Government Equalities Office
The government has unveiled a new webpage on the GREAT Business website outlining the support available for women looking to start, grow or accelerate their businesses.
The Business is GREAT: Women in Enterprise webpage which covers topics from finance to childcare and mentoring to networking, sets out the governments advice and resources alongside the organisations offering their support.
Encouraging women to set up or grow their own businesses is a vital part of this governments long-term economic plan. There could be 1 million more female entrepreneurs if women were to set up and run new businesses at the same rate as men, according to the Womens Business Council.
The UK is well positioned to be the best place in the world to start and grow a business, the government is offering the support needed to make the next decade the most entrepreneurial and dynamic in Britains history.
Minister for Women and Equalities Nicky Morgan said:
We are helping more women than ever before to start or grow their own businesses and in 2012, 20% of SMEs were run by women - up from 14% in 2008.
This is excellent progress but we know that there are more women with great entrepreneurial ideas that need the support to help their businesses succeed. This new website will help their ideas become a reality.
Minister for Women and Equalities and Business Minister Jo Swinson said:
We are supporting people to start and grow businesses to help create a stronger economy.
This fantastic new resource for women entrepreneurs outlines the wealth of advice, finance and mentors that can really help their businesses thrive.
The webpage also offers examples of how women have used the resources on offer to turn their business ideas into a success.
In addition to this webpage, other support is available to make sure women are able to start and grow their businesses. The government is:
- committing over 1 million to support women to get their businesses online
- spending 1.6 million to support rural womens enterprise
- investing 2 million in small grants to help people to set up their own childcare businesses
- contributing 600,000 to the Get Mentoring project which recruited and trained over 15,000 volunteer business mentors from the small business community - 42% of these mentors are women
- investing in the Aspire Fund which specifically targets women - the fund has invested 1.3 million, which unlocked funding of 5.5 million in 2013 to 2014
From autumn 2015 tax-free childcare will be available to nearly 2 million households to help with the cost of childcare. This will enable more parents to go out to work and it is available to self-employed parents.