However a whopping 73 per cent of people never turn their ideas into a business venture mainly due to lack of confidence plus the fear of losing the security of a regular income. In order to nurture the UK’s budding entrepreneurs, Barclays has joined forces with the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies to offer a programme of 500 brand new seminars across the UK. The ‘Let’s Talk Business Ideas’ and ‘Let’s Talk Starting in Business’ seminars are available free of charge.

John Davis, marketing director for local business at Barclays, comments: “What we may be seeing is a real cultural shift in the UK with more people looking for control over their own destiny and working their socks off for themselves rather than someone else, as opposed to striving for power and money by moving up the corporate ladder. It’s important that the UK’s future entrepreneurs have access to the right level of advice at the right time. Establishing a solid grounding is crucial to ensure their venture goes on to be successful.”

Other highlights from the research:

• More than a quarter of budding entrepreneurs frequently think up ideas for a good business with 24 per cent being spurred on by a life event such as illness or children and 21 per cent when on holiday.
• More than a third of them (37 per cent) stated they were fed up with working for the benefit of other people and 31 per cent wanted more control over the hours they work; 17 per cent wanted to escape the ‘rat race’ or downshift. A small percentage (3 per cent) stated they wanted to be famous.
• Lack of confidence (44 per cent) and worrying about finances (44 per cent) are the main reasons stopping people.
• The prime age for starting a business is between 35-44 which may indicate that experienced workers are increasingly choosing to abandon the rat race and commuting in favor of being their own boss.

The seminar is run in conjunction with the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies and in partnership with, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. People can find out more by visiting www.barclays.co.uk/seminars/businessideas or www.barclays.co.uk/seminars/startinginbusiness or by contacting their local enterprise agency.

George Derbyshire, CEO of the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies says “Enterprise agencies exist to help people support themselves, their families and their communities through the skills of enterprise. We are delighted to be working with Barclays to deliver the enterprise message across England and Wales, in this exciting series of events, which will not only deliver enterprise skills to those ready to start their new business, but will also motivate and energise those who are at the early stages of the enterprise journey.”

Notes to Editors:

Research carried out by YouGov Plc between 7-10th April 2006 to 2405 people in the UK.

Barclays is an international financial services group engaged primarily in banking, investment banking and asset management. In terms of market capitalisation employed, Barclays is the third largest financial services group in the UK. The Group also operates in many other countries and is a leading provider of global services to multinational corporations and financial institutions in the world’s main financial centres. Barclays Business Banking provides services to 775,000 businesses, primarily in the UK and places high priority and focus on providing a good relationship with customers, with products and services tailored to their size, complexity and financial and geographic requirements. It is divided into four strategic business units, each with a specific customer or product focus; Local business – typically turn over less than £1 million; Medium Business and Agriculture - £1 million + to £10m turnover; Larger Business – in excess of £10m turnover; Asset Finance and Sales Finance – provides leasing, invoice discounting and factoring products across the customer spectrum.

About Barclays

Barclays PLC is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services. We are one of the largest financial services companies in the world by market capitalisation. Operating in over 60 countries and employing over 113,000 people, we move, lend, invest and protect money for over 25 million customers and clients worldwide. With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays PLC has six major businesses.

UK Banking delivers banking products and services to over 14 million retail customers and 775,000 businesses in the UK.

Barclaycard is one of the leading credit card businesses in Europe, and has 11.2 million UK customers and 4.3 million international cards issue.

Barclays Capital, the investment banking division, provides corporate, institutional and government clients with solutions to their financing and risk management needs.

Barclays Global Investors is one of the world’s largest asset managers and a leading provider of investment management products and services.

Wealth Management has over 580,000 affluent and high net worth clients.

International Retail and Commercial Banking is our global retail and commercial banking operation, with over 2 million international clients, in geographies which currently include the Caribbean, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Africa and the Middle East.