Women into the network News

Achieve Conference

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Women Into The Network and Entrepreneurs Forum have once again joined forces to celebrate International Womens Day and showcase some of the UK and our regions tope female entrepreneurs. The conference aims to deliver a day of inspiration, sharing and learning for all levels of women in business. The day features special guest speakers include Sarah Murray of the award
winning confused.com / Judy Naaké of St. Tropez / Kirsty
Henshaw of Worthenshaws / Fiona Cruickshank of SCM Pharma
/ Heather Jackson of ‘The Two Percent Club’ / Dr. Joanna Berry.of Inkspot Science Ltd and Newcastle University / Fiona Raglan
of Public Knowledge / Sara Davies of Crafter’s Companion. The
conference is hosted by Penny Mallory, the first woman to drive
a World Rally Car.
To book your place visit www.entrepreneursforum.net
or email us at info@

WIN Membership Adds Up

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0100

WIN membership is £75+VAT for a year. If you were to join now you could enter the WIN Awards for free and buy your ticket for the Awards Dinner at a discounted price. Already you'll have saved yourself £25. And if you were to go to The Bridge Club event that's coming up as a WIN member, you'll save yourself another £10.

Over the course of a year we think it's a pretty good deal.

How a WIN Networking Event Helped my Business

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Louise Turnbull from Bump Buddies

My first experience of networking was actually at an EWIN event in Lausanne Switzerland many years ago. Worked for Dow Chemical company and they were keen to show they were promoting women’s networking. We had a 2 day event which included attending workshops and manning a stand promoting working for Dow. It was awful. It was all power suits and card pushing. Not many there were really interested in helping each other out as had been marketed. I couldn’t wait to leave and get a pair of jeans back on.

Since then either with Dow or now with Bump Buddies Antenatal I have attended occasional formal networking events or training or informational events that have evolved into networking by chance. None have made me comfortable.

So when I met my wonderful angel that is Deb McGargle and she recommended networking I got a shudder and dropped that part of the conversation from my brain. I was convinced as a b2c business I would not benefit from networking. Then a few weeks later Deb sent me info about the Flippin Good Networking event. I couldn’t use the childcare excuse as was an evening session.

I needn’t have worried. The event was relaxed, informal with amazing food. There were presentations from members but they were telling their stories, not giving the hard sell. The flipchart session was fun, again relaxed and although I went in with no real idea of what I wanted I came away with a website designer, an EFT therapist, some fantastic connections and most importantly friends. There was no pressure to sign up to WIN at any time and still hasn’t been (will be my reward to self when I get my first class booked) and I actually got really excited to attend WIN Wednesday.

So thankyou all. I’m almost certain Bump Buddies wouldn’t still be here today without Deb and the WIN ladies and that is not an overstatement.

35 Under 35

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Management Today has announced the 2011 list of 35 high flying women. The striking thing about this year's list is the number of entrepreneurs who have made a success of their start-up business.

You can be inspired by the full list here: http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/features/1076941/35-women-35-vision-enterprise/

David Willets: Feminism Blamed for Lack of Jobs for Working Men

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0100

On 1st April 2011, the Conservative Minister for Schools and Universities David Willetts made comments that appear to blame educated working women for the lack of jobs available to aspiring working class men.

Willetts said feminism was probably the "single biggest factor" for the lack of social mobility in Britain, because women who would otherwise have been housewives had taken university places and well-paid jobs that could have gone to ambitious working-class men. Looking at reasons for social mobility, he said: "The feminist revolution in its first round effects was probably the key factor. Feminism trumped egalitarianism. It is not that I am against feminism, it's just that is probably the single biggest factor."

He expounded the downsides of the "admirable transformation of opportunities for women" by suggesting opening up education since the 1960s had magnified social divides, courtesy of "assortative mating" whereby well-educated women marry well-educated men.

"It is delicate territory, because it is not a bad thing that women had these opportunities," he said. "But it widened the gap in household incomes, because you suddenly had two-earner couples, both of whom were well-educated, compared with often workless households where nobody was educated."

It has been nearly a week now, and whilst WIN Towers have our own views on this not to mention the fact that a politician representing our government in 2011 can be so staggeringly out of touch with the real world, we wondered what you thought about the comments. Any feedback will help WIN publically address this statement.

WIN Awards 2011

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

This year's WIN Awards will take place on 11 November 2011 and will once again be held at The Hilton Newcastle Gateshead.

More details on nominations and securing a ticket will be announced in the coming weeks so keep an eye on the website.

East Enders Blamed for Giving Entrepreneurs a Bad Name

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Whilst reality shows like Dragons' Den and The Apprentice had people thinking positively about starting a new business, characters like East Ender's Ian Beale got a negative reaction. Read The Guardian's take on it here http://bit.ly/gEdawJ

25 Women-Run Startups to Watch

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Think women don't launch startups?

1) You're not alone, and 2) Think again!

Over the last couple of months there has been another round of women in tech and startup debates.

Robert Scoble says in a Facebook Group that he wants to write about women launching world-changing startups but struggles to find them. Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch says "the press is dying to write about [women startups]." Over on Quora, there is a discussion about the hottest companies started by women. Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr and Hunch is one of the most popular answers.

It's easy to complain that it's hard to find women run startups--or to provide excuses. But instead, let's focus on 25 women running kick-ass startups. Will they change the world? I don't use crystal balls, but I sure do think that they have huge potential to make a serious mark.

Pauline Alker, Founder, a la Mobile

Streamlining the way mobile handsets are developed and deployed. They aim to be the independent, open Linux system platform for the mobile phone industry. They adhere to design and development disciplines of openness, innovation and freedom of choice with configurable and customizable architecture.
Funding: Series A, B

Alexa Andrzejewski, CEO and Co-Founder, Foodspotting

A visual guide to good food and where to find it. Foodspotting lets consumers find and share the foods they love: Instead of reviewing restaurants, consumers can recommend their favorite dishes and see what others have recommended wherever you go.
Funding: Series A

Kris Appel, Founder, Encore Path

Encore Path developed Tailwind, a device that helps improve arm function and range of motion for people with stroke or other brain injury.
Funding: Seed

Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki, Co-Founders, 23andme

Genetics just got personal. 23andme is a human genome indexing/application. They analyze your genetics through saliva testing and store the results online and help you interpret the data. You can keep it private or you can share it with family and doctors.
Funding: Series B

Patricia Bright, Founder, BioFuelBox

Provides modular bio-refineries for converting waste materials into biodiesel.
Funding: Series A

Annie Chang, Co-Founder, LOLapps

LOLapps builds quizzes, gifts, and game platforms that provide user-generated, customizable applications. They are a growing social games company with over 300,000 user generated applications and 11 games in their portfolio.
Funding: Series A

Rachna Choudhry and Marci Harries Co-Founders, Popvox

POPVOX bridges the gap between the input the public wants to provide and the information Members of Congress want and need to receive. The product is based on the founders experience working with Congress and research with Congressional staff.
Funding: Seed

Cathy Edwards, Co-Founder & CTO, Chomp

Billed as a "a sort-of Yelp for iPhone apps" by TechCrunch, Chomp is an app discovery engine that enables users to search for iPhone apps on the Apple App Store, through a combination of app search and personalized recommendations.
Funding: Series A

Cindy Gallop, Founder, IfWeRantheWorld

If you ran the world, what would you do? IfWeRanTheWorld is a crowdsourced, collective action-generating platform, that makes things happen in the real world and reports back on the results. "If Facebook is the social graph, and Twitter is the interest graph, then IfWeRanTheWorld is designed to be the action graph," said Gallop.
Funding: Seed

Kaliya Hamlin, Founder, Personal Data Ecosystem

A leader and vocal advocate in the user-centric identity movement, Hamlin recently launched a new nonprofit to focus on how people control and access their own data online.
Funding: Seeking funding

