Economy Minister Edwina Hart is urging budding entrepreneurs to consult Business Wales to help turn their business ambitions into reality - as latest figures reveal the number of business enterprises operating in Wales has grown by more than 10 per cent under the current Welsh Government.

At the start of Global Entrepreneurship Week (November 16-22), the Minister has welcomed latest figures indicating that since 2011 there has an 11 per cent increase in the number of enterprises doing business in Wales.

There were 231,110 businesses in Wales in 2014, compared to 207,740 in 2011, with employment within these businesses increasing from 998,000 to 1,058,500 over the same period.

Figures also show that since its launch in January 2013, the Business Wales service (operated by Welsh Government) has assisted with the creation of 9,177 new businesses across Wales - creating 12,216 jobs and safeguarded a further 3,193 jobs.

Economy Minister Edwina Hart said: “This good news comes at the start of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), which celebrates the success of entrepreneurs and will hopefully inspire others to follow their lead.

“Welsh Government is committed to supporting the creation of new enterprises and business growth and these latest figures clearly illustrate how important they are in terms of job creation, spreading prosperity and contributing to the Welsh economy.

“We are continuing to invest and enhance the Business Wales service to help businesses at every stage of their development – from initial start up to those looking to grow their businesses.

"Wales has a thriving culture of young entrepreneurs, with some of the highest rates of entrepreneurial activity in the UK. As GEW gets underway, I would encourage anyone with ambitions to start a business in Wales or anyone with a bright idea that could form the basis of a business to contact Business Wales to try to turn those ideas, dreams and ambitious into reality.

“Last year 238 events were held throughout Wales during GEW with around 17,800 participants. It illustrated the entrepreneurship culture is becoming embedded in Wales through a range of Welsh Government-backed initiatives such as our Youth Entrepreneurship Strategy and the Big Ideas Challenge.”

Ex Wales and Newport Gwent Dragons second row Adam Jones is one of those who has set up his own business.

Adam, who made 127 appearances for the Gwent region, announced his retirement from the game in 2014 following injury.

In the period since retiring Adam and his wife Natasha Louca-Jones have been busy planning and starting their new business fitness venture – iNVNCBL – a series of 10k obstacle course race challenge events around South Wales. Obstacle course racing, or OCR, is already hugely popular in America, Canada and Europe; iNVNCBL is now the first company in Wales to offer something similar.

The business was started in November 2014 with help from Business Wales, the Welsh Government’s business support service, and has been entirely self-financed.

Natasha said: “Starting a business together has been a challenge but one that’s been full of rewards. We share the same aims and objectives, we’re equally passionate and both working extremely hard towards the same goal. It’s long hours, seven days a week but it’s really enjoyable.

“Our business adviser has been fantastic. He helped clarify our business idea and assisted us with our business plan and marketing and financial forecasts. It was important to get the right information and support and we’ve taken every bit of help on offer. The courses were also really informative and helped us focus and develop our business ideas; we’ve attended every course made available to us, they have been invaluable. We had no idea there was so much support available.”

The pair are now building on the huge success of the first iNVNCBL event earlier this year at Margam Park. Just under 2000 competitors took part exceeding the pre-event target of 1,000.

“We didn’t expect it to go as well as it did, we were turning people away. Obstacle course racing has really grown in popularity. People love the challenges, the muddier the better, and we’ve found that many people keep coming back to push themselves harder. It’s a great way of keeping fit, having fun, and also making new friends. There’s a great camaraderie around OCR,” said Natasha.

iNVNCBL has now gained recognition from the Active OCR World Team Championships. Its October event at Caerphilly was accepted as an official qualifying event for the World Team Championships which will be held in London in September 2016.