Why we need more women entrepreneurs
On the 27th of October 2021 the Chancellor Rishi Sunak told us the UK Government will drive business growth by pouring billions of pounds into the UK economy. However, the amount of start ups decreased by 6.5% at the beginning of 2022.
And what about female led startups and entrepreneurs?
In September 2018 the British Government launched the Rose review, spearheaded by NatWest chief executive of commercial and private banking, Alison Rose. It found that the advancement of female entrepreneurs could be worth £250bn to the UK economy. Fast forward to December 2021, just after the government’s announcement of more funds being pushed into start ups and the figures show that female entrepreneurs are only contributing around a quarter of that figure. Only 16% of SMEs were reportedly led by women in 2020.
If women could make a big difference to the struggling UK economy, it begs the question why aren’t they? I co-founded real estate recruitment firm Madison Berkeley in 2017. I was in my late twenties and it was a huge gamble. I took the biggest risk of my life leaving behind a well paid job as a top biller for an established real estate recruitment firm. I left a position I had held for 7 years. At the time I had no children. I found myself doing more hours than ever before to get the company off the ground. In 2019 a report stated that within a family unit 74% of working caregivers are women. A working female who is the main caregiver is potentially less likely to take the risk as well as be able to offer the hours needed. I want to see the government offering support, both financial and personal, to women who want to start companies. We have to make entrepreneurship attractive to women and help them with their family responsibilities at the same time.
My Madison Berkeley co-founder Nina Zeilerbauer and I had a vision when we started the company. We recognised that women are still very much fighting against gender bias and stereotypes and we set up Madison Berkeley with a very clear aim to disrupt this bias and we are succeeding. Within the first two years of trading, 50% of our placements were female. However, there is still work to be done. Our industry, for example, is an industry with just 14% female representation and gender parity is still an issue.
It has been proven that female led startups face issues with funding. We both had six months of savings to see us through setting up our business. Without those savings it would have been impossible for us to approach our new venture in the way we wanted. This may have had an impact on the viability of it as a start up business. We were lucky we had the resources to do this because there is a severe lack of funding available to women who want to start companies. It has been proven that women start businesses with less capital than men. A report showed that only 9 percent of startup funding went into women led SMEs. This is the crux of the problem. Without the available government funding, female led SMEs are in a more difficult position at the start. It is important to stay positive when it comes to funding your business. If government funding is not available to you then there are other options available. Private finance and investment may be an option to consider.
For us failure was not an option but it is thought to hold around 2 thirds of women back as opposed to 55% of men who say they can get over failures more quickly according to a vista-print report. I can understand this. We work with a lot of female candidates prior to stepping into a male led boardroom. Many doubt their ability or are overly modest when it comes to their achievements. They are not so naturally adept at selling themselves. We work with them to focus on confidence and the belief in their abilities. We rarely have to work on confidence in our male candidates. As recruitment experts we feel it is important for employers to understand that confidence does not always equal ability.
There must be more investment in female led startups to economically benefit the country's economy going forward. We must also tackle what entrepreneurship means and educate our young females on how they can start successful businesses. Ultimately I would like to see the government support female start ups with better funding and better personal support packages.