Julia Hartz, Co-Founder and President, Eventbrite

Eventbrite is a social commerce platform for ticketing and event management. They processed $207 million in ticket sales in 2010, more than double from 2009.
Funding: Series A, B, C, D

Tara Hunt, Co-Founder, Shwowp

Shwowp helps you gather your purchase history in one place. It's a purchase sharing site where you can input product purchases, share items on Twitter or Facebook, follow friends' purchase activity and start conversations around products.
Funding: Seeking funding

Amy Jo Kim, Co-Founder, ShuffleBrain

Inspired by the explosion of Brain Games, and passionate about creating games that keep you sharp and socially connected, Shufflebrain builds games for a connected world. They've helped design games including Bejewelled 2, The Sims, and Rock Band.
Funding: Unknown

Annalea Krebs, Founder, ethicalDeal

Similar to the Groupon and LivingSocial model but aimed at green consumers who love local deals on green products, ethicalDeal launched in November 2010 in Vancouver. Krebs expects they'll launch in Toronto and San Francisco in early in 2011 and a new city every three months thereafter.
Funding: Unknown

Kristen Kuhns, Co-Founder and COO, Story of My Life

A collection of online stories of people's lives. The site helps users build an interactive 360-degree view of who you are: your accomplishments, your feelings and thoughts, your narrative--the essence of who you are and what you will leave behind.
Funding: Angel

Jen Pahlka, Founder, Code for America

Code for America recruits savvy web industry folks into public service to use their skills to solve core problems facing communities. They help talented technologists leverage the power of the Internet to make governments more open and efficient, and become civic leaders able to realize transformational change with technology.
Funding: Grants

April Pedersen, Co-Founder, Salsa Labs

Salsa Labs has grown into one of the most established online organizing and fundraising platforms for the nonprofit and political sectors. The platform allows over 3K nonprofits to organize and communicate with their supporters, activists, fans, and donors all managed through a single, hosted application.
Funding: Seeking funding

Elisabet de los Pinos, Founder: Aura Biosciences

Elisabet and her team are pioneering the development of nano-delivered drugs through its proprietary Nanosmart platform. In layman's terms? They are working on a chemotherapy agent that will have the ability to treat, target and be monitored in the body. Hat tip to Robert Scoble who highlighted her work while he was at Davos.
Funding: Series A

Charlotte Rademaekers, Founder and CEO, Call2Action

Call2Action puts videos and action tools together in a portable online engagement and marketing tool. Their current product is a widget, called Spark to support social justice causes. The company says that they have an average interaction rate (number of actions taken anywhere on a widget divided by the number of times it has been loaded) of 6 times the industry standard at 28%.
Funding: Seeking funding

Victoria Ransom, Co-Founder, Wildfire Interactive

Their patent-pending technology allows corporations, small businesses, marketing agencies, bloggers and nonprofits to easily create their own branded interactive campaigns (e.g. sweepstakes, contests, give-aways, incentive-based surveys, etc) and to simultaneously publish them in multiple social networks and on their website.
Funding: Series A

Carol Realini, Founder & CEO, Obopay

A pioneer in mobile payments, Obopay lets consumers pay anyone, anywhere in the U.S. in just a few seconds using your phone. It offers flexible, instant mobile money that lets you send money to family, collect or make online payments, get a prepaid debit card or send a remittance.
Funding: Series A, B, C, D, and E

Birame Sock, Founder, MyReceipts

A green solution for consumers to receive and file receipts. Participating retailers include Whole Foods (who also offer digital coupons to MyReceipts users), Best Buy, Amazon, and more.
Funding: Uknown

Wendy Tan White, Co-Founder, MoonFruit

Moonfruit provides software that allows users, with no previous web technology experience, to build and develop websites. Over 1.2 million business and individual websites have been built by people around the world using Moonfruit's website building tool SiteMaker. The company started in 1999, endured the dot com bust and made a big come back in 2009.
Funding: Series A

Amra Tareen, Founder and CEO, Allvoices.com

A global community that shares and validates user-generated news, videos, images and opinions tied to news events and people from all over the world. In January the site received over 11 million unique web visitors.
Funding: Series A

Alexa von Tobel, Founder, Learnvest

Learnvest makes personal finance fun (well as fun as you can possibly make it). Whether you're buying a home, saving for grad school, or simply trying to become a better 'budgeter,' LearnVest provides products, content, and a community to make personal financial information accessible to millions of women. Learnvest offers a customized financial action plan, a budgeting tool, and more.
Funding: Series A

Source: http://www.fastcompany.com/1722401/25-women-run-startups-to-watch

New Year brings New Growth for North East based Recruitment Specialist.

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Laura Sharpe runs recruitment consultancy Sharpe Recruitment, which operates across the whole of the North East specialising in Digital Media, Creative, PR, Marketing and IT vacancies. Her hard work, determination and tenacity has resulted in the business going from strength to strength since its’ inception in April 2009, having turned the recruitment industry on its head with the ethos ‘less is more’.

Laura set up Sharpe Recruitment with the help and support of her mum Julie Sharpe, aiming to bring more to the North East job market, her Jerry Maguire style approach ‘fewer clients- more time’ is undoubtedly bringing rewards now for Laura who has registered Sharpe Recruitment as a Ltd company and taken new offices leased by Cravens on Leazes Park Road.

With new offices Laura has been able to expand her business and bring in new staff to help her run Sharpe Recruitment, making the process of recruiting staff through her even more seamless and efficient. Li Ainley-Walker joins Laura as a Client Services Manager to build upon Laura’s determination to show that it is possible to genuinely care about your Candidates and Client’s throughout the recruitment process.

Laura, who has worked in both the Digital Industry and the Recruitment Industry over the past 10 years says that the recession has highlighted the need for fast, efficient and pro-active recruitment services that really delivers results.

“The feedback and recommendations I receive from my Candidates and Client’s tells me how much they appreciate my candid advice, guidance and business knowledge in helping them to either find and retain the right staff or develop their careers in the right direction.
I’m excited to welcome Li to the team and feel confident and positive that 2011 will lead to continued growth for Sharpe Recruitment in the North East and potentially beyond into Yorkshire and the North West.”

Sharpe Recruitment say they are addressing the human side of the job market from the candidates perspective rather than seeing the candidate as a means of currency. Paradoxically their focus on clients and candidates needs has resulted in more people queuing up for their recruitment services as well as their paid CV and Careers advice, which has seen real growth through word of mouth in recent months.

Li, with a background in Customer Service and Administration, feels her appointment to Client Services Manager is an excellent opportunity. “My new role will enable me to build upon my knowledge of the creative sector and develop new relationships within an Industry I am extremely passionate about”.

For more information contact: Laura Sharpe on 07510 419992

Trend forecaster takes a bite of the Big Apple

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Forecasting trend specialists Trend Bible is reaping the fruits of its labour by branching out to the Big Apple where it has established a presence in the heart of Manhattan.

Following the success of a string of national and international contract wins, the boutique trend consultancy, based in Heaton, has entered into a strategic relationship with merchandising consultant and trend forecasting company The Doneger Group, to broaden its exposure in the US market.

Trend Bible already boasts an international client list including US home interiors specialist Pottery Barn on its client list along with TK Maxx, JCPenney, Wal-Mart and Macy’s department store.

Founder and creative director of Trend Bible Joanna Feeley, 35, said: “We have reached a point in our business now where we are ready to create new opportunities after working hard to establish a solid business and reputation in the UK.

“There is obviously something about what we do that appeals greatly to US retailers. Out of the 18 countries we supply our Trend Bible to we sell more of our books in the US than anywhere else in the world.

“This is an incredibly exciting time for Trend Bible, despite the lingering effects of the recession, the type of forward thinking companies we’re working with are still ambitious for growth, so having a presence in New York puts us in a better position to work with more home interior retailers across the US.”

