Research consistently shows that female entrepreneurs are more innovative than their male counterparts; they are more likely to be providing a new product to the market, more likely to be using technology in their products or services and more likely to be offering a product or service that has been developed in the last year.
But according to research from international accountancy and advisory group Mazars and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), female entrepreneurs are far less confident about business growth than their male counterparts.
In the UK, just 20% of Britain's high-growth entrepreneurs are women. The report measures start-up ambition by examining the phenomenon of high-expectation entrepreneurship - start-up firms expecting to employ at least 20 people in the next five years.
The number of female entrepreneurs remains staggeringly low, with men twice as likely to start a business. As the GEM/Mazars research reveals when we look at high-growth entrepreneurship the gender gap becomes a chasm. The barriers or challenges facing women looking to start and grow businesses are well documented and include factors such as; inaccessible/inappropriate business support, greater responsibility for childcare, lower levels of confidence, fewer role models and a lack of finance.
Lack of finance is critical; regardless of business sector, women capitalise their businesses on average at just one third of the level of their male counterparts and women-owned businesses account for less than 5% of equity finance. The reasons for this under capitalisation are a complex mix of both demand and supply but understanding the particular characteristics of the female business owners should help to design and deliver more appropriate financial products and services.
Gimmicks like spa discounts and pink websites are not the answer. Female entrepreneurs need relationship managers that take a holistic approach, understanding that when you start a business you are also changing your whole life. Equally important is accessible and appropriate business support at every level of growth.
Business support should reflect the fact that women start businesses at a more gradual pace and are more likely to use and respond positively to business training, mentoring and networking. There are often problems with lower levels of confidence.
Supportive relationships are essential, whether that is business counselling, mentoring or peer support circles, so that when confidence and experience grow women can be supported to take the next step into growing and expanding their business.
As well as looking at the barriers to growth it is also relevant to look at motivations for going into enterprise in the first place. Numerous studies have shown that women are more likely to have social, environmental or ethical aims for their business.
Of course, this is not incompatible with running a high-growth sustainable enterprise. Women such as Josephine Fairley, founder of Green & Blacks organic chocolate have demonstrated this.
Possessing female attributes increasingly provides a competitive advantage. In a fast-moving highly networked, niche-focused business world, women are innovative and adaptive, empathetic and responsive and great communicators and jugglers.
However, business and financial support systems need to catch-up and support female entrepreneurs. Women are the most significant group when it comes to market failure in business support services, so the public sector has an important role in driving change.
National policy is emphasising a quick-fix approach to business support with short-term interventions, this is failing women and ultimately the UK economy
Erika Watson is executive director of Prowess, a network of organisations and individuals who support the growth of women's business ownership.
For full details visit: www.prowess.org.uk
