Phone: Fax: Paisley Road West Glasgow G51 1RJ The CASE For Women’s Enterprise The Overview “If women started new businesses at the same rate as men, we would have more than 100,000 extra new businesses each year” RT Hon Patricia Hewitt, The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), 2003 “I believe this is a critical issue, not just for our economy, but for society as a whole. Women must have the opportunity to fulfill their potential - our country cannot continue to thrive without the enterprise and creativity they offer.” Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Minister for Women Esteem Ltd Esteem is the appointed co-ordinator for The Case for Women’s Enterprise workshops. IN ASSOCIATION WITH Promoting Women’s Enterprise Support ®

The Challenge In 2003 the Government, in association with PROWESS produced a Strategic Framework for Women’s Enterprise. The challenge is for Society, The Economy, Business Support Providers and Women to raise the proportion of businesses that are majority women-owned from the current figure of 15% The strategic framework presents long-term quantitative targets to be met by 2006, these are: 40% of customers using Government sponsored business support services will be women 18-20% of UK businesses will be owned by women The number of women from ethnic minorities receiving business support will be proportionate to their representation within the local population The Barriers to Women in Enterprise Research has shown that there are a number of common factors which impact more on women making the transition into business, self employment or social enterprise: Lack of appropriate business support Access to finance The impact of caring and domestic responsibilities Difficulties experienced in the transition from benefits to self-employment or business ownership Lack of appropriate role models Low levels of self esteem and confidence The CASE for Women’s Enterprise The Solution One of the key recommendations from the Strategic Framework was to ensure that Business Support Providers are fully trained and aware of gender and diversity issues. The capacity of Local Business Support Provision must be developed to support women’s enterprise activity, thus ensuring they have the skills, knowledge and empathy to support women entrepreneurs. The CASE for Women’s Enterprise is a key vehicle for delivering this Business Support objective. Promoting Women’s Enterprise in the UK The CASE for Women’s Enterprise The CASE for Women's Enterprise is a facilitated workshop experience with accompanying Toolkit comprising a set of structured booklets and reference materials packaged together for convenience. It is intended to provide basic guidance and ideas on how to support women starting and growing businesses more effectively. It consists of eight elements highlighting the key stages of entrepreneurial development and the key issues for women. It also contains useful reference guides to organisations, websites, acronyms, jargon and includes a bibliography. In addition, there is a review booklet which assists Business Support Providers to assess their current business support services against best practice criteria. Target Audience THE CASE is principally aimed at mainstream business support providers, such as Business Link and Enterprise Agencies. Participants may have limited experience of providing targeted services and may not have previously considered segmenting their client needs using a gender perspective. Phone: Fax: Lorna Mackenzie For further information contact: Seonaid Carr