WETF Co-Chair Glenda Stone led seminar on the growth potential of Women’s Enterprises
Understanding how women entrepreneurs differ from men as their businesses grow is a key piece of missing evidence for the investor and the policy community. Research and anecdotal evidence suggests that women tend to be more risk averse, to run businesses that are under-capitalised relative to their male counterparts and, at the outset of their entrepreneurial journey, to be less confident about their skills, less networked and less ambitious in their assumptions about what their business can achieve.
Based on a survey of women founders of companies that are older than two years and have turnovers of above £250,000, this seminar dispelled some of the myths about women entrepreneurs. The research found that women invest as much in their businesses, have similar growth patterns and generate returns that are just as great as their male counterparts.
The implications of the research for policy, for the investment community and for our assumptions about women-owned and managed businesses were discussed by Glenda Stone, entrepreneur, investor and co-Chair of the government’s Women’s Enterprise Task Force, research author, Dr. Rebecca Harding, founder of Delta Economics and Deborah Leary, OBE, Chair of the Midlands World Trade Forum, Vice President of the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs and Deputy Chair of the United Nations UK Global Compact.
The session took place from 2.30-4pm on 20 March 2009 at Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square, London WC1N 2AB.