Tag Archives: entrepreneurs

Opinion: Profiting from not selling out – let’s start (up)

By Alain Desmier | Mon 1st June 2015 - 3:23 pm

The Lib Dems could and should be the party of small business at the next general election and we must not wait another five years to realise it. We cannot allow Labour to clumsily win back liberal minded voters from the Tories as they did in 1997.

Lib Dems in Government create economic prosperity and security, that is an irrefutable fact of the last five years. Now we need to find enough messengers to carry this story to British enterprise.

I run a financial technology startup and I’ve now lost count of the number of sympathetic texts and emails I’ve had from clients and business peers over the past month: “I liked your man, shame he did so badly”, and a lot of “ I really can’t believe the Lib Dems did so badly, I voted Tory as I didn’t want Labour.”

My opening sentence is a platitude that every political party trots out once every political electoral cycle when it’s worried it doesn’t have enough core vote, or put bluntly, enough money. We can do better, we can actually mean it and commit ourselves through our policies to become the party of the entrepreneur.

In addition to our record of repairing a damaged economy, I think we have three distinct, vital differences that make us attractive to job creators and we need to be shouting about them, as loudly as we can.

Posted in Op-eds | 117 Comments

Opinion: Sticking up for the entrepreneurs of the future

By Alain Desmier | Thu 20th November 2014 - 2:35 pm

I spoke at a Global Entrepreneurship Week event at the University of Exeter last night, and I was asked to define the qualities of an entrepreneur.

It was an event for more than a hundred or so eager undergraduates who have already decided that the corporate world is not the life for them, and who were trying to gather as much information as they possibly could, to help them start their own entrepreneurial journeys, post-graduation.

University entrepreneurship isn’t limited to Exeter, universities all over the country have growing entrepreneurship societies and NACUE (National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs) have done fantastic work promoting them.

Whilst entrepreneurship societies thrive on campus, Lib Dem University societies struggle having taking much of the frontline flack for the tuition fee compromise. In a previous post for LDV, I drew comparisons between the values of an entrepreneur and Lib Dem members. I think we’ve got even more to say to entrepreneurial students who are making their own way in life.

But how do we say it?

Posted in Op-eds | 69 Comments

LibLink: Tim Farron – What Can Government do to Help the Self Employed?

By NewsHound | Wed 29th October 2014 - 10:15 am

Lib Dem party president Tim Farron has been writing at the Huffington Post about the need for politicians to support the growing number of what he terms the ‘little platoons’ of entrepreneurs and small businesses:

Unlike many politicians, I think this rise in self-employment could be a good thing, at least for those who’ve made the choice. I welcome the fact that entrepreneurial individuals are trusting themselves and their skills and striking out on their own. Especially amongst older workers, an increased willingness to share acquired knowledge and experience is creating successful small business owners and consultants. …

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged self-employed, small businesses and tim farron | 5 Comments

LibLink: Tim Farron – We need to capitalise on our scientific excellence

By NewsHound | Sun 16th March 2014 - 1:15 pm

Tim Farron has been writing for the Adam Smith Institute – there’s a sentence we didn’t expect ever to write – about turning the UK’s universities into entrepreneurial hubs. The Lib Dem party president is familiar with the sector, having worked in higher education at Lancaster University before entering Parliament. Here’s an excerpt:

Britain has a historically poor record of turning our scientists into entrepreneurs. Too often we have favoured the image of the mad professor or boffin, absent-mindedly beavering away in their lab, oblivious to the wider world around them. We must root out this gross caricature and start talking about the scientists of the future, like Dr Judith Spitz, who as well as not being male and grey haired, jumped at the opportunity to take her skills in speech and language therapy into the corporate world to become Chief Information Officer of Verizon.

Posted in News | Also tagged adam smith institute and tim farron | 5 Comments

The Independent View: The Lib Dems can – and should – be the Party of the Entrepreneurs

By Sam Bowman | Mon 7th October 2013 - 10:30 am

Every party claims, in some way, to be on the side of small business, but none has really given new and potential businesses much time or attention. Firms that do not yet exist are much less easy to champion and harder still to help than existing small businesses, but they are no less important.

It may be no wonder, then, that not one of the three main party leaders mentioned entrepreneurs in their Autumn conference speeches. That’s why today we at the Adam Smith Institute are helping to launch The Entrepreneurs Network, a new think tank dedicated to giving …