Next Government Must Put Self-Employed & Business Owners At Forefront Of Economic Policies At Last
- Ed Molyneux, Cofounder & CEO at FreeAgent
- 09.06.2017 01:30 pm undisclosed , After completing his degree in Engineering and Computer Science, Ed spent a decade flying military fast jets in the RAF before taking the plunge into freelance IT consultancy in 2002. However, he found that trying to balance his books with a spreadsheet was a painful process and decided that freelancers needed a simpler and more intuitive way to manage their accounts. He co-founded FreeAgent in 2007 with a view to “democratise accounting” for micro-businesses - making people feel smart, not stupid, abouttheir finances. The company started life in Edinburgh as a three-man operation, but has now grown over 100 staff.
I hope that whoever the new government turns out to be, it will not turn its back on the millions of people across the UK who run their own freelance or small businesses. This has been the most tumultuous election in recent memory, so is imperative that we get clarity over the identity of our new government and their plans for the future as soon as possible.
Self-employed people and micro-business owners form the backbone of our economy, yet they are rarely put at the forefront of policy decisions. Many of them think that the tax system is designed to benefit larger companies rather than smaller ventures - and the majority do not believe that the government supports them enough.
These business owners need simpler tax laws, better access to funding and more readily-available information and support in order to run their businesses better. I hope that whoever emerges victorious in June keeps those requirements in mind and works to deliver a brighter future for our micro-business sector.
Furthermore, I hope that the failure of the conservative party to win an outright majority will be a catalyst for a rethink on the UK’s Brexit strategy. We know that many micro-business owners were unhappy about the result of last year’s referendum, so I believe that pursuing a softer option - rather than Theresa May’s hard Brexit plans - will be more beneficial for these businesses and the UK economy in general.
