More attention is being paid to equality in almost every setting, including the business sphere in today’s world. Historically, business has been a mostly male-dominated area, with 67% of SMEs being owned by men.
In more recent years, the number of enterprises owned by women, now at 32% compared to just 17% in 2016. While still not in balance with male entrepreneurship, the boost in female entrepreneurship is a welcome move in the direction of gender equality in the industry.
However, there is still much that can and should be done to encourage more women to pursue their ambitions of launching an enterprise. Many women still have to overcome significant barriers when starting up a business, including finding appropriate contacts, accessing finance and getting visibility. In order to create a more level playing field, it falls to everyone to do their part to support female founders – whether than be fellow businesses, funders or investors.
Supporting female founders is beneficial for many reasons. Firstly, in the modern focus on inclusion and diversity, being seen to work with female-led businesses can work as a positive PR point for your own company and assist your corporate responsibility goals. Secondly, there is vast opportunity in female entrepreneurship, unlocking potentially billions for the economy. Thirdly, women deliver results: these including higher revenues, increased profit and better return on investment.
If you want to support female enterprises – either as a funder, company or other – we have put together this guide as to how you can do so in a way that benefits entrepreneurs and the wider world.
- Invite more women to network
- Create female-focused schemes
- Have more women involved in the funding decision process
- Utilise female-owned businesses
Invite more women to network
Networking is often flagged as one form of support female entrepreneurs would most like to see increased as they move along their journeys. Women tend to find it harder to network due to work-life balance, and when they do, they tend to find themselves in rooms with mainly men, who may seek different outcomes.
However, networking is an integral part of establishing an enterprise, allowing to form useful connections that could lead to future opportunity, funding and sales. Today, female-specific networks have been set up across the country, as well as specific events, to give women increased networking opportunities.
In an ideal world, women would be as visible as men at any networking event, but work is required to get to this point. If you are in the position to do so, you could support female entrepreneurs by inviting them into more networks.
Networking comes in many forms, so including more women may mean including female leaders on discussion panels, sending them invites to events, creating inclusive online networks that welcome them, pairing them with relevant mentors or even acting as an introducer if you know somebody that may help them in their entrepreneurial endeavours.
By inviting more women into different networking opportunities, we are more likely to see more female entrepreneurs attending such events and reaping the benefits. Over time, this could lead to gender equality across networks to the use of everyone in them.
Create female-focused schemes
Initiatives aimed exclusively at female entrepreneurs have increased in recent years, with high street banks like Barclays and RSB now running specific schemes and improved visibility for female founders on investment networks. The benefit of female-focused programmes is that they assure applicants that their ideas will be taken seriously by decision-makers who want to listen, rather than pitching to male leaders who will favour male ventures.
A female-focused scheme could offer various incentives, ranging from funding and mentoring, to publicity and visibility. If you are looking to launch such an initiative, it is worth considering whether this could be aimed at female entrepreneurs or inclusive of them at the very least.
If you cannot launch an exclusive scheme for female founders, it might be worth introducing quotas instead. Gender quotas can be controversial, but research shows that they do work in promoting equality. Quotas could come into many aspects of business, including who you award contracts to, the people you hire and, if you are a funder, who receives financing.
By introducing female-specific schemes or gender quotas, the gap between male and female entrepreneurs can begin to be bridged, culminating in fair opportunity and increased support for women.
Have more women involved in the funding decision process
One of the challenges in promoting equal opportunity for female entrepreneurs is that many decision-makers are male when it comes to seeking funding. For example, male angel investors outnumbered female angel investors by over 4 to 1 in the UK, despite their investments tending to fare better. Similarly, executive committees and boards are more likely to have men on than women.
By having men in most decision-making roles, you eliminate the differing perspectives that women can offer. As a result, businesses may miss out if their offering does not correspond with the values held by those deciding the outcome, even if they could provide value in other ways. This is often detrimental to female entrepreneurs who struggle to raise the capital they need for their venture.
Sandy Hogg, consultant at Pegasus Funding, states: “The value of having a female leader is often not captured by the classical, analytical decision-making parameters that potential financiers use. Women leaders have an enhanced flair for lean methodology, business agility and an understanding of the emotional aspects of business, characteristics that improve company and people management, which increase the chances of company success”.
This suggests that having women act as decision-makers can allow value to be captured in different ways, presenting better access for a broader range of businesses, including those founded by women, and enhancing overall results.
The concept of having more women in deciding roles should not just be refined to business funding. It is worth having women on recruitment panels, business boards and so on for the same reasons – they offer diverse perspectives that can allow value to be caught where it otherwise may have been missed, helping female entrepreneurs get a fair shot.
Utilise female-owned businesses
If you are not a funder or a large company, it may be hard to determine what you can do to benefit female entrepreneurship, particularly if you are not offering funding, network access or other reward schemes. However, it is still possible to support female entrepreneurship.
One of the most beneficial ways you can do so is to utilise female-owned businesses. This could come in various forms, such as using such enterprises for your company contracts or supply chains, making purchases with them or even promoting them via social media or word of mouth. Even a minimal gesture could mean a lot for a small business.
Using female-owned businesses is fundamental as these often start from worse positions – having secured less funding – and experience decreased awareness of their offering. Supporting them will aid their financial success as well as increase their visibility in the market.
It is also worth noting that female entrepreneurs tend to possess resourcefulness, flexibility, organisation and a problem-solving mentality which makes them well-suited to successfully operating a business. By using them in your contracts, you may receive a better service, which benefits both sides.
Get advice
Supporting female entrepreneurship undeniably has advantages for everyone – so it makes financial, business and moral sense for everyone to do what they can to help. Over time, this could allow the shift to gender equality in the business world.
At Pegasus Funding, we aim to do what we can to assist female entrepreneurs, including providing advice for their business journeys and securing the funding they need to make their enterprise a success.
We have access to a vast network, comprising on investors, lenders and other useful contacts, which could allow you to link with the right people for your venture.