Businesswomen need continuous support

13/12/2007  11:17:15

Female entrepreneurs need on-going support if they are to establish more business start-ups, according to womens support association Prowess.

Women are still under-represented in the SME sector, as men are still twice as likely as women to start a business, the organisation said.

Statistics show that younger women fare even worse - men aged between 18 and 24 are four times more likely to start a business than women within the same age bracket.

A report published by Prowess in 2005 shows that female entrepreneurship has grown in most regions of the UK - especially the east of England and the south west - but women were more scared of their businesses failing than men.

Some 37 per cent of female company directors reported that they were afraid of business failure compared to 32 per cent of men.

Alice Kent, a researcher for Prowess, said: "There is evidence that when it comes to business support, women particularly value an ongoing supportive relationship approach rather than one-off business support intervention."

Women also welcome mentoring relationships and the chance to exchange ideas with someone with experience of setting up a business, Ms Kent added.

According to the Labour Force Survey 2003, a quarter of the UKs 3.2 million self-employed workers are women and female entrepreneurs make up 6.8 per cent of the UKs working population.

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