Source: Bdaily

Can Maude deliver billions of pounds of revenue to small businesses?

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The coalition government's programme for government includes an "aspiration" that a quarter of government contracts should be awarded to small and medium sized business.

Now according to the report carried out for the Cabinet Office by Sir Philip Green on waste in government, what he called an "efficiency review", public sector procurement on IT, travel, consultancy and so on amounts to £166bn a year.

So if a quarter of this was channelled to small and medium sized businesses, that would amount to a colossal £41.5bn of turnover for them. Which, to use the ghastly management cliché, would be transformative.

To be clear, the programme for government isn't exactly clear on the definition of "government contracts", so I am not sure whether the aspiration applies to the whole £166bn.

I asked the Cabinet Office how much government business would become available for smaller businesses. This is what an official said:

"We don't have accurate data to show the current value of spend with small companies, but we can say for certain that moving towards 25% of government contracts being awarded to SMEs will open up billions of pounds worth of contracts to these companies.

"And to make sure the government can be held to account, every department will publish accurate data by April which can be used to measure progress."

The Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, seems pretty fired up about it all. He complains that there is a "procurement oligopoly, where innovative small businesses and organisations are too often shut out of contract processes early on because of ridiculous rules and unnecessary bureaucracy".

He describes the dominance of big companies in supplying government as not only bad for small businesses but "bad for government as it stifles competition".

So what is he actually proposing to do to break the big company oligopoly?

Well later today he will announce three reforms which may make something of a difference - and which are a response to a large number of the complaints made directly by businesses to the government here.

The changes all relate to the forms which businesses have to fill in, a so-called pre qualification questionnaire or PQQ.

Small businesses hate these because they are time-consuming and onerous to complete. And some of the stipulations in these questionnaires - for certain levels of indemnity insurance, for example - are simply too expensive for the small businesses to take out, unless and until they win the contract. But they are not allowed to bid for the contract unless they've already met these legal and financial conditions (a classic bureaucratic Catch 22, which delivers enormous advantages to big incumbent providers of goods and services).

So for central government procurement worth less than £100,000, PQQs will be abolished altogether - allowing government purchasers much more freedom to determine the most efficient way of buying stuff.

If this, for example, were to end the practice highlighted by Philip Green of civil servants paying £2000 for laptops that can be bought commercially online for £500, all taxpayers should cheer.

The second reform is create a central database of PQQs, so that for so-called commodity goods and services, a supplier would only have to fill in a PQQ once and forever, rather than having to submit a new PQQ for every single government tender.

Finally, there will be moves towards more open bidding procedures in general, giving government purchasers more flexibility to talk to a range of potential suppliers - small and big - about what they can offer, without eliminating all the small suppliers right at the outset because of the financial and legal hurdles imposed by too-rigid PQQs.

It all sounds a bit like common sense - although whether it will lead to the kind of cultural and commercial revolution desired by Francis Maude cannot be taken for granted.

Apart from anything else, it will work only if the civil servants involved in procurement become comfortable taking greater personal responsibility for their purchases. Because the great advantage for bureaucrats of PQQs is they automate the decision-making process to a large extent, by screening out all sorts of small, young, interesting businesses with little track record.

So if the government really wants to deliver contracts to smaller businesses, it is going to have to somehow persuade civil servants to be more comfortable taking risks and exercise personal judgement when awarding contracts. Which won't happen overnight.

One final thought. Mr Maude has already squeezed the profit margins of many of the big companies which supply government by renegotiating their contract terms. Those companies have persuaded themselves that the pain is worth it, because of the potential growth promised by the government in outsourcing and privatisation of public-sector services.

But if much of these new contracts go to smaller companies, then perhaps there isn't a Con-LibDem silver lining after all for the likes of Serco, Capita and the rest.

Source: Robert Preston, BBC News

Consett mum takes on Little Kickers football franchise

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A WOMAN who was made redundant twice in the last two years has decided to turn her passion for football into a business opportunity by taking on a franchise.

Joanne Temple, from Consett, has snapped up the Newcastle/Gateshead West franchise of Little Kickers, a pre-school football programme for children aged from 18 months to seven years old.

Joanne said: “My husband works in the child fitness industry, providing before and after school clubs, so we looked for franchise opportunities which would complement his current business.

“I'm a massive football fan and Little Kickers seemed like the perfect opportunity to build a business around something I already have a huge passion for.”

The idea behind the business is to introduce children to football and fitness in a positive ‘play not push’ environment.

Joanne said: “Recent obesity statistics stated that children in the North East were four times as likely to be obese as others.

“That's extremely worrying and as a mother of a three-year-old boy, I'd hate to think of him becoming one of those statistics. Anything we can do to keep our children healthy is vitally important.”

She received a new business start-up grant from Gateshead Council's economic development team after impressing the team with the potential benefits for local children.

“I've spoken to a number of mums in the area about Little Kickers and many of them have said how great it will be to have a football class available for under-fives,” said Joanne.

“So hopefully, in a few years, we'll be able to say we had a few Newcastle United or Sunderland players through the Little Kickers doors.”

The new franchise has already created one job. Joanne has taken on recently graduated Matthew Musgrave, from Pelaw, as a coach and she hopes to be able to take on several more over the coming months.

Little Kickers, which runs as a national network of classes for boys and girls, aims to instill a sense of fun, confidence, co-ordination, control and sense of camaraderie in those who take part, using football as the forum.

The classes are divided into ages, with Little Kicks for children aged 18-27 months, Junior Kickers for toddlers aged two to three and a half, followed by Mighty Kickers for three and a half to five-year-olds and finally Mega Kickers for the five to seven age group.

Statistics stated that children in the North East were four times as likely to be obese as others.

Source: Karen Dent, The Journal

BBC hunt for North East female entrepreneurs

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The BBC are looking for four young entrepreneurs to take part in a documentary. The aim is to expel the myth that young women in Newcastle have no aspirations etc. The BBC intend to have four high society women from London mentored by the women in Newcastle and spend time with them to see how hard working they are and the dedication they have in making their lives a success, as opposed to have money handed to them without having to work for it.

If your interested please contact Gillian Parker:
Tel: +44 191 2781864
E-mail: [email protected]">[email protected]

Mums' start up sauce-making business

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

TWO mums who met at the school gates and ended up starting a sauce-making business are in talks to supply two airlines and two supermarkets.

Louise Bailey and Dawn Wilson have already been forced out of home production and into rented premises at the school where they met because of demand for their sweet chilli sauce Devlish.

The two “mumpreneurs” met at Westfield School in Gosforth where their daughters are pupils and quickly realised they could turn Louise’s special chilli sauce into a commercial proposition.

Louise, from Nedderton Village, near Morpeth, said: “I would make it for every occasion such as birthdays or christenings – I would even take a jar to a dinner party instead of a bottle of wine.

“Gradually an ‘appreciation club’ developed and it started to reach a wider audience than just friends and family.”

Louise and husband Steve, who also helps with the company, believed they had a great product which would sell commercially.

“We contacted a few businesses and restaurants and received a good response. However, the distractions of everyday life meant that we found it difficult to gain momentum and the idea was placed on the back burner,” said Louise.

school at the same time as Dawn’s girls and we became friends quickly. I told her about my sauce and Dawn explained she had a business background. She tasted it and loved it, and could immediately see the potential.”

Dawn, a former self-employed businesswoman from Woolsington, was ready to return to work after a three-year break.

She said: “I had my own businesses for years which I gave up to look after the kids, who are now aged eight and nine. I met Louise – literally at the school gates – when I was at a stage to do something else that would fit in around looking after the kids.”

They started selling at farmers’ markets, farm shops and delis, and now supply garden centres Dobbies and Peter Barratt, the National Trust and Fenwick food hall in Newcastle, where they will be conducting Valentine’s taste tests this Saturday.

