Brits dream up best business ideas in bed
Brits are most likely to be struck by their best light bulb moment ideas when in bed with a third of the nation’s budding entrepreneurs naming it as the most inspiring place to dream up a new business concept.
Every great entrepreneur starts with their eureka moment.
Head of High Growth & Entrepreneurs at Barclays
New research from Barclays Business has shown a whopping 10.9 million Brits have had an idea for the next big thing, but didn’t pursue it. More than half say they saw someone else launch the same idea at a later stage and estimated their idea could have made them an average £62,000 richer if they had launched the idea themselves.
Funding was named as the top reason why ideas weren’t pursued, along with not knowing where to start, lack of confidence or not having the right kind of knowledge. The need for more mentoring also emerged as an important factor for a quarter of future entrepreneurs.
At Barclays, we are passionate about helping entrepreneurs fulfil their business ambitions and scale-up potential. Barclays’ Eagle Lab Incubator spaces have been launched with this in mind, providing the space, tools and guidance to develop creative concepts and support budding entrepreneurs to scale. Barclays’ £200m venture debt fund has also been established to help the UK’s high-growth firms to compete with Silicon Valley.
Richard Heggie, Head of High Growth & Entrepreneurs at Barclays, said: “Every great entrepreneur starts with their eureka moment and our poll shows the UK is a nation of inspired thinkers. It’s essential that the industry does all it can to harness and encourage this creativity. Not having access to lending, or to the right tools, advice and guidance shouldn’t be a barrier holding back the UK’s future disrupters and pioneers.
“With Eagle Labs we have launched Incubator spaces to help develop ideas, build confidence and networks, in addition to our £200m fund for scale-up businesses.”
The Eagle Lab network is expanding to new sites in Norwich, Notting Hill, Jersey, Salford and Huddersfield. This builds on the existing sites in Brighton, Bournemouth, Birmingham, and two in Cambridge.