Best place in the world to start and grow a business? You bet!

Enterprise Nation founder Emma Jones believes the UK is becoming the best place in the world to start a business. Here she outlines some of the reasons why.

Last week, for me, was a true reminder of how and why the UK is becoming the best place in the world to start and grow a business, _writes Emma (left)._ There is a crescendo of support for small business from all directions, an appetite from the media to cover this, and a proactive push from the heart of government. If we're not careful, we could just become the most successful and entrepreneurial nation on earth!

In the space of a week, I observed a host of activities that confirm the support available for start-ups and growing businesses: - The launch of the StartUp Britain 2013 StartUp Tour, which is seeing us take a bus on the road to 30 locations across 25 days and encouraging start-ups to come on board and get the help and confidence they need. I've written about the reasons for the Tour, but what delights me every year is the mentors who jump on board and give up their time to help the next generation. Michael Jacobsen is one of those mentors and last week had a job of his own to do; launch his book The Business of Creativity, offering expertise and experience on how to grow a creative venture to others who want to do the same. More experts such as Michael are sharing their wisdom, funds and time to help others follow in their footsteps. - Another group that has benefited from the generosity of experienced entrepreneurs is the New Entrepreneurs Foundation who celebrated in the week their latest graduating cohort. Forty fortunate young people will, over the next 12 months, benefit from going through this scheme and hopefully emerge as young and confident business owners. - Since I started my first business over a decade ago, I've witnessed a rise in peer support; small business owners coming together to help each other, and nowhere was this more in evidence than at the Enterprise Nation meet-up at MOO ,which we've discovered is the most popular aspect of joining Enterprise Nation - the opportunity to meet like minded business owners. - This activity is making it onto the nation's TV screens and across the radio airwaves as the media increases its appetite for positive business stories. I saw this at first hand with an appearance on BBC Breakfast on Wednesday, connected to a theme of how you can reinvent your life through starting a business. Congratulations to Anna of Fitness Fiesta and Jennifer of Skribbies who also made appearances!

There is strong support for this to continue from the most powerful house in the land. If the government's enterprise adviser Lord Young (left) and special adviser, Daniel Korski, get their way, the enterprise environment in the UK will continue to flourish.

- And as if I needed any more faith we were heading in the right direction, StartUp Saturday was crammed with talent and ideas. This weekend. 35 people and two young children (thank you, Camilla and Dylan for being so perfect!) sacrificed a sunny Saturday to spend the day at British Library learning how to start a business. On this Monday afternoon, I hope they feel they made the right call. There is always more that can be done and what I'd like to see is more big businesses stepping up to help small ones by making their assets of people/space/buying power available. But let's leave that for the next post in the series! Emma Jones is founder of Enterprise Nation Â

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