They have also impressed top North East chef Terry Laybourne, who uses Devlish in his Fenwick Cafe 21 eaterie, and Professional Masterchef finalists John Calton and David Coulson, who are both from the region.

And they’re on track with ambitions to turn Devlish into a national and international brand with discussions with airlines BA and Emirates, and supermarkets Waitrose and the Co-op.

Lousie and Dawn worked with regional food business Northumbria Larder, which has helped them to win new customers.

Larder business support manager Ian Blair said: “Louise and Dawn are extremely driven and focused businesswomen who are determined to make Devlish not just a national but international success.

“We have worked closely with Devlish throughout the development of the business – offering advice and guidance on packaging and initiating buyer introductions.”

Karen Dent, The Journal

Small businesses shrug off rise in VAT

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

MORE than half of small and medium sized firms reckon the recent VAT rise will not make any difference to their business.

Almost six out of 10 decision makers who took part in the YouGov SME Omnibus survey said they did not expect to be affected by the increase from 17.5% to 20%, which came into force on January 4.

London-based businesses were most confident, while those in the east of England were most pessimistic about the effects of the VAT rise. But the vast majority of businesses – 86% – said they had prepared themselves well for the increase.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) says that the sector ended 2010 feeling less confident than at the start of the year.

Its fourth quarterly Voice of Small Business Index pointed to a drop in the momentum of the private sector recovery. It highlighted issues such as constraints on cash-flow increased from utility bills, fuel duty and VAT.

These combined with public sector cuts are likely to cause 2011’s growth to be “sluggish” at best, the FSB said. It also pointed to the snowy weather at the end of the year and the VAT increase, which had especially hit the confidence of small service and consumer firms such as shops and the hospitality sector.

FSB chairman John Walker said: “A number of pressures on small businesses are beginning to come to a head, such as the increase in VAT and fuel duty, placing more strain on cash-flow.

“This combined with the severe weather at the end of 2010 has meant that small firms are not as confident about their prospects in 2011.

“With inflation above target and the labour market still weak, small firms cannot rely solely on the consumer for growth in 2011. So it is imperative the Bank of England base rate is kept at 0.5%.”

Source: Karen Dent, The Journal

Rise in tribunals is hurting the region’s employers

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

ONE of the region’s employment lawyers is warning businesses to be extra vigilant at a time when employment tribunals continue to rise at an “alarming rate.”

In the wake of former Countryfile presenter Miriam O’Reilly winning her case against the BBC, Newcastle-based law firm Gordon Brown is urging employers to take extra care when disciplining or dismissing employees.

They said employers must ensure that they have clear procedures in place when dealing with such matters.

Jonathan Stokes, partner with Gordon Brown, said : “The number of claims brought before the employment tribunals has risen year-on-year and is a serious concern for many employers, particularly in the current climate.

“Access to justice is a fundamental legal principle, and there are thousands of genuine cases, but the sad truth is that it has simply become too easy for an employee to issue employment tribunal proceedings.”

The most recent employment tribunal annual report confirms that employees submitted 151,000 claims.

It’s a trend that’s likely to continue in a depressed jobs market – particularly as public sector cuts bite.

It has led the CBI and British Chambers of Commerce to call for a reform of the employment tribunals system.

Barry Hutchinson, Associate with Gordon Brown, added: “If an employer wants to protect themselves, it’s vital to ensure that they have the correct procedures in place.

“This means having proper disciplinary and grievance procedures, contracts of employment and staff handbooks – and most of all sticking to them. If they can do this, they increase the chances of success significantly.”

Source: Bdaily

Women returning to work advised to plan ahead

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Women who hope to return to work have been advised by one expert to plan ahead and be clear about what they want from their new role and what lifestyle changes they are willing to commit to.

Piya Khanna, an executive coach at Change to Succeed, explained that women must consider if they want to work part-time or full-time, if they want to work from home at any point and what support they need for childcare.

Her comments come after research by Regus highlighted the significant number of employers who are discouraged by hiring women returning to work.

It found that 38 per cent of businesses fear working mothers have less commitment and flexibility, while nearly a third (31 per cent) believe they will leave shortly after training to have another child.

Almost one in five firms said they thought working mums might have out-of-date skills.

"Start taking action well in advance of returning to work," said Ms Khanna.

"Speak to your boss and agree roles, responsibilities, work hours [and] work from home arrangements."

womenintechnology has a dedicated careers advice service for women, graduates and experienced professionals looking for technology and IT jobs.

Source: www.womenintechnology.co.uk

Dermalogica Puts Kiva's Microloans in Women's Manicured Hands

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Microfinance platform Kiva is moving into a salon near you thanks to a collaboration with professional skincare company Dermalogica. The pair are teaming up to launch JoinFITE (Financial Independence Through Entrepreneurship), a global entrepreneurship platform that will offer microloans to women in 56 countries. Over the next two years, JoinFITE will finance 25,000 female entrepreneurs--with a little help from Dermalogica's customers.

Starting this week, Dermalogica's top five products (including Daily Microfoliant, Total Eyecare, and Skin Hydrating Booster) will come with special sleeves that allow customers to log onto JoinFITE and trigger a $1 microloan to the female entrepreneur of their choice. Dermalogica is giving $500,000 to Kiva for educational outreach and initial microloans.

"I've always been invested in women's issues because women have built our industry," explains Jane Wurwand, founder of Dermalogica. "Ninety eight percent of salons and spas are owned by independent women entrepreneurs."

Wurwand invested considerable resources into JoinFITE. Dermalogica is now focusing all of its philanthropic assets on JoinFITE, and all 25,000 salons and spas that sell Dermalogica products have been made aware of the microloan program. The company is also asking that its initial microloan investment not be paid back--instead, Wurwand wants the cash to be paid forward to other female entrepreneurs.

Kiva is taking care of the selection process for entrepreneurs, scouring its network of 125 financial institutions in 57 countries for potential candidates. "This is the first time we're partnering with a company in a major way to bring the Kiva experience offline and into retail," says Bennett Grassano, Kiva's director of development.

But this won't be the last retail partnership for the JoinFITE initiative. Dermalogica has already secured partnerships with Seventh Generation, Dansko, and Lifetime Television, among others. The company is announcing more partnerships in the coming weeks.

"I arrived in the U.S. with $14,000 in funding for Dermalogica and bootstrapped it up," says Wurwand. "My passion lies in getting as many women into their own business as possible."

Source: Ariel Schwartz

Many local women are creating their own dreams

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Who are these Women Without Offices?

Business trends in Ontario are changing rapidly, and women are leading the charge. Female sole proprietors are the fastest growing element in Ontario's small business landscape. Many thousands of them work from homes, studios and even their vehicles. While filing away last year's columns I thought about the more than two dozen women who graciously allowed me to feature them in 2010. In candid fashion, they shared both the benefits and the challenges of working from non-traditional business venues. Each has encouraged and even inspired other female entrepreneurs.

There are significant common threads that motivate women to operate small businesses from home and studio offices. Many have chosen the one-woman show because of lifestyle. Specifically, they're committed to balancing work, family and other life demands. The opportunity to create flexible work hours (often working late into the night and on weekends) provides the freedom to share in daily family activities and responsibilities. Others love the opportunity to be in control of their work. Still others can earn more money than main stream employment might offer. Most report that enjoying, and taking pride in, their work is just as important as the dollars earned.

Growing a home-based business can present unique obstacles for women, though. Many find that separating personal from business and time management can both be very challenging. They're more likely to be interrupted by family and friends with personal calls and visits than if they were working away. And there are so many hats to wear! Being in charge of everything, from production of goods or services, bookkeeping and marketing to promotion public relations, is a substantial task. Building a successful small business takes time, strategies and connections. The satisfaction and personal growth can be immense but financial restraints, especially in the early stages, often prohibit marketing their work or products as effectively as most would like to. Compared to self-employed men, women have greater difficulty putting aside family needs in order to commit to early morning or after hours networking events and other business opportunities. Hence, it can take much longer for people get to know who these women are and what they do.

