Open for business

START-UPS: We may be in a global recession, but it could be just the right time to try out your business idea. In the UK, the economic downturn has led to a huge interest in setting up small businesses.

Business Link is a government-funded agency that provides free business advice and also runs workshops for entrepreneurs. "Compared to this time last year, there's about a 25 per cent increase in people contacting us (and) looking to start their own businesses," Stephen Walker, a client services manager with Business Link, told the BBC. "People have often had an idea for many years but now they have redundancy money and they're going to use that to make it happen."

Jessica Lyons is just one of 40 people who attended a recent Business Link workshop at Stratford, in East London. Like the others, she is not deterred by the gloomy economic outlook. "I'm here to find out about starting up a business providing CVs to school-leavers," she told the BBC. "I think this is the ideal time, because there are more people than ever out there looking for work."

According to the British Banker's Association figures, there was a 5 per cent rise in lending to small business in the first quarter of this year, compared to the same time last year.

"We're seeing the start-up sector being more resilient than we thought it would be," said Steve Cooper, Managing Director of Barclays Local Business. "It tends to be more resilient because most start-ups don't need cash to begin with. They start off pretty small. If they do need finance, they usually get that from friends and family until they have an established business."