Page 2 - Survey 2020: The Star Business

2 THESTAR www.thestar.co.uk Wednesday,January22,2020
WELCOME TO SURVEY 2020
DAVID WALSH: PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE BUSINESSES WHICH SUPPORT OUR SOCIETY
Start-ups, we salute you all for your magnificent work
These days it seems the vital But despite this indiffer- contribution of business is ence, politicians are only too overlooked and ignored. ready to announce billions
Perhaps it is because and billions of spending on making money, and the the NHS, nuclear weapons competition that goes with and even free broadband.
it, naturally creates winners So I think it’s time to cel- and losers and we want to be ebrate business and the seen as a more egalitarian so- brains, guts and drive that ciety than that. are helping to support our
Which is fair enough. society.
But it seems we have gone The start-ups section in too far the other way and now this year’s Survey is our con- business' role in our nation is tribution.
rarely considered and often We are proud to present disparaged. 22 newly-minted companies,
And yet our ubiquitous founded by those who had public sector - government, ‘the urge’.
local authorities, NHS, It is the urge which every- schools, armed forces - de- one feels at some point, but pends on taxes generated by then, crucially, they acted on. business. And then, crucially, re-
And I don’t think that gets fused to take no for an an- stated enough - or at all really. swer, or give up in the face In all the Brexit argu- of setbacks, or quit because ments and general election they were either tired, or it rhetoric how often did you seemed hopeless or thank- hear anyone make that con- less or lonely, boring, scary nection and spell out those or simply more effort that it
facts? was worth (literally). Business pays taxes di- Even the biggest compa- rectly through corporation nies on the planet started tax and business rates and in- with one person feeling that
directly by employing people urge.
who pay income tax and na- In that context, start- tional insurance . ups may not have much but
They also buy stuff incur- they all have bags and bags of ring VAT and stamp duty and priceless potential.
pay a million other taxes such And, I hesitate to say it for as council tax, capital gains fear of putting more weight tax, road tax (sorry, vehicle on their already overbur- excise duty) and inheritance dened shoulders, not only do tax. we admire and respect what
Without private business- they do - but we depend up- es there are no public servic- on it.
es. Who is out there stating Start-ups, we salute you that? all.
Sheffield start-up Adiam Amanuel, founder of events/experience app 721. (See page 10)
Win free legal advice for a year with Sheffield law firm
A Sheffield law firm is offer- ing to help a new business soar with free legal advice for a year, worth more than £2,000.
Harper James is offering one lucky start-up the chance to win an hour’s legal advice every month for a year, and discounted rates after that, as part of a subscription to the firm’s enterprise plan.
Chief executive Toby Harper, said: “As an entrepre-
neur myself I know the barri- ers that exist in getting your idea off the ground - that’s why we want to offer this help.
“Last year we saw huge growth in the number of start-ups, particularly in the North - we need to build on that in 2020. We look forward to helping this new client.”
Entry is free, and open to all businesses in Sheffield City Region in February.
All you need to do is tell your founding story in no more than 30 words before midnight on February 29.
One lucky winner will be picked and announced on March 2. To enter, visit htt- ps://hjsolicitors.co.uk/win/
The offer comes as the number of entrepreneurs set- ting up in the region soared, despite political uncertainty and delays over Brexit.
Data from the Centre for Entrepreneurs shows 196 new tech start-up firms were created in Sheffield last year alone. That’s up six per cent on 2018 and puts the city in the top 20 areas for the sec- tor in the UK.
Last year was the biggest on record for start-ups in the UK. According to data from Companies House, 678,288 firms were registered in 2019.
Mr Harper said the fig- ures show the region is a great place for any would-be entre- preneur.
He added: “These figures are fantastic news for the re- gion and prove it is a brilliant area to do business. They un- derline how, despite the po- litical uncertainty businesses faced in 2019, entrepreneurs are still coming up with new ideas and being ambitious.”
Toby Harper.