The Angel's Wish List
Read an entrepreneur's 'wish list' - Investor Julian Ranger on what he wants to see from the 2010 election’s winning party
As an entrepreneur with over twenty years of experience, I firmly
believe that entrepreneurs create new businesses which positively impact
employment and revenue generation for the country. However, this is in
spite of the government rather than with the aid of the government. So
what do I hope for from whoever wins? In summary, three things:
Ease of visibility and access to government support
An improved tax regime
A recognition of the role of entrepreneurs and that wealth
created as a result is not ‘dirty money’
Ease of visibility:
There are plenty of government business initiatives, but what
support there is? Management support, training, grants – they’re hard to
find out about and even harder to access. Some businesses do find time
to access government support, but the vast majority can’t crack the
system with a reasonable effort in any meaningful way. Consequently we
have businesses failing when they needn’t have and many ‘would be’
entrepreneurs do not feel able to take the plunge. So, how to fix this?
Collate ALL government business support into a well designed,
well publicised business support portal on the web. This would give
entrepreneurs a single place to go to in order to answer a few simple
questions and be directed to potential support options. Each element of
support would have clear criteria spelled out, places to go for more
detail and, wherever possible, simple web-based application processes -
all from a single, all-encompassing portal.
Tax:
The tax regime today is neither helpful to small businesses or to
those investing in small businesses. For
investors, EIS (Enterprise Investment Scheme) relief is the best system
out there today, whilst for varying reasons I believe that VCT (Venture
Capital Trusts) funds are wealth destroying for the nation rather than
wealth enhancing. To encourage greater investment for entrepreneurs, I
would suggest closing down VCT relief and use the funds to expand EIS
relief, making it simpler to obtain whilst allowing those investing on
an EIS basis to get relief, not just against income tax, but also
capital gains tax.
For companies within their first two years, I would provide a
National Insurance holiday for the first ten staff and look at other tax
reliefs that encourage employment. I would also look at reduced
corporation tax where profits are being reinvested in a business rather
than being distributed as dividends.
Recognition for entrepreneurs:
Finally, we need to stop bashing the successful and wealthy, and
start encouraging aspiration for all - surely if it is OK politically
and culturally to be wealthy as a sports, pop or movie star, then it is
OK to be wealthy as a result of business. Yes, our bankers (and some
others) made obscene amounts of money by risking our money rather than
their own, but that doesn’t mean that all wealthy people should be
blamed. Entrepreneurs will become wealthy if they are successful, but
it’s a high risk game. However, the nation benefits much more from those
willing to take the risks through the employment and revenue those
businesses generate. And once an entrepreneur sells and becomes wealthy
they invariably don’t sit on the money, but reinvest it to the benefit
of the nation as well as themselves.
So I hope our future government, whoever it may be, recognises that
we need entrepreneurs to build wealth and aid the recovery from the
downturn. The next government also needs to support small business
through a clear and coordinated tax and small business support policy,
as well as accept that encouraging aspiration is a good thing for
everyone.
Julian Ranger has been an angel investor since 2007 and now heads up an
innovation hub called iBundle
where he invites start-up entrepreneurs who are looking for
backing and advice to contact him
Back to News
