Starting a business – it’s no longer grim up north

When making the brave decision to start a business, there are reems of business books and online resources outlining the highs and lows. Tons of unsolicited advice and of course, trails of business decisions good and bad to be researched and considered.

However, when looking at locations on where to begin your new adventure, there are factors you could consider to ensure your business has the best chance of success. Indeed, this will depend on your business and whether you would even wish to relocate to a new city or region, so we thought we’d look at some of the best cities for business and how they compare to the rest of the UK.

In 2022, Companies House recorded 80 new business registrations every single hour in the first half of the year.

In addition to this, 2020/2021 had the pandemic to thank for 810,316 newly formed companies resulting in an entrepreneurial increase of over 21% versus the previous year. Side hustles became full time hustles and many who tried their hand at a new venture decided to continue post Covid.

 

A FEW CONSIDERATIONS WHEN STARTING A UK BUSINESS

  1. The UK is one of the leading destinations for foreign direct investment in Europe.
  2. Education is world renowned and the UK hosts some of the world’s top universities. This results in the delivery of some of the most educated graduates globally.
  3. In 2023, the UK was classified as the 6th largest economy in the world according to the World Economic League Table.
  4. Integration of smart technologies (digital broadband & telecoms) across all major cities is a continual investment and second to none against its European counterparts.
  5. Considering the size of the UK to it’s global neighbours, we have a top 10 highest traffic airport (Heathrow) and air links across the world with most major cities and locations accessible.

 

According to www.startups.co.uk, when considering researching the best cities for business, they considered several factors. These included digital infrastructure, funding, and demographics. They took into account over 40 categories in total which saw the following top 10:

TOP 10 BIG UK CITIES TO START A BUSINESS IN

  1. Sheffield
  2. Glasgow
  3. Liverpool
  4. Bristol
  5. Leeds
  6. Cardiff
  7. Newcastle
  8. Edinburgh
  9. Manchester
  10. Birmingham