The latest report published by the Financial Times shows how the current Coronavirus pandemic has triggered the birth of numerous start-ups in the United Kingdom.
Many companies are taking advantage of the changes happening in the last year for a business reorganization or to build new realities capable of successfully coping with the post-Brexit period and above all post-Covid. The data that emerges from the study is encouraging: in the third quarter of last year, 221,000 new start-ups were opened, the highest figure in the last decade, while in the first three months of 2021, 211,000 were registered, which is the second highest over the last decade.
The lowering of interest rates, the various government supports and the new opportunities that arose during the pandemic have helped many entrepreneurs to launch new businesses. It is important to highlight how the changes related to Covid in various personal situations have been an incentive for many individuals who otherwise would not have been able to start any business.
To give an idea of the important numbers that have been registered in the last six months, according to a study by startups.co.uk, in the month of April an average of 5 new online businesses were registered per day (including weekends), 60% more than the previous year; in other words, a new business was registered almost every working hour.
The figure is based on annual subscriptions on popular professional website platforms such as Wix and Squarespace.
Despite the encouraging data of the record of new start-up openings, there is a dark side to be taken into consideration. According to the latest figures from Companies House, the number of companies dissolved in the first quarter of 2021 increased by 25% (34,191) compared to the first quarter of last year, despite Companies House temporarily blocked voluntary and mandatory strike-off procedures between 21 January and 8 March 2021.
On the contrary, many businesses destined for permanent closure have managed to survive mainly thanks to the opportunities that the web has been able to offer them. In fact, the current situation has led many of them to have to readapt in order to survive: according to startups.co.uk, it is estimated that most of the businesses that have opened a website to be able to sell their products were already trading and that thanks to their web presence they have largely mitigated the negative effect of the pandemic.
The figure bodes well for economic recovery, in a period in which all sectors of the economy have suffered and many businesses have had to close permanently.
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Author
Domenico Santomasi
Photo by dylan nolte on Unsplash