Some say it's easier to create your own dream job than wait to be hired for it. It's a common motivator for women with excellent skills and experience, especially in male-dominated work. From house painters, tradespeople, renovation designers and sales reps to teachers, artists and therapists, many women suspect they are not taken as seriously as male counterparts. Still, they hold to exceptional standards of service and believe in providing excellent customer care. Since this column's inception in 2009 the WWO (Women Without Offices) networking group has evolved, connecting many diverse Northumberland women whose businesses are off the beaten path.

Thanks to Northumberland Today for the opportunity to showcase these creative and industrious women, and the value and service they provide. It has been a privilege to meet, write about and to acknowledge and honour each of them.

Source: Northumberland Today

Federation: VAT hike is a hammer blow to firms

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

THE Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has labelled this week’s VAT increase a “hammer blow” to firms in the region, as it urged the Chancellor to introduce measures that will help hard-hit traders.

An FSB survey showed that three quarters of the region’s small businesses expect the VAT hike to have a negative impact on their business.

The organisation reiterated its call for the Government to increase the threshold at which small businesses pay VAT from £70,000 to £90,000, which has the potential to create up to 35,000 jobs.

The FSB is also urging Chancellor George Osborne to return the rate of VAT to 17.5 per cent once the national deficit has been significantly reduced.

However, Mr Osborne has said that the increase to a 20 per cent rate will remain in place for the foreseeable future to deal with the structural deficit.

The FSB survey showed that 71 per cent of the 1,600 respondents expect the rise to hit their business. A further 52 per cent expect to increase prices, and 36 per cent expect a loss of customers as a result.

Simon Hanson, North-East policy manager at the FSB, said: “Our research shows that the rise in VAT for small businesses in the North-East will be a hammer blow and the worst possible start to the new year.

“Almost half of respondents are going to have to increase prices as a result and 45 per cent think it’s going to decrease their turnover, neither of which will help small firms take on more staff.

“Given the challenges that the North-East will face this year, small businesses need to be supported to help drive the recovery of the economy. If the Government truly believes that the private sector is going to strengthen the recovery, we need to see action.

“This can be demonstrated by raising the VAT threshold to £90,000. Without this small firms will struggle to bounce back as the spending cuts start to bite.”

Small firms told the FSB that they will struggle to absorb the VAT increase and will pass the full cost on to their customers, reduce stock levels or find cost savings elsewhere.

Source: Andy Richardson, The Northern Echo

Just one in four directors of small firms is a women

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Gender disparity is still rife – not only on the FTSE-100 boards, but in the grassroots businesses that drive the UK economy.

Only a quarter of directors at Britain's medium and small-sized firms are women, according to research produced for The Independent on Sunday today.

The gender disparity in the UK's biggest listed companies is well-known, but the survey shows that the problem is also rife in the grassroots businesses that drive the economy.

Analysing 619,000 firms with 500 or fewer employees, database company Blue Sheep found that 70 per cent of their directors were men, 25 per cent women and 5 per cent unknown.

The news piles further pressure on Lord Davies of Abersoch to come up with an effective strategy to get more women on company boards when he reports his plan to the Government in February. The former Standard Chartered chairman was asked by the Department for Business last summer for ideas to tackle the inequality.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) will launch a report this month highlighting the success of US initiatives to encourage women into business. "We need to look at things like developing female mentors to help women start businesses and women-only networks," said an FSB spokesman.

The FSB's concern rose after it found that only 15 per cent of sole traders among its membership are female, down from 16 per cent a year ago. The spokesman said that the two-thirds of the 500,000 public-sector workers likely to lose their jobs will be women.

The federation believes that getting these women into business roles could contribute £23bn to the UK economy. "Women are a hugely untapped area of entrepreneurship," said the spokesman. "The Government launched the £12.5m Ascent fund to support women-led businesses [in 2008] and the coalition is continuing with it, but only £2m has been spent supporting just seven businesses."

Blue Sheep chief executive Iain Lovatt said the problem is less acute in younger age groups, with women taking 30 to 35 per cent of directorships in the 18 to 30-year-old bracket.

This could be because this age group focuses on digital and online related industries that have only been set up in recent years. Louise Burgess, who with her husband co-founded digital agency Equi Media 11 years ago, said: "Men haven't got a historic advantage in our industry, it's brand new so there is a level playing field for both men and women. In fact, it is dominated by young people."

The research, which was divided by post-code area, shows that there remain geographic strongholds for male businessmen. The City of London has the worst imbalance (see map), with only 14 per cent of 66,200 directors being women.

The City figures are unsurprising given the difficulties that women have had getting on to the boards of major listed firms, many of which are based in the Square Mile. Earlier this year, The Independent found that not one FTSE 100 company had a 50:50 gender balance, and that there were only 120 individual female directors out of a pool of 1,100.

Two postcodes covering London's West End and Manchester were also in the bottom six of this survey, with Kingston Upon Thames also faring badly, showing that women are struggling for recognition in England's commercial hubs.

Some of the most remote areas of the UK showed some of the greatest gender equality. The Outer Hebrides and Caithness in far north-east Scotland were the only regions where 40 per cent or more of directorships were held by women.

In England, the only area where at least a third of directors were female was Hereford, and in Wales there was just the Llandrindod Wells post-code area, which is around Brecon, on the English/Welsh border.

Despite the findings, there are signs that women have gained prominence in recent years. West Ham United Football Club vice-chairman Karren Brady has become well known for her role in The Apprentice television show, while entrepreneurs Deborah Meaden and Julie Meyer star in the broadcast and online versions respectively of Dragons' Den.

In November, Ana Patricia Botin was named the chief executive of the UK arm of bank Santander. She has been entrusted to oversee a flotation of the business that could raise £3bn.

Already in the FTSE 100, Anglo American boss Cynthia Carroll has proven herself a tough cookie in the macho world of mining, and Katherine Garrett-Cox oversees several billion in assets as chief at Alliance Trust.

They follow in the footsteps of Dame Marjorie Scardino, who became the first female FTSE 100 boss when she took over publishing group Pearson.

There are women executives included in the survey who believe that appointments such as these show that sexism is a thing of the past.

Elly Woolston, director at direct marketing agency DMS, with responsibility for 100 people, says: "I'm surprised the figures [of women] are so low. I don't buy gender bias – in our sector we just look for the best person for the job."

Source: The Independent

Region's finest recognised in New Year's Honours

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

SOME of the region’s finest citizens are today recognised by the Queen in the New Year’s Honours list.

Unsung heroes are joined by figureheads from religion, politics and business, who have given their lives to making the region a shining example of community spirit.

All have been praised for their quiet devotion to the wellbeing of the region.

Bishop of Newcastle, the Right Reverend Martin Wharton, has been awarded a CBE for services to the Church of England and to communities in the North East.

He has been the city’s Bishop since 1997. The 66-year-old, who is married to Marlene and has three grown-up children and a grandson, began his ordained ministry in 1972.

He first worked in a bank and the steel industry before gaining a degree at Durham University and training for the ministry at Ripon Hall in Oxford.

Civil servants, charity workers and arts leaders from across North East were also recognised.

Lionel Joyce, formerly the commissioner of the Legal Services Commission, wins an OBE for services to the administration of justice in Newcastle.

Pam Vedhara, manager of South Tyneside Youth Offending Service, picks up an MBE for her contribution to local government and young people.

From the world of showbusiness, Durham-born record producer and musician Trevor Horn scoops a CBE.

Trevor found fame with The Buggles and his number one hit ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ had the distinction of being the first promo to be aired by MTV.

He has also had success masterminding other people’s careers. He helped revitalise Robbie Williams’s career and has been behind hits including ABC’s The Lexicon Of Love and Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Welcome To The Pleasure Dome.

