Following the success of the inaugural everywoman Scotland conference, both the desire and need for women to draw on other's wisdom from past experience and advice emerged. This is something which everywoman has been pioneering in their pilot scheme with BERR last year. With the announcement of the government's women's Investment Fund in the budget, the everywoman mentoring programme which was piloted last year, will now be rolled out across the country. As well as everywoman, the government will work with RBS, Prowess and the British Chamber of commerce to champion this mentoring programme. This will enable women's enterprise ambassadors to become mentors to other women considering starting a business and therefore hopefully increase the number of women entrepreneurs.
Another benefit of events such as the everywoman conference in Edinburgh, is networking opportunities available. Women can learn from others' experience simply by talking and mingling at both lunch and coffee breaks and hopefully also making valuable contacts which could prove useful for future business. The same will be possible at centres such as the new women's business centre, providing advice and support for females as well as the children's centres which are similar but family friendly environments for those with families to look after also.
Maxine Benson, Co-founder of everywoman comments, "We welcome the Prime Minister's enterprise strategy announced yesterday as part of the budget, particularly the launch of the Women's Investment Fund, and the acknowledgement that women sometimes need a more tailored approach in terms of business support. There are just over 1 million self-employed women (7.6% of women in employment) compared to 2,706,000 self-employed men (17.4% of men in employment) in the UK*, due to a number of factors, both socio-economic and psychological. Research also indicates that women often lack confidence, and are more risk-adverse than men, which may impact on their proactiveness in seeking advice or securing financial backing, often viewed as a barrier when starting up a business. The Women Enterprise Centres are an acknowledgement that a 'one size fits all' approach is not always effective, and also takes into account that childcare commitments mean some women require a more flexible offering in terms of business support."
The online mentoring programme we successfully piloted this year with over 135 women from across the UK has been recognised by the Government as a success. Everywoman are looking forward to rolling this out more extensively over the next few years. Women in particular derive great value from networking and the ability to seek advice from others with more experience and knowledge, and everywoman welcome a tangible programme where any woman aspiring to start up their own business has access to guidance from a positive role model.
For further information about everywoman, please visit www.everywoman.com
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