Monthly Archives: January 2021

One in five Brits say they want to start a business in 2021

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
One in five UK adults say they want to start a business in 2021.
That figure rises to over one third (34 per cent) of 18 to 34-year-olds.
And one in 10 of those surveyed said they already were already actively planning for their start-up this year.
Even more excitingly, only 6 per cent said it was because they had become unemployed, rising to 8 per cent because of furlough. More than one third (37 per cent) said it was because they had always wanted to start a business.
>See also: Checklist for going self-employed – a Small Business guide
More than half of those expecting to start their new business sometime in 2021 say they see it as being as a side-hustle.
As for what kind of start-up people want to launch, health and wellbeing was the top category (11 per cent) followed by manufacturing (10 per cent), tech (10 per cent) and business services (10 per cent)
However, manufacturing was the overwhelming number one category in the industrial West Midlands, which was the area where people were most likely to go into business for themselves.
But 12 per cent of all those surveyed said they needed more information and

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Small business national lockdown – what support is available?

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Grant support for 2021 lockdown
After announcements from Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon, England and Scotland have gone into lockdown. Wales has been in lockdown since December 20.
To support businesses through this period, chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced £4.6m of grant funding. This includes a one-off top-up grant for leisure, hospitality and retail businesses of up to £9,000.
They’ll be granted to closed businesses as follows:

£4,000 for businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or under
£6,000 for businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
£9,000 for businesses with a rateable value of over £51,000

A £594m discretionary fund is also being made available to support other businesses affected by the lockdown. As with the other grant funding, you’ll need to apply through your local authority.
More money has been giving to the devolved nations as part of the announcement but there have been no further funding announcements from them at the time of writing.
This new lockdown support is in addition to existing funding, as listed below.
Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG)

Available for businesses that are not covered by other grant schemes or where additional funding is needed.

Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS)

Loans of between £2,000 and £50,000, up to

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£9000 lockdown grant for businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Rishi Sunak has announced a one-off £9000 lockdown grant per property for businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure.
This is to support businesses and protect jobs following the announcement of a third national lockdown by the prime minister last night. It is expected this third national lockdown will last until March.
How £9000 lockdown grant works

£4,000 for businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or under
£6,000 for businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
£9,000 for businesses with a rateable value of over £51,000

The Treasury has also announced a further £594m discretionary fund to support to support other businesses not eligible for the grants, which might be affected by the national lockdown.
In total, £4.6bn worth of new lockdown grants have been made available.
And this comes on top of another £1.1bn of further discretionary funding for local authorities, local business shutdown grants worth up to £3,000 a month and extending the furlough scheme until the end of April.
The cash will be issued on a per-property basis to support businesses through the national lockdown, and is expected to benefit over 600,000 business properties, totalling £4bn in grants across Britain.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “The new strain of

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