The 61-year-old producer initially thought the letter informing him of his honour was from the Inland Revenue.

He said: “I wondered what it was and thought it was tax.

“I was amazed when it happened, completely taken by surprise.”

Also awarded an MBE is Sergeant Bede McCabe, from Hebburn, for services to Northumbria Police and law enforcement.

Another MBE winner for his services to emergency healthcare is Grahame Pickering, chief executive of the Great North Air Ambulance.

He was nominated by Barbara Walton who paid tribute to his inspiring and motivational attitude to quality patient care.

She said: “I nominated him because of his vision and commitment to quality patient care – it’s above and beyond anything I’ve ever known.”

Mr Pickering added: “I’m a little surprised, very honoured and humbled.

“You always think these things happen to other people, but never to you.

“It’s incredibly exciting. But it is unfortunate that this award can only go to one person.

“Without the dedication, loyalty and hard work of the team, the support of the general public and the media for promoting it, everything I envisaged would not have happened. So, really this should be an organisational award because of the many hundreds and thousands of people who have contributed to making it a great success.”

North East finest are rewarded

NORTHUMBERLAND

OBE

Robert Balmer For services to Maritime Heritage in the North East. (Blyth)

MBE

Mrs Patricia Selina Birley Co-founder, Vindolanda Trust. For services to Roman Heritage in Northumberland. (Northumberland); Mrs Brenda York Hackett Marketing director, Lindisfarne Ltd. For services to the Drinks Industry. (Berwick-upon-Tweed); Mrs Barbara Mary Herdman Secretary, League of Friends of the Berwick Hospitals. For voluntary service to Healthcare. (Berwick-upon-Tweed); Peter Herdman Chairman, League of Friends of the Berwick Hospitals. For voluntary service to Healthcare. (Berwick- upon-Tweed); Mrs Margaret Ward For services to the community in Slaley, Northumberland. (Slaley)

TYNE AND WEAR

CBE

Lionel Joyce, OBE Formerly commissioner, Legal Services Commission. For services to the Administration of Justice. (Newcastle); The Right Reverend Martin Wharton, For services to the Church of England and to the community in the North East. (Newcastle)

OBE

Richard John Bottomley Senior Partner, KPMG Newcastle and former president of the North East Chamber of Commerce. For services to the Accountancy Profession and to Business in the North East; Mrs Caroline Burden. Formerly head of Planning, Government Office for the North East, Department for Communities and Local Government. (Newcastle)

MBE

Mrs Eileen Bewick Network Support Office Team manager, Network Support Office, Durham, HM Revenue and Customs. (Blaydon); Ms Marie Hazel Clark For services to the community in Hendon and in the East End of Sunderland. (Sunderland); Mrs Lindsay Jane Cross For services to the West End Refugee Service in Newcastle. (Newcastle); Mrs Lynn Goossens Higher Executive Officer, Child Support Agency, Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, Department for Work and Pensions. (Newcastle); Ross William Lambert For services to the community in the North East. (Newcastle); Ms Joanne Leng Director, Business Development and Deputy chief executive, NO/Energy. For services to the Oil and Gas Industries. (Houghton-le-Spring); Bede McCabe Sergeant, Northumbria Police. For services to the Police. (Hebburn); Eric George McGlen For services to the community in Sunderland North East, and Overseas. (Sunderland); Alan Mitchell Community Safety Co-ordinator, Sunderland City Council. For services to Local Government. (Sunderland); Neil Munslow Housing Services manager, Newcastle City Council. For services to Local Government. (Newcastle); Umeshchandra Babubhai Patel Community Pharmacist. For services to Healthcare in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. (Sunderland); Mrs Gillian Southern Director, Wessington Cryogenics Ltd. For services to Industry in the North East. (Washington); Ms Pam Vedhara South Tyneside Youth Offending Service manager. For services to Local Government. (South Shields)

COUNTY DURHAM

CBE

Ian Mark Marshall Dalton Chief Executive, North East Strategic Health Authority. For services to the NHS. (Durham)

OBE

Ms Dinah Bennett For services to Women’s Entrepreneurship in the North East. (Durham City); John Arthur Cuthbert For services to Business in the North East. (Chester-le-Street)

MBE

Mrs Gillian Boyle Higher Officer, Customer Contact Directorate, Newcastle, HM Revenue and Customs. (Consett); Ronald Gardiner Dickie For services to the community in Durham. (Durham); Terence Farley For services to Football Referees. (Newton Aycliffe, Durham); Mrs Ann Humes For services to the community in the North East. (Chester-le- Street); Robert Jackson For voluntary service to Cricket in the North East. (Burnopfield); Dr David Richard Williams For services to Media Studies in the North East. (Durham City)

Source: Evening Chronicle

Smart Women Know Success Leaves Clues

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered what the real secret to success is? Do you ever read articles about women entrepreneurs who’ve accomplished their dreams and think, “Now how did she do that?” I know I have. I’m always in search of better, more effective ways to achieve my goals both personally and professionally and I look to women who’ve walked the path of entrepreneurship before me. The good news is success leaves clues and if you’re open to hearing what other successful women entrepreneurs share about their journey, you can save yourself a lot of time and money.

Last week, I attended a women’s conference where I had the opportunity to hear from a powerful group of women who’ve achieved an enormous amount of success in business. Each woman represented a different industry from clothing, NY Times best-selling author to food service. What I found interesting was they all shared similar “gold nuggets” in their business advice and insight. Who were these women? Just to name a few, Liz Lange, Candace Bushnell and Nadja Piatka. All three women have been a guest on the Oprah show and their businesses have become an international success. They know business.

You are in Control

What I learned may surprise you. You may think that what’s preventing you from achieving your Big Ideas, Dreams and Goals is something outside of your control. It’s certainly easy to blame others or circumstances for lack of success in life and business. I, too, have had times in my life when placing blame on outside circumstances was convenient but certainly not very helpful. Once again, I was reminded by these super successful women that success is an “inside” game.

If you’ve been wondering how to take an ordinary idea and turn it into an extraordinary business, read on. These 9 clues to success are guaranteed to give you the edge when it comes to making your Big Ideas, Dreams and Goals a reality:

1. Decide

The women were very clear about their decision to become an entrepreneur. There was no turning back. They were focused on making their business dreams and goals happen. Period.

2. Live in Optimism

Each one of them spoke about the power of optimism and this one style of behavior helped them in times of challenge and struggle in their business (especially early on in the start-up phase).

3. Maintain Unshakable Belief

I had a mentor once who used to say, “people are looking for the chink in your armor.” It’s not what you say about your business that will attract people; it’s how you feel about what you say. These women had unshakable belief about their business goals from the very start.

4. Take Inspired Action

There is a difference between action and inspired action. Do you get up every day with energy and passion for your business or do you hit the snooze button most days? Do you feel inspired when you get into your office or does it feel like a “ball and chain?” These women love what they do and it shows.

5. Follow your “gut”

Whether you are in the start-up phase or ready to take your business to the next level of success, trust your instincts.

6. ASK

This was BIG. These women were not afraid to share their ideas with anyone. They developed a marketing message about their mission and shared it everywhere they went with anyone who would listen. Challenge yourself to ask more often for what you want in business and life.

7. Get Uncomfortable

It’s essential that you get comfortable with being uncomfortable. When we’re comfortable, that’s a big clue that we’re not growing. The only way to experience real personal and business growth is to challenge yourself on a regular basis.

8. COI

Sit down and make a list of your “centers of influence.” These people are admired and respected in your community and area of business. Make a commitment to contact them and share your Big Ideas, Dreams and Goals. I will share from my own personal experience that this one tip has taken my business from “surviving” to “thriving.”

9. Pay Attention

To your clients and customers. Once you begin to gain momentum in your business, pay attention to what your clients and customers have to say. They will tell you what they want and how they want it delivered. Survey your clients at least once a year to find out what they love about your business and how you can better serve them.

