In a recent blog on LinkedIn a contact said of the growth in start ups, "More people are becoming self-employed and SMEs are being lauded as being the ones to drag UK PLC back into prosperity. Or is it a cynical ploy to reduce unemployment figures by having us creating our own temporary jobs?"

What are your thoughts? It's true that the government is putting a great deal of emphasis on the private sector to help the struggling economy and that more and more people are becoming self-employed. However, what are the reasons behind this increase in self-employment? Is it more opportunities to get into business, the lack of jobs, the public sector cutbacks, working to later ages, increase in university fees putting off potential students, greater encouragement of the entrepreneurial spirit?

Another important question is how successful these new entrepreneurs actually are, as if their new venture fail the unemployment figures, and the economy as a whole, definitely won't show any signs of improvement. So, how much support do new start ups actually get? How easy is it to access finance?

Here's what Paper Mountain Solution's MD, Paul Smalley, has to say about start ups: "In 2011 we saw the greatest number of new business starts (480k according to Barclays) with the number of self employed now representing the highest proportion against the whole working population for 75 years. We are certainly seeing a huge interest in the requirement for help amongst the start up community, which is one reason we launched StartUp Revolution. It is interesting that the government is looking to SMEs to get UK plc out of the doldrums, yet support is being cut! Is this where the private sector now steps in to provide assistance to start ups at a sensible cost against the heavily subsidised public support there used to be?"

We'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences about start ups in the UK. If you run your own business and are interested in finding out about the outsourcing services provided by the experts at Paper Mountain Solutions click here.