Most business-owners are 50-plus and entrepreneurship has become the biggest single source of wealth, two surveys have discovered.

In case anyone needed that push to start a franchise or be their own boss, news that entrepreneurship isn’t the exclusive preserve of ‘teenage whizzkids’, as ft.com refers to them, might prompt others to finally give up the shackles of employment and go it alone.

A survey carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that two-thirds of business founders were aged over 50 years. A fifth were operated by those between 61 and 70 years, while 11 per cent were run by managers aged 40 or younger.

What’s more, their chances of success are far greater given the experience, contacts and capital these older individuals possess.

Meanwhile, a Barclays Wealth Insights report has found that in a landscape where becoming an entrepreneur ‘has never been easier’, owning a firm has emerged as the biggest source of income, overtaking inheritance.

The study of 2,000 ‘global high net-worth individuals’ revealed that while 14 per cent of Brits had inherited their wealth, 45 per cent attributed their money to entrepreneurship, realbusiness.co.uk reports.

That’s more than the global average, where 40 per cent said their own business ventures were the source of their money.