On the 17th November, a significant new report the Scale-­up Report, authored by Angel Investor, Sherry Coutu, was published with details on how many more businesses can achieve “scale up growth” status in the UK.

The Report highlighted 6 factors that need improving for the growth and success rates for new businesses to rise:

1. Targeting, supporting, promoting and reporting on scale-­‐up gap closure Freeing data makes it possible for stakeholders in the economy to identify scale-­‐ups. Collaborating with and promoting others who help scale-­‐ups fulfil their potential is the second most important thing government can do.
2. Accessing talent For leaders of scale-­‐ups, the number one problem that prevents them from being able to accept customer orders is access to talent, namely a skilled supply of people who they can hire. If they can’t hire the staff, they can’t accept the customer order.
3. Developing scale-­‐up leadership The second most important factor cited by scale-­‐up leaders as stopping them from growing their revenues faster (by accepting customer orders) is lack of capacity and experience in the senior leadership team. It is hard to grow a company hundreds of times faster than is ‘normal’ without the right training and support.
4. Increasing customer sales at home and abroad Barriers exist that prevent companies creating new products and services for domestic markets, and selling successful products in other countries.
5. Financing scale-­‐ups Fast growing companies often turn to the US or Asia for their financing. Although capital is available for entrepreneurs leading successful companies, if the company floats or is sold and the shareholders are not based in the UK, the gains do not flow into the economy. Additionally, the pressure on a company to re-­‐domicile is greater if the majority of its funding is based abroad. This exacerbates the scale-­‐up skills shortage.
6. Accessing infrastructure Entrepreneurs say lack of access to infrastructure makes it more difficult to scale their companies in the UK than elsewhere. Suggestions include sharing physical infrastructure with large established corporates.

When Advantage Business Partnerships Limited’s Founder and CEO Daryl Woodhouse heard about the planned report launch earlier this year, he immediately registered ABP is an ambassador to support raising awareness of the Scale Up Britain campaign.

On Wednesday, 26th November, over 100 influential business people from a variety of exciting hyper growth Start Ups, business support organisations and B2B corporate firms came together at the offices of award-­‐winning print and design company Moo.com to find out more about the Scale Up Report and how its findings can impact growth for their businesses.

Daryl says:

“Britain has so many high potential and interesting start ups now, although many have not run a successful business before and so 95% don’t survive the challenges of more than 5 years in trade. When I heard about the report, I just had to ensure we were closely aligned with the whole upcoming Scale Up Britain movement.”

In collaboration with Paulina Sygulska Tenner, co-­‐founder of Grant Tree, Scale Up Britain was created with high-­‐growth British companies in mind. Inspired by the Scale Up Report, the key purpose is to widen the growth debate and provide practical solutions to dynamic business owners by those – and only those – who are in a best position to give it.

With a focus on shifting the conversation from Start Ups to Scale Ups and building sustainable businesses, Daryl Woodhouse, CEO of ABP and co-­‐organiser of the event, expressed his excitement at the impact of the Scale Up Report.

“The potential impact of the Scale Up Report is huge and could really help take many ambitious British business to the next level. We wanted to help businesses understand the report and learn from other successful fast-­‐growth businesses on how they can scale up faster too. You can get involved too by sharing the report and these messages to other ambitious businesses in your network or client base.”

In further support of the Scale Up Britain campaign, the ABP group with its nationally diverse team of 25 professional business advisors, has put together a quick and easy to use, free online tool to help ambitious businesses understand exactly how their business is performing now so they can assess and prioritise the next key steps they need to grow. Find out more here through our 80 second SPA Explainer video. We hope you like it and use it effectively to ensure your business beats the odds of failure. http://youtu.be/fdMy4GOEel0