These 9 success clues were basic threads that ran through each speaker’s presentation. Here’s what I love about them; They are low-cost to no-cost and as expected, come from within you. All you need to do is decide. Make a decision about achieving your own level of success (whatever that means to you) and follow these easy-to-implement clues to take your Big Idea, Dreams and Goals from “surviving” to “thriving.”

Anything is possible. Everything is waiting for you.

Written by Joy Chudacoff for www.women-unlimited.co.uk

No Christmas break for small businesses

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

AROUND one third of small business owners will work on Christmas or Boxing Day this year because they find it so difficult to switch off from work.

The figures were produced from a poll of business owners on the FreeIndex business information website.

FreeIndex managing director Martin Turner said: “Many small business owners are feeling the squeeze this year and are working around the clock to keep their heads above water; unfortunately this often means putting in extra hours during the holiday season.

“As an aside to work pressures, the ease with which remote working allows us to access the office from home, means the temptation to answer work phone calls or emails during the Christmas period is greatly increased.

“It’s worrying that a third of UK business owners are risking burnout by continuing to work this Christmas, rather than taking a well-earned break with friends and family.”

A separate study recently carried out by Cancer Research UK found that too much work can have a negative effect on health and almost four out of 10 people are unhappy with their work-life balance.

Source: The Journal

Business Extra: SMEs after the budget cuts

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Small and medium-sized businesses can rarely have enjoyed so much attention as they are gaining at the moment. It seems that hardly a day goes by without a minister or other opinion former marking them out for playing a key role in the shake-up of society that is expected to be part and parcel of the Coalition’s attempt to bring down the national deficit.

Of course, not everybody is convinced that curtailing public spending is the way to bring on an economic recovery, with many questioning how business as a whole is supposed to expand when so many of Britain’s traditional trading partners are suffering economic woes at least as serious as our own. Then there is the issue of how many people who lose their jobs in the public sector as a result of the cuts will be able to find employment in the private sector (even if they can make the attitudinal adjustments supposedly necessary).

But nobody could accuse the SME community of not being up for the challenge. Which is just as well. Since this would appear to be the perfect opportunity for growing businesses to demonstrate that they are as dynamic, imaginative and as proficient at wealth creation as they claim.

Fortuitously, this month sees the latest Global Enterprise Week, an initiative that began life as Enterprise Week back in 2004 and acts as a sort of showcase for entrepreneurs, with a particular emphasis on promoting enterprise for young people. This year’s event, which begins on November 15, features such successful entrepreneurs as Brent Hoberman, co-founder of lastminute.com, Julie Meyer of Ariadne Capital and Sara Murray, founder of the price-comparison site confused.com as well as such established business leaders as Richard Lambert of the Confederation of British Industry; David Frost of the British Chambers of Commerce and Miles Templeman of the Institute of Directors as well as Tom Bewick, chief executive of Enterprise UK, which co-ordinates the British end of the week.

The launch, to be held at the London HQ of Google, is due to be attended by the Prime Minister, who has already pledged his support for the “doers and grafters, the inventors and entrepreneurs” whom he believes will lead the recovery. He has already moved a step beyond the rhetoric of supporting enterprise by appointing former businessman and Thatecher-era Cabinet minister Lord Young to head a review aimed at ending the state’s 'institutional bias' against awarding contracts to smaller businesses. So it will be interesting to see what he has to say to encourage those who have been charged with leading the economic recovery.

In the meantime, Enterprise UK’s Bewick is confident that the '32,000 events in over 100 countries around the world, exposing people of all ages to quality entrepreneurial experience' will be inspirational in setting the 'enterprise-led recovery' in motion. However, it will surely take more than a few well-judged case studies to really get things going. Once the deficit reduction appears to be under way, taxes will have to fall so that there are greater incentives to create wealth. And the Government will need to help encourage training – in similar ways to the help promised for adult apprenticeships.

Another way could be for the Government to encourage large businesses - which have as much interest in a thriving economy as so-called entrepreneurial concerns - to divert some of their corporate responsibility activities towards areas that could make a real long-term difference. One such initiative has been launched by the consulting firm Accenture. It has an international corporate citizenship programme Skills to Succeed that it hopes will by 2015 equip 250,000 people with the skills to get a job or build a business.

In Britain, this involves it working with the Prince’s Youth Business International to provide mentoring, training and other assistance to disadvantaged young people so that they can become successful entrepreneurs, helping the Prince’s Trust place 40,000 young people a year in jobs or education and training and using the Eden Project to give hundreds of unemployed young adults the practical skills to succeed in the labour market.

Leave aside for the moment the fact that this should be the job of the education system - which currently seems to be failing the country as much as the young people who go through it. Business, of all shapes and sizes, needs to show its real commitment to enterprise and to a 'can-do' attitude by stepping in and sorting out the training issue while - with any luck - the politicians and policymakers can decide how they can properly educate and equip for work the next generation.

Source: www.independant.co.uk

The Best Way to Get Women into Boardrooms

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Gender-based quotas are back in question — but this time, it's really time to make a change. As the U.K. minister for equality favored the naming and shaming of those companies who failed to promote a fairer deal for women, it's clearer now that female talent doesn't have an equal place on executive boards.

As one executive director reportedly said, ''When I graduated 30 years ago I said to myself, 'In time this will correct itself.' It's with considerable regret I say that time hasn't fixed it...I think we need a bold stroke." For many women, the bold stroke is in legislation mandating quotas for women on boards. Norway is held as the success model for closing the gender gap, but following the Norwegian model is problematic, and we may need to consider other options that look beyond numbers and to the real benefits women could add to the boardroom.

Gender-based quotas were raised by the government of Norway as early as 2003, and companies were given five years to comply. As of January 1, 2008, it became compulsory for Norwegian companies to appoint 40% of women to their management boards. With this bold legislation and its relative success, women now occupy around 38% of board membership, and it has made Norway the test case for success in legislating gender-based quotas.

But is the Norwegian model the only way forward? Gender-based quotas make sense for Norway but may not make sense for other countries. Here's why: Norway has a small, mostly urban, population of less than 5 million. Ninety-five percent of the population are part of the same ethnic group, 85% share the same religion, the literacy level is 100%, and there is one official language. In other words, within this context, gender disparity stands out as marked difference between people. For countries which have larger, more diverse populations, disrupting the male-dominated boards and their cultures is not just a gender issue, but also an issue for others who do not fit into the traditional corporate networks and entrenched culture of board membership. Diversity refers to different socio-economic, gender, ethnic, linguistic, sexual, and generational groups to name a few. So if the Norwegian model is problematic, what is the alternative?

Rather than quotas for women on boards, emphasizing that women can bring something new to corporate boardrooms can disrupt their entrenched cultures. More so, leaving companies to explain themselves might just give enough push to impact change. In January 2011, the Australian Stock Exchange, ASX, will introduce diversity revisions to the Corporate Governance Guidelines and will issue a "please explain" request from male-dominated company boards, in order to seek a reason for their lack of female board members. Citing statistics that estimate an 11% increase in productivity if women's participation is harnessed, the ASX is mounting arguments about the merits of expanding the diversity of the talent pool. A recent move from the Canadian Senate to mandate gender parity on board memberships is prompted by rationales that board membership should reflect inclusiveness which positions women's quotas for board membership within broader political actions to bring in "the missing voices from business."

Implementing quotas inclusive of diversity opens the door for women as talented outsiders, offering different skills and knowledge to a board. In some companies it makes better sense to have women's perspectives. Talented women, working in inclusive environments, bring in new ideas, values, and perspectives, alongside other benefits. These include new strategic input, less conflict, greater discussion, and debate about board decision-making. It is here that breakthrough strategies, creativity, and new ways doing business emerge.

