Shropshire is named as the West Midlands most enterprising place

Shropshire is driving forward the next business revolution it was revealed today after it was named as the most enterprising place in the West Midlands as part of the Government’s Enterprising Britain competition.

300 hundred years on from ‘sparking’ the birth of industry and the area is once again setting the global agenda after the success of its Enterprise HQ Project helped it beat off tough competition from other regions.

A key element of the Shropshire Enterprise Partnership bid was the inordinate rise in the numbers and economic power of home-based enterprises and this was reflected in the creation of two specialist enterprise hubs in Shrewsbury and Ironbridge – the latter opening earlier this year.

The state-of-the-art Enterprise HQs provide a vital connector for entrepreneurs by offering virtual office services, meeting space, the latest technology, work pods and networking opportunities. They also organise powerful advertising for home-based businesses and bring in external business support to provide much needed expertise in order to foster an entrepreneurial culture.

Fay Easton, the Project Director, picked up the story:

“We are thrilled to be named the most enterprising place in the West Midlands, as this award fully vindicates our hands-on and creative approach to boosting start-ups and helping young firms to develop. We firmly believe that this is the only way to beat the current downturn.

“We called it ‘The People’s Bid’ as its about much more than the bricks and mortar of our HQs - it is about the enterprising people running businesses from homes all over this county, the entrepreneurial growth and the massive social and economic impact they create.”

She continued: “In just under two years, we have developed a 500 strong community of members, played a vital role in creating 86 new enterprises, introduced over £2million to the local economy in building our own hubs and mobilised local economic activity amounting to many millions of pounds.

“All of this enterprise activity in Shropshire helped the West Midlands move from 7th position to 2nd place in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in 2008.”

Enterprising Britain 2009 is a nationwide competition run by Enterprise Insight on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and in partnership with Advantage West Midlands.

Now in its fifth year, the competition celebrates and rewards the most enterprising areas in the UK; those places of enterprise excellence that have helped transform the social and economic fortunes of their area.

Advantage West Midlands’ Enterprise Board’ Member Angela Maxwell feels Shropshire has a good chance to put the region on the national map when it goes forward to the next stage of the competition.

“The beauty of Enterprise HQ is that it meets a real need in the area and this has been reflected in the fact it has 500 members across the two sites and has delivered business support to more than 10,000 individuals in two years.

“This has helped create new jobs, bring wealth into the area and create an enterprising ‘vibe’ that will be so important when it competes against the rest of the UK.”

Advantage West Midlands has spent the last four months hunting for its most enterprising place, with the hope that it will be named overall winner in the national Enterprising Britain 2009 final this October.

During June and July, Shropshire will be given the chance to prove it is worthy of the national winner’s title when it is visited by members of a high profile national judging panel.

Fay Easton concluded: “The number of start ups is rising rapidly as redundancies and college leavers boost numbers of people converting their skills to earning opportunities.

“From our landmark Enterprise HQ venue in Ironbridge, ideally located within the ‘Birthplace of Industry’, we look forward to bringing many of our businesses together to meet the judges and show them just what an inspired home business sector can do for the local, regional and national economy.”

For further information on Enterprise HQ venues, please visit www.enterprise-hq.co.uk and www.enterprise-emporium.co.uk. For further details on Shropshire’s People’s Bid, please email info@shropshireneterprise.co.uk.