Many UK citizens want to pursue their ambition of owning a UK business, yet few people take action to make their dream a reality because they think starting a business is too expensive. But according to new research from the personal finance experts at money.co.uk, People in the UK can afford to start a business in under two hours.
Money.co.uk sought to discover how long employees in European countries would need to work in their full-time job to afford the startup costs of setting up their own businesses.
| Rank | Country | Cost of starting business | Required working time to start own business |
| 1. | United Kingdom | £11.68 | 1 Hour 21 minutes |
| 2. | Denmark | £75.15 | 6 Hours 6 minutes |
| 3. | Republic of Ireland | £100.33 | 1 Day 1 hour 47 minutes |
| 4. | Romania | £25.79 | 1 Day 7 hours 3 minutes |
| 5. | Sweden | £191.45 | 2 Days, 1 Hour and 41 Minutes |
| 6. | Lithuania | £61.78 | 2 Days 1 hour 54 minutes |
| 7. | Finland | £273.60 | 2 Days, 6 hours and 26 minutes |
| 8. | France | £217.92 | 3 Days 4 mins |
| 9. | Estonia | £120.95 | 3 Days 2 hours 18 minutes |
| 10. | Czech Republic | £109.21 | 3 Days 3 hours 14 minutes |
| 11. | Norway | £522.18 | 3 Days, 4 hours and 56 minutes |
| 12. | Iceland | £726.22 | 4 Days 5 hours 20 minutes |
| 13. | Slovakia | £135.08 | 5 Days 1 hour 27 minutes |
| 14. | Montenegro | £75.91 | 6 Days 2 hours 13 minutes |
| 15. | Kosovo | £41.71 | 6 Days 2 hours 22 minutes |
| 16. | Portugal | £241.90 | 6 Days 7 hours 50 minutes |
| 17. | Germany | £542.20 | 1 Week 1 hour 28 minutes |
| 18. | Bulgaria | £120.59 | 1 Week, 2 hours and 49 minutes |
| 19. | Greece | £216.88 | 1 Week 5 hours 38 minutes |
| 20. | Serbia | £81.10 | 1 Week 5 hours 43 minutes |
| 21. | Latvia | £204.39 | 1 Week 6 hours 15 minutes |
| 22. | Turkey | £75.82 | 1 Week 6 hours 30 minutes |
| 23. | Switzerland | £1,044.53 | 1 Week 7 hours 7 minutes |
| 24. | Luxembourg | £922.89 | 1 Week 7 hours 16 minutes |
| 25. | Spain | £509.64 | 1 Week 4 days 7 hours 11 minutes |
| 26. | Poland | £247.58 | 2 Weeks, 5 hours and 54 minutes |
| 27. | North Macedonia | £136.54 | 3 Weeks 4 hours 58 minutes |
| 28. | Netherlands | £1,501.48 | 3 Weeks 3 days 1 hour 45 minutes |
| 29. | Austria | £1,696.67 | 3 Weeks 4 days 7 hours 16 minutes |
| 30. | Hungary | £422.02 | 4 Weeks 2 hours 21 minutes |
| 31. | Belgium | £1,788.97 | 4 Weeks, 1 day, 3 hours and 33 minutes |
| 32. | Cyprus | £1,263.74 | 4 Weeks 3 days 4 hours 36 minutes |
| 33. | Croatia | £625.62 | 4 Weeks 4 days 5 hours 31 minutes |
| 34. | Albania | £422.46 | 11 Weeks 3 days 7 hours 52 minutes |
| 35. | Italy | £3,288.13 | 11 weeks 4 days 5 hours 42 minutes |
| Source: Money.co.uk |
Brits would need to work for just 1 hour and 21 minutes to earn the (£11.68) required to start up their own business.
In the second position is Denmark, as Danes would need to work for 6 hours and 6 minutes to cover the startup costs needed to set up their own enterprise.
The Republic of Ireland is in third place. 1 day, 1 hour and 47 minutes is the time the Irish would need to work to have enough income to fund the startup costs required for their independent business venture.