A new Entrepreneurs’ Forum has been launched in a bid to provide start-up and growing firms with informal and personal advice on new business and enterprise polices.
Business secretary Vince Cable announced the inaugural forum at the beginning of Global Entrepreneurs Week, which aims to boost enterprise and start-ups across the globe. The forum is part of the government’s agenda to engage with business people and hear their views on expanding enterprise and encouraging entrepreneurship as a viable career option.
According to the business secretary this will help break down the barriers that deter people from taking the leap into starting a business and encourage them to make a job, not take a job.
Cable said: "People with the courage to start up a business will be crucial to driving the growth of the economy. Start-ups create jobs, stimulate innovation and provide a competitive spur to existing businesses to encourage them to increase their productivity.
“I am delighted with the quality of the membership of my new forum and look forward to bouncing ideas off them and hearing their views."
Up to 26 entrepreneurs will sit on the forum, including Jan Fletcher, Dawn Gibbins and Sarah Tremellen as a significant proportion of the forum are women, and increasing the rate of female entrepreneurs is one area the forum is encouraged to look at.
The entrepreneur group will meet around four times a year, with a flexible schedule according to the material to be discussed. The first meeting is expected to take place at the start of 2011.
The forum is just one of several ways in which the business secretary will hold dialogue with business. The forum will complement other groups, such as the prime minister's Business Advisory Group; the secretary of state's Business Advisory Group; and the Small Business Economic Forum.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2010