WEBVTT

NOTE Three in five are gone
NOTE Narrated by Imogen. Generated from public/films/voice-takes.json
NOTE by scripts/build-film-captions.mjs. Edit the narration, not this file.

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Of every hundred UK businesses that opened in 2019, about thirty eight were still

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trading five years later.

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That figure gets used to prove two opposite things.

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That starting a business is reckless, and that Britain is full of quitters.

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It proves neither. This is simply the normal shape of business ownership.

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What is interesting is how unevenly it is spread.

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In the South West, forty three point five per cent made it to five years.

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In the West Midlands, thirty point six.

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The trade matters even more.

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Transport and storage has the lowest survival of the main trades.

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Of the ones that started in Wales in 2019, only fourteen point eight per cent were

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still going.

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Roughly one in seven.

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Now notice something.

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That is the same trade with the highest opening rate in the country.

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Easy to start is not the same as easy to stay in.

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A survival rate tells you the odds. The public record tells you who is still open.