Hargreaves Lansdown founder: Now is a ‘fantastic’ time to start a business
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One of Britain’s richest businessmen has urged people to embrace their entrepreneurial spirit and set up new companies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Peter Hargreaves, the founder of investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown, said that despite the damage done to many firms by the pandemic, it had also created new opportunities.
“Right now is a fantastic time to launch a business, especially those who are working for companies that are struggling.
“They are in a great position to set up cheaply and challenge the bigger guys”, he told the Daily Mail.
“People are also doing things they’ve done before which entrepreneurs should take advantage of.
“Before lockdown, I had never used online banking and my wife never did her grocery shopping online”, said the City stalwart, who is worth £2.4bn according to the Sunday Times rich list.
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To aid wannabe entrepreneurs, he said that the government should get rid of some taxes and ease regulation.
“A five-year holiday would be wonderful to get this country going.
“We’d see huge numbers of businesses setting up now like we did in the 1980s and they could be the entrepreneurs of the future.”
He praised former Conservative PM Margaret Thatcher for the role that she played in liberalising the economy during the 1980s.
“The only way people can have a good standard of living in any country is business prosperity and capitalism is how you can prosper.
“That’s what Margaret Thatcher did, she created an environment for businesses to grow. Her passion was beyond belief, and I believe she will go down as the greatest Prime Minister this country has ever seen.”
He added that current chancellor Rishi Sunak should follow suit and get rid of “crazy regulations” bogging down the private sector.