Professionals shifting to self-employment - but with no support from bank managers or politicians

Study commissioned by Alodis, launching today, and conducted by MORI ¹

• 75% of Self-employed Professionals have had no Government support
• 69% have had little or no help from banks
• Seven out of 10 are glad to have left 'office politics' behind
• Two-thirds feel that being self-employed gives them more time to think
• 62% want a representative voice to speak for them
• The UK's 1.6 million Self-employed Professionals create 16365 billion per year 2
• Numbers of self-employed forecast to double within the next 10 years 3

Alodis, the UK's first independent service for Self-employed Professionals, launches today with new research by MORI, highlighting a growing trend among skilled workers to reject office life and work for themselves.

Alodis, has been created to address the special requirements and views of the 1.6 million Self-employed Professionals working independently throughout the country. Alodis will give its members a voice within Government and community and practical solutions to meet their everyday needs. Self-employed Professionals that Alodis will represent are highly skilled and motivated independent sole traders, ranging from freelance journalists and business consultants to specialists in technical crafts and personal therapies.

Even before commissioning the MORI study, Alodis spent over six months consulting hundreds of Self-employed Professionals about their needs, concluding that their contribution to British life is being overlooked and deserves greater recognition.

Julia Hutchison, head of Alodis, says: "Projections show that within the decade this highly valuable group will double to represent over 3.2 million professionals; 12% of the UK working population. However, despite the obvious growing importance of this group, our research shows that three-quarters of Self-employed Professionals have done so without Government help and 69% have received little or no support from banks and financial institutions. Politicians long ago identified 'SME's' as a vital part of the UK economy, but are doing nothing for the two-thirds3 of them who are sole traders, with their own special needs."

Alodis has today written to the DTI Minister for Small Business, Patricia Hewitt MP, drawing attention to its research findings, and calling for the Government to acknowledge the rising economic significance of Self-employed Professionals. Alodis is specifically highlighting the concerns of Self-employed Professionals about the effectiveness of the Government's recently introduced Late Payments Act (1998) which the research reveals to have made little impact on the problems of late payment for the self-employed. Alodis has also written to a number of other organisations concerned about late payments to highlight the research findings.

Alodis is calling upon a wide range of established professional associations and institutes to join forces in representing Self-employed Professionals more effectively and cohesively. 62% of those surveyed on behalf of Alodis said they would support a collective voice to improve the status of Self-employed Professionals. Hence Alodis, backed by its parent Mongrel Worlds4, has developed an integrated, flexible service for its Self-employed Professional members to address their particular needs including a representative arm. Services will be rolled out over the coming months, delivered via the Web, in print, by phone and through tailor-made software - responding to the specific requests of those consulted by Alodis.

The first manifestation of these services is the monthly 'Alodis' magazine, offering inspiration, advice and information. There will be a website offering an alternative route into the service providing a platform and a voice for this group. There will also be specialised software and a real PA service, accessed by telephone. These will be delivered in collaboration with carefully chosen commercial partners to develop products tailored exclusively for Self-employed Professionals, including financial services, office technology and equipment.

However, it is not all 'doom and gloom' for the Self-employed professionals; among the other findings of the Alodis survey, it is clear that Self-employed Professionals like working for themselves, believing that it breeds efficiency and innovation. 78% of respondents said that their quality of life had improved since becoming self-employed; 72% think they have become more entrepreneurial; two-thirds have become more confident since branching out on their own.

Julia Hutchison continues, "Self-employed professionals are an incredibly motivated sector of the UK working population. Alodis has been established to celebrate their existence and raise their profile. Sadly to date this is a relatively unrecognised, misunderstood, poorly served yet highly skilled and growing community. We have spent considerable time working with groups of self-employed individuals to understand their needs and develop services with them. Our extensive research also shows that Self-employed Professionals want to be recognised by Society and heard by Government on a number of issues. Alodis will be an advocate for its members and will be championing the causes that matter to them most."

Commenting on being self-employed, Katherine Ashby, a Complementary Therapist from London says, "Although there are the down sides of being your own boss, like irregular clients and therefore unreliable income, having to be continuously resourceful and constantly self motivated these are far outweighed by the great things. My lifestyle is great and I seem to have more time for everything, but as a self employed professional, anything that is going to help me improve what I do, network and let everyone know about me is going to worth it."

Notes:

1. On behalf of Alodis, MORI interviewed a nationally representative sample of 500 self-employed professionals by telephone, in England, Scotland and Wales between 14 - 16 January 2001.
2. Source: Forrester Research
3. Source: Forrester Research
4. Mongrel Worlds Ltd is an independent company, founded in May 2000 to provide services to previously unrepresented groups, newly defined by life governing factors such as self employment Mongrel harnesses the collective power of these groups of people and works with businesses to ensure that they produce products that meet the needs specific to the groups' requirements. To date, Mongrel has invested over 1632 million in development including in-depth research. Mongrel is backed by private investment company Volendam. Mongrel will spend 163100 million over the next three years creating this 'consumer-to-business' approach.