Female Founders Ambassadors Aims to Inspire

by Startacus Admin

With research indicating that there are now around 1.2 million women-led small and medium sized businesses in the UK, which contribute an estimated £115 billion to the economy, Enterprise Enfield has launched another initiative to encourage even more women to entrepreneurship. 

London-based Enterprise Enfield is an independent enterprise agency offering a range of business support services designed to encourage, guide and inspire people to be successful in business. The organisation is currently running a number of business support and growth programmes specifically for women, including the Female Founders Accelerator, a free of charge programme supported by JPMorgan Chase Foundation. 

Now, it has just appointed some of its successful business women as Female Founders Ambassadors, aiming to inspire and encourage more women to start their own
businesses. 

According to the Women’s Business Council report, only 5.6% of women were involved in starting or running a new business in 2017 – that’s half the rate for men. There has been an increase in the number of women in self-employment. In May to July 2017, 1.6 million women were self-employed, an increase of 65,000 on one year previously and 330,000 in five years.

Last year, Enterprise Enfield provided business support to over 600 women – offering essential information, advice and guidance on starting and growing their businesses. The Female Founders Accelerator is just one of its free bespoke programmes for women, and is specifically aimed at helping women in east London scale and take their business to the next level.

It is also open to women from other areas of London who have completed a women’s programme at Enterprise Enfield. The scheme, supported by JP Morgan Chase Foundation, offers 6 months of intensive business support including workshops, seminars, meet ups and advice sessions from a range of experts – as well as exclusive mentoring sessions with a JP Morgan Mentor. The first programme commenced in 2017, the second is now underway and applications are open for the next cohort starting in May. 

In terms of the Female Founders Ambassadors Despina Johnson, CEO of Enterprise Enfield said. 

“There is still a lot of untapped talent in the world of business start-ups for women. We have also recognised the importance of promoting our successful Female Founders and entrepreneurs who can serve as role models to all those women who want to become entrepreneurs themselves, but don’t know how or just don’t have enough confidence or access to resources. They can also inspire the next generation – through speaking at places such as schools and colleges – as well as at business shows and women’s events. Our intention and goal remain the same - generating measurable and positive social impact”. 

The Female Founders Accelerator is also available in South London, via Hatch Enterprise, and with the programme being delivered by two leading enterprise organisations across London, we look forward to seeing the legacy that is created for years to come. 

If you liked this feature, you might want to also read our article on women in tech communities and platforms of note or our previous spotlight article on Womentum a non-profit crowdfunding platform for women entrepreneurs in developing countries.

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Published on: 1st March 2018