Pushing for more gender diversity in boardrooms disrupts the current patterns of board membership. Couching the issue in the principles of talent and diversity provides the proof that women are talented outsiders that need to be brought in and initiated into the business of the boards.

Source:http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/12/make_the_argument_put_women_in.html

European funding for disabled business start-ups

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A PROJECT is to be launched to encourage more than 1,000 people in the North East who are disadvantaged or have disabilities to set up their own businesses. The Northern Pinetree Trust has received the backing of the European Union through £460,000 investment from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Competitiveness Programme 2007-2013, managed by One North East.

The Trust is based in Birtley but operates across the whole of the North East offering free provision to people with a disability, disadvantaged community or long-term illness.

It is providing the match funding for the project which will take on 15 coaches to give training as well as ecnourage people to go into business.

It is specifically aimed at those who have a physical, mental, sensory, learning or hidden disability or who are members of specific communities across the North East where individuals are disadvantaged.

Michael Leithrow, chief executive at Northern Pinetree Trust, said: “This project is targeting those with the intention and idea to set up their own business but who face a variety of barriers that would normally prevent them from taking the idea forward.

“This project will ensure the correct level of coaching is offered to allow people to make an informed choice as to whether self-employment is a pursuable option.”

Lesley Calder, head of European and skills strategy at One North East, said: “ERDF investment will help support many disabled or disadvantaged potential entrepreneurs take the first critical steps to business start up through customised support. The project will help to increase the stock of new business starts in the North East helping create an enterprise

surge.”

Source: The Journal

Bringing business to the bedroom

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A survey of nearly 500 female small businesses owners from across the UK found that over half (55%) would turn to their partner first for straight talking business advice. The T-Mobile research showed that partners were favoured over accountants, trade bodies, other small businesses and bank managers as a trusted source of advice for 55% of female small business owners, who value the straight talking approach they get from their partner.

This brings up some interesting questions:

Why do women trust their partners for business advice when their partner may not have the insight into their job that’s necessary to advise them?
Does this put any strain on the relationship as the partner may feel under pressure to give the right advice, without necessarily knowing what that is?
Is the appropriate business advice available for female business leaders who don’t trust their banks, trade bodies or other SMBs to help them? With an estimated 710,000 women-led SMEs in the UK, contributing around £50 billion to the UK economy per year, this group should surely be well catered for.

Darling, tell it to me straight

Husbands and wives trusted over accountants and bank managers

for straight talking business advice

T-Mobile Research key findings:

Small business owners trust husbands or wives over accountants and bank managers to give them straight talking business advice
Small business owners seek advice from those that will ‘tell them the truth’ and ‘give it to them straight’

London, 30th November, 2010: Over half of UK small business owners will turn to their husband, wife or partner before anyone else for straight talking business advice, according to a national survey of 2,000 small business owners by T-Mobile. Spouses and partners (51%) were preferred to accountants (22%), trade bodies or other local businesses (3%) and bank managers (2%).

This trend was greatest in the North, with nearly six out of ten small business owners in Liverpool and Newcastle (58%) turning to their wives and husbands over accountants (16% and 17% respectively). Londoners were the least trusting of bank managers, with only one per cent turning to them for straight talking advice on issues affecting their business.

More than half (53%) of small business owners choose their business advisor based on who they trust to tell them the truth. A further 27 per cent seek business advice from those who were most likely to “give it to them straight”.

Judi James, one of the UK’s leading behavioural experts, comments: “This research from

T-Mobile highlights how highly we value those who get to the point and give it to us straight when discussing business issues. It’s understandable that we tend to turn to our partners for this honest and clear advice – they have the same goals as us and understand the complexities of the possible answers to our problems. Unlike other advisors, they have no hidden agenda and aren’t trying to impress us to secure a contract.

Psychologically, talking to our partner is the closest thing we have to talking to ourselves. By logically discussing our problems with them we have to ‘straight talk’ the problem over. In this respect they become a vital sounding-board as well as an actual advisor.”

For T-Mobile customer, The Posh Tent Company – a company run by husband and wife team, Martyn and Andrea Rose – straight talking is vital to the smooth running of the business. Martyn Rose, co-owner comments: “Although my wife Andrea and I work together, our roles and responsibilities are very different.

To make both our professional and personal relationships work we have to be able to trust each other. She’s the person I will turn to first when I need business advice – I know she’ll tell me the truth without sugar-coating what needs to be said. We’re both busy people so we don’t have time to act any other way.”

Martin Lyne, Director of SME Marketing at T-Mobile comments: “Eighty per cent of the small businesses we polled stated they take advice from people who will give them the truth and will tell it to them straight. As a supplier, we need to take a straight talking approach, offering small business owners uncomplicated products and services that simply help them get on with what they do best. The last thing we want to do is waste their time.”

T-Mobile commissioned the research into Straight Talking* to better understand the time pressures business owners are under and determine how they prefer to communicate in business.

To tie in with this, T-Mobile is currently running a Straight Talking Business Pitch competition on its website. Alex Polizzi, Channel 5’s The Hotel Inspector, will judge the competition to help identify the UK’s most straight talking small business owners. A prize of £2,000 is up for grabs for the winner and £1,000 for each of two runners up.

For more information or to enter visit

www.t-mobile.co.uk/pitchyourbusiness .

Deadline for entries is 3rd December.

Contacts:

T-Mobile Press Line +44 (0) 7017 150 150

Brands2Life +44 (0) 207 592 1200

For more information about T-Mobile UK, please visit www.t-mobile.co.uk

About Everything Everywhere Limited

Everything Everywhere Limited is the company running two of the UK’s most famous brands – T-Mobile (UK) and Orange (UK). Owned jointly by Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom respectively, Everything Everywhere Limited is the UK’s biggest communications company, with a combined customer base of almost 28 million people and more than 720 retail stores across the country. Everything Everywhere Limited plans to transform the industry by giving customers instant access to everything everywhere, offering the best value, best choice and best network experience in the country.

For more information on Everything Everywhere please call the Media Centre on 0870 373 1500, or visit www.everythingeverywhere.com

The winners of the 2010 NatWest everywoman Awards

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The winners of the 2010 NatWest everywoman Awards, which recognise the success of the UK’s most inspirational female business owners, have been announced at a glittering lunch in London at the eighth annual award ceremony. celebrates successful entrepreneurs who are playing their part in helping to pull the UK out of recession and acting as inspirational role models for the next generation of aspiring business women.

Karen Gill MBE, co-founder of everywoman, said, “I am delighted with the caliber of winner this year. The NatWest everywoman Awards are growing from strength to strength each year. The standard and number of entries gets higher every year, resulting in an increasingly difficult judging process! This is a testament to the extraordinary contribution of female entrepreneurs to UK plc.”

“Congratulations to all the winners of the NatWest everywoman Awards. We continue to partner on the awards as we know from our customers the importance of highlighting female entrepreneur’s success stories to inspire more women to move on with their businesses and to encourage others to start-up in business. The support services we and everywoman both offer business women makes this a perfect partnership” added Carolyn Currie, Head of Women in Business services at NatWest.

Toni Moore, Managing Director of Adams Moore Solicitors Ltd, from Milton Keynes is the winner of The NatWest everywoman Award which recognises the most passionate and dedicated woman business owner who the judges feel has overcome significant challenges to achieve outstanding business success. Toni established her practice in 2004 with the aim to challenge society's perception of Legal Practice by developing a company reputation based on warmth, compassion and a team of staff whom instinctively put their clients first.

At Adams Moore Solicitors she has ensured there is a strong emphasis on taking on the more challenging safety and emergency work. With this in mind, staff undergo training for risk assessments and soft skill training, offering a 24 hour emergency line, manned in several different languages, offering same day appointments and free counselling for clients and this is all provided at the practice’s own expense.

By offering these supportive services for the most vulnerable in society, they have always endeavoured to differentiate themselves from their competitors by focusing holistically on