2020 review: How this roller-coaster year has underlined our entrepreneurial spirit

As we reflect on the highs and lows of 2020 one thing is clear: this terrible virus has not killed off Britain’s entrepreneurial spirit. 

In fact, 2020 will go down as a record-breaking one in terms of the number of new businesses launched in the UK. According to Companies House, over 90,000 additional business formations took place. That’s up 13.5 per cent on the amount in 2019.

Here at Harper James we are proud to have played our part in this. 

Whether it is developing an idea and taking it to market; launching a start-up; scaling-up and growing a business or taking the steps towards selling a company our team of experts have been supporting entrepreneurs every step of the way. 

And that’s why 2020 has proved a record-breaking period for us as well. In the past financial year we’ve worked with over 1,000 clients which brings the total number of clients we’ve worked with to over 2,000 since we formed in 2014. 

For anyone running a business, the past 12 months would have felt like riding a roller-coaster. At every twist and turn there have been challenges thrown up by a pandemic which has impacted businesses of all sizes. 

Yet despite the many lows, there have also been tremendous highs and the team at Harper James is privileged to now be helping more companies than ever to navigate their way towards success. 

Among the new clients we’ve supported in the past year are dozens of firms just starting out on their business journey. 

It is inspiring to see so many entrepreneurs willing to just go for it and launch businesses during these most difficult of times. 

Harper James has also found itself playing a part in what will surely go down as the biggest start-up success story of 2020. 

In November, our client Hopin, a startup that provides online events software, announced it had closed a $125 million Series B round of capital. The new capital was raised against a staggering company valuation of $2.125billion. To achieve such growth against the backdrop of the pandemic is astonishing. It was less than two years ago that their CEO Johnny Boufarhat founded the company. Now it will end the year as a double-unicorn. 

This remarkable rise, which Harper James is proud to have played a part in, underlines one of the most important legacies that we can take from 2020. 

And it’s this - ambitious businesses willing to follow their dreams and think big will be the key to helping our economy bounce back in 2021. 

Harper James is looking forward to supporting you and many more of them over the next 12 months.

Toby Harper
Founder and CEO, Harper James Solicitors