Women from across the Red Rose County have said finding appropriate finance is key to supporting their enterprise ambitions.
According to the recently published Alison Rose Review for Female Entrepreneurship, 16% of women in the region have found it ‘extremely difficult’ to find finance for their business, with 38% saying they don’t know where to find funding.
But despite these issues 43% of women surveyed in the region said they were confident managing their business finances and 82% said they were ‘good’ or ‘quite good’ with resilience when setbacks arise.
Earlier today Boost – Lancashire’s business growth hub, hosted a panel of experts to discuss the issues relating to access to finance and to look at ways the business community in Preston and Lancashire can better support women in business. The panel included: Sue Barnard, Senior Relationship Manager at the British Business Bank and manager at the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund; Caroline Turleyfrom Access to Finance; and Sarah Turnbull, Director of Commercial Banking at NatWest.
The event was organised by NatWest in partnership with Northern Power Women.
Heather Waters, Enterprise Manager at NatWest, attended the event and said: “Preston and Lancashire have a vibrant enterprise community and it’s imperative that we as finance experts do what we can to support the women who are a part of this network. Women in the North West are clearly confident about their business skills and it’s vital we encourage them to succeed and provide them with the finance opportunities to do so.”
To help more female entrepreneurs obtain access funding, NatWest has launched a women-only crowdfunding programme Back Her Business. The programme has been developed in partnership with Crowdfunder and forms part of NatWest’s wider commitment to reduce the gender gap when it comes to entrepreneurship and create a further 400,000 female-led businesses by 2025.
Heather said: “Backing female entrepreneurs helps everyone. It helps women of course, but it helps our economy, the start-up and business ecosystem, and in the end – the wider consumer. For too long women have been put off from starting a business by a number of factors, we want to make this a thing of the past.”
Simone Roche MBE, CEO of Northern Power Women, said: “Women in business in Lancashire and the North West continue to accomplish incredible things. And despite the challenges they sometimes face, they continue to succeed and provide a vital economic resource to the Northern Powerhouse. We must do what we can to facilitate their further development through access to finance, mentoring and business development, and we welcome the continued support provided by banks like NatWest.”
Andrew Leeming, Boost Programme Manager, commented: “We’re dedicated to ensuring women in Lancashire have all the support they need in business – from finance to business planning and mentoring. Boost has already helped thousands of women-led businesses in the county, so if you’re determined to grow, Boost should be part of your growth conversation.”
