BUSINESS Secretary Vince Cable is being urged to promote a stable environment to allow real entrepreneurs to thrive.

The call comes from the Federation of Small Business (FSB), which will be launching its Real-Life Entrepreneurs campaign at the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham this week.

The campaign aims to highlight the obstacles faced by people starting their own business and the necessity of Government support to create a entrepreneur-friendly environment.

FSB national chairman, John Walker, said: “The economy has stalled and as the impact of the public sector cuts continue to bite, the Government needs the UK’s small businesses – those Real-Life Entrepreneurs that have taken a risk to set up in business – to pick up the slack. But, for this to happen we need to see a strong plan for growth put in place.

“While the culture of celebrity entrepreneurs will have spurred people into starting a business, more needs to be done to make doing so more accessible to more people.

“We are calling on the Business Secretary to listen to the Real-Life Entrepreneurs that have told us their problems and to make changes that address their needs.

“Not only will this help them to grow their businesses, but it will also help other people realise that they can go it alone and become one of these important Real-Life Entrepreneurs.”

The FSB is calling for practical steps including increased routes to access finance, improving cash-flow by tackling late payments, a new approach to reduce red tape and business taxes, and introducing incentives to create jobs via an extension of the National Insurance Contributions holiday to all businesses with less than four employees. It also wants help to open up the export market to small firms.