Number 10 supporting small enterprise and encouraging women into business

In a speech last week the PM stressed the importance of supporting small enterprise, and in particular encouraging women within this area of business.

He said, “We need this to be a country where more people think, ‘I can start my own business and I can sell to the world.’

There is so much untapped potential in the people of Britain, and frankly that particularly goes for women in Britain. We know that if women were setting up new businesses as the same rate as men, we’d have 150,000 more start-ups in the UK each year. We’ve got to overcome the gap between dreaming about being an entrepreneur and becoming an entrepreneur.”

The video of his speech is also embeddable from this Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?

The PM also visited a small enterprise called Luluvise – an innovative space, just for women http://www.facebook.com/Luluvise.

Theresa May (minister for women and home secretary) also recently announced that 5000 mentors to be recruited and trained as part of a package of support for female entrepreneurs who are seeking to start and grow their own business. A number of mentors will be in place and ready to help early in the New Year.

As you can see from this, the Government recognises and supports the crucial role of women in small and medium size enterprises, and in turn the central part SMEs play in the plan for a stronger economy.

Women and Enterprise

The PM has spoken of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as the engines of our prosperity, vital to creating the jobs and wealth we need, and central to this government’s plans to build a stronger economy.We want the UK to be the best place in the world to start and grow a business, and for the next decade to be the most entrepreneurial and dynamic in Britain’s history.
It is estimated that if we fully used the skills and qualifications of women who are currently out of work, it could deliver economic benefits of fifteen to twenty one billion pounds per year. That’s more than double the value of all our annual exports to China.
There are 690 000 majority women led SMEs in the UK currently contributing £50bn to the UK economy per year.
If the UK had the same level of entrepreneurship as the United States, there would be around 600,000 additional women owned businesses, contributing an additional estimated £42bn each year.
There has been a continued increase in female self employment since the recession started and female self employment has been growing much faster than male self employment.
As a Government we recognise that many women and men consider starting up their own in business – because for them it means they can more easily meet the demands of juggling work and family life, or to bring an income in to the household.
We know there is no one size fits all and entrepreneurship is not the golden solution for everyone, but as a Government we want to make sure that those who do are given the help they need.
The message from Government is that a business can be started by anyone and comes in all shapes and sizes – not just Branson – and HMG is on your side

What the Government is doing to support SME growth:

SME growth is central to this Government’s plans to build a stronger economy by giving SMEs access to finance, reducing some of the red tape and generally changing the culture around enterprise in the UK so that more people feel emboldened to strike out on their own.
PM has announced a £95 million investment from the Regional Growth Fund to benefit hundreds of small businesses, expected to create at least 4,000 jobs and unlock around £500 million of new investment.
The Government is also teaming up with founding Dragons’ Den panellist Doug Richard and Yell to get 3,500 businesses into workshops all over the country to ensure they are able to exploit the global opportunities offered by the internet.
The Government is also to expand the scope of its planned New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) helping to create up to 40,000 new businesses by 2013. The Allowance will help unemployed people set up their own businesses and will be available to twice as many people as was originally planned.

Women and enterprise
We want to grow ambition and support women who want to set up their own business, and capitalise on the vital contribution that women can make to the economy and future growth.

We know that women are almost as likely to want to start up a business as men but that women are much less likely to translate their interest in starting up a business into action so much of that potential is lost. For many, it is the absence of role models and appropriate support that makes starting a business appear to be a non-starter.

We know all businesses benefit from the input of third party advice and that mentoring can make a real difference to business survival and growth. That is why we are investing in partnership with the UK’s leading business organisations to recruit and train business mentors.

A total of 11,000 business mentors are available through www.mentorsme.co.uk and the government announced last week that another 5,000 volunteer mentors will be recruited and trained as part of a package of support for female entrepreneurs who are seeking to start and grow their own business.

Last week the Home Secretary also announced that the government will establish a Women’s Business Council, to provide advice to government on what it can do to maximise women’s contribution to future economic growth. The announcement follows a wide-ranging consultation the government has carried out with women to ensure their voices are being listened to and are informing government policy. The Government Equalities Office and the Department for Businesss, Innovation and Skills are working together to make the Council a reality.

What else is the government doing?
The top issue that comes up time and again for women is balancing work and family life. The traditional inflexible 9-5 model of work just doesn’t make sense any more. It’s based on the idea that in a family one parent will go out to work and the other will stay at home.

So these days it doesn’t make sense for most modern families, where often both parents want or need to work which is why we have put in place policies on childcare, flexible working and shared parental leave.

Building Modern, Flexible Workplaces – Flexible working is positive for business because it enables them to draw on a wider pool of skills and talents in the workforce, improve staff morale and productivity and retain valued members of staff. The extension of the right to request flexible working to all employees will ensure that the benefit is available as widely as possible – including individuals within the wider caring structure; and those who wish to undertake voluntary work.

Parental leave - In line with our coalition commitment to encourage shared parenting we have consulted on proposals to introduce a system of flexible parental leave, so that parents can choose how best to share caring responsibilities.

Traditional stereotypes of the women staying at home to look after the children while the men go to work are outdated. What if the women earns more, or it works better for the husband to stay at home? It should be up to families to decide what works best for themWe will be working with businesses to make the transition as smooth as possible.

We aim, as a priority, to introduce the new system by April 2015, subject to affordability.

Extended childcare – On 7 October 2011, Government announced an additional £300 million for childcare support under Universal Credit, on top of the £2bn already spent under the current system. As now, families will be able to recover childcare costs at 70 per cent – up to £175 for one child or £300 for two or more children per week.

This will be paid through Universal Credit from 2013 so around 80,000 more families with children will be able to work their chosen hours.The Government is committed to ensuring that affordable and quality childcare is available to give children the best possible start in life, and parents the support that they need to balance their working and family lives.

We accept a reduction from 80% to 70% in the costs claimable through tax credits may make it harder for some families to meet their childcare bills. But there is still substantial help with childcare costs for lower income families – families with one child can still claim up to £122.50 per week, and parents with two children can claim up to £210 per week.

What about women in the workplace?
Women on Boards
The government strongly backed the Lord Davies report and are now working with business and others to ensure the recommendations are implemented effectively.

The Cranfield Report, published on 12th October showed progress: there are now 13 all male boards, down from 21, but more progress is needed. The headhunting industry has agreed a voluntary code on diversity which was launched in July this year. Businesses are getting the message that diverse boards are more effective, with female candidates achieving 31% of appointments at board level in the past year, up from only 13.3% in the previous year.

Equal Pay Employees are now able to discuss their pay to expose inequality even when employment contracts are used to try to impose pay secrecy.On 14 September, we launched a new initiative with BT, Tesco, Eversheds and the CBI. “Think, Act, Report” asks private and voluntary sector employers to help tackle the pay gap through greater transparency on pay and other issues.

Examples of participating organisations Eversheds, Tesco, BT, DWF, GlaxoSmithKline, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Genesis Housing Association, National Grid, Sustainable Development Capital LLP