Startup Britain - Bus Tour week 2 September 19, 2011 11:08 by John Sollars
Startup Britain - What’s it all about?
When the call came through, “Do you want to join the Startup Britain bus tour?”, my immediate reaction was, “What’s that all about?”. Having not heard anything about it I decided that as I was now going to be on the bus, I’d better find out more.
Startup Britain is part of the coalition government’s plans to revitalise the private sector in the UK. After the largest uptake of state employment ever seen during the tenure of the last government we now need the private sector to be the focus for employment and wealth creation to take up the slack created by the very necessary public sector spending reductions.
Are entrepreneurs born, or can they be created? I guess that most of us are forced into entrepreneurship by circumstance rather than by design, which I suppose answers the question, entrepreneurs can be created.
If you have a good idea for a product or service that there is a demand for (and not just a demand in your head), and you have the ability, experience or contacts to be able to satisfy that demand, then why not go and do it. I guess the defining trait for any entrepreneur is the ability to ‘go and do things’ whilst others prevaricate.
Startups matter
The Rt Hon David Cameron MP, The Prime Minister says, "We need to see a country where new businesses are starting up on every street, in every town; where entrepreneurs are everywhere. We put out a call to business to rise up and help us drive the recovery and StartUp Britain is part of the answer to that call." Startup Britain is a privately sponsored and funded mission to kick start that vision of a “new business on every street corner”. So if you have an idea for that product or service, if you need some help or advice then come and meet a mixed bag of people who have been there, have got the T-shirt and are still doing it!
About the tour
Throughout August and September, the StartUp Britain campaign team is travelling to 14 locations across the country on a bus, complete with experts, mentors, entrepreneurs and small business authors. All in an on-going campaign to encourage budding entrepreneurs in all areas of Britain to start up their own businesses.
The tour will be joined by StartUp Britain’s founding sponsors: AXA, Barclays, Dell, Intel, Intuit, Microsoft, MITIE and PayPal, who will each be giving specialist business advice and discounts to entrepreneurs across the UK.
And Matt and I will be on the Startup Britain Bus Tour in Wolverhampton and Telford, Shropshire on Wednesday, 21 September, so please come and have a chat. The full itinerary for week two of the tour is below:
Week Two
Monday 19th September
- Brighton: 10am - midday: Portslade Aldridge Community Academy, Chalky Road, Porstlade, Brighton, East Sussex, BN41 2WS
- Brighton: 2-4pm: The Checkland Building, University of Brighton, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9PH
Tuesday 20th September
- Hampshire (Morning): 9-11.30am: Enterprise Day at Nokia
- Suffolk (Afternoon): 2pm - 5pm: Charter Square, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (Businessfestival.org)
NB: In our attempt to reach out to as many people as possible on our tour, we will be attending the Nokia offices to work with employees who are in the process of starting their own businesses. Unfortunately this is only open to specific Nokia employees. Please still register your interest in the event to receive updates on how the day went and what we'll be doing in the future with Hampshire.
Wednesday 21st September
- Wolverhampton (Morning): 10am - 12pm: Wolverhampton Science Park, Technology Centre, Glaisher Drive, Wolverhampton, WV10 9RU
- Shropshire (Afternoon): 1pm - 4pm: The International Centre, St Quentin Gate, Telford, Shropshire, TF3 4JH
Thursday 22nd September
- Sheffield: 9am - 6pm: MADE Festival, Tudor Square, Sheffield, S1 2LH
I’ll let you know how the day goes if you can’t make it.
