United Kingdom through
railways. The Birmingham International Airport allows transportation to and from international
destinations. Efficient transportation network has enabled transportation of raw materials and
people. Thus start-up firms would be able to to utilise the transport network of Birmingham to
transport resources and also distribute finished products (Liñán and Fernandez-Serrano 2014).

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The fourth factor which start-up firms can take advantage of in Birmingham is rich
network of financial institutions. The Government of the United Kingdom provides financial
assistance to small and medium business start-ups. The government provides economic help to
business organisations on regional basis. The Government of the United Kingdom has launched
the BCRS loans for West Midlands including Birmingham. The entrepreneurial ventures can get
financial assistance of GBP 10000 to 150000 as per their needs. The repayment period would
one to seven years and these organisations should have maximum 250 employees. However,
these business organisations should be able to prove their inability of getting loans from banks
(gov.uk 2018).
The entrepreneurship business organisations in the United Kingdom can take advantage
of the business incubators. These are established firms which offer support to start-up firms like
offering training to their staff members, thus strengthening the human resource of the latter.
Entrepreneurs seeking to enter the market of Birmingham can also take help of the
regional growth funds which are sponsored by regional companies. The entrepreneurs can also
approach the government for start-up loans. The government also provides services like
mentoring and support for the start-ups. However, the entrepreneurs seeking government loan
should apply for the same at least a year ahead (Audretsch, Belitski and Desai 2015).
Case study example:
Birmingham is emerging as one of the top start-up business hubs not only in the United
Kingdom but in fact in entire Europe. The business analytics have already started holding the
city ahead of London in terms of commercial importance. The cost of living in Lonodn is very
high compared to the other parts of the UK whereas Birmingham is still affordable. The city as

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already exemplified above is served by air, land and road transport and is well connected to
London. This means that the people living in the city can travel to and from London easily. This
is attracting more people to Birmingham and with them the infrastructure building companies.
Multinational banks like the HSBC Bank are opening strategic branches in the city to exploit its
growing market. These availability of large consumer population, financial institutions and
favourable infrastructure like transport in Birmingham is encourage more start-ups compared to
other cities in the UK including London, the capital city (ft.com 2018).
Conclusion:
The above discussion clearly shows that entrepreneurial ventures bear several good
outcomes for the economies. The governments and the business organisations in every economy
should provide entrepreneurial ventures with financial support to encourage their growth.
Birmingham would provide a great entrepreneurial opportunity for the entrepreneurs. They must
explore the market to develop their business ventures. They must follow entrepreneurial guides
to gain information regarding crucial areas like sources of finance, availability of raw materials
and competitors. They must also gain information about the macro economic factors prevailing
in Britain before making decisions to enter the market.

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References:
Audretsch, D.B., Belitski, M. and Desai, S., 2015. Entrepreneurship and economic development
in cities. The Annals of Regional Science, 55(1), pp.33-60.
BCRS Business Loans - West Midlands. 2018. GOV.UK. Retrieved 28 April 2018, from
https://www.gov.uk/business-finance-support/bcrs-business-loans-west-midlands
Bridoux, F. and Stoelhorst, J.W., 2014. Microfoundations for stakeholder theory: Managing
stakeholders with heterogeneous motives. Strategic Management Journal, 35(1), pp.107-125.
Burns, B.L., Barney, J.B., Angus, R.W. and Herrick, H.N., 2016. Enrolling stakeholders under
conditions of risk and uncertainty. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 10(1), pp.97-106.
Data.london.gov.uk. 2018. London Datastore. [online] Available at:
https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/business-demographics-and-survival-rates-borough [Accessed
28 Apr. 2018].
De Massis, A., Kotlar, J., Chua, J.H. and Chrisman, J.J., 2014. Ability and willingness as
sufficiency conditions for family‐oriented particularistic behavior: implications for theory and
empirical studies. Journal of Small Business Management, 52(2), pp.344-364.
Ft.com. 2018. London start-ups are most likely to fail. [online] Available at:
https://www.ft.com/content/e3c745c4-88d8-11e7-afd2-74b8ecd34d3b [Accessed 28 Apr. 2018].
Ft.com. 2018. Why Birmingham is now one of Europe’s best cities for investors. [online]
Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/26c293dc-fe12-11e4-8efb-00144feabdc0 [Accessed 30
Apr. 2018].

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Gast, J., Gundolf, K. and Cesinger, B., 2017. Doing business in a green way: A systematic
review of the ecological sustainability entrepreneurship literature and future research
directions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 147, pp.44-56.
Liñán, F. and Fernandez-Serrano, J., 2014. National culture, entrepreneurship and economic
development: different patterns across the European Union. Small Business Economics, 42(4),
pp.685-701.
Naudé, W., 2014. Entrepreneurship and economic development. International Development.
Ideas, Experiences and Prospects.
Salamzadeh, A. and Kawamorita Kesim, H., 2015. Startup Companies: Life Cycle and
Challenges.
Smallbone, D., Welter, F. and Ateljevic, J., 2014. Entrepreneurship in emerging market
economies: Contemporary issues and perspectives. International Small Business Journal, 32(2),
pp.113-116.
Spence, L.J., 2016. Small business social responsibility: Expanding core CSR theory. Business
& Society, 55(1), pp.23-55.
Tantalo, C. and Priem, R.L., 2016. Value creation through stakeholder synergy. Strategic
Management Journal, 37(2), pp.314-329.
Toma, S.G., Grigore, A.M. and Marinescu, P., 2014. Economic development and
entrepreneurship. Procedia Economics and Finance, 8, pp.436-443.
Zahra, S.A. and Wright, M., 2016. Understanding the social role of entrepreneurship. Journal of
Management Studies, 53(4), pp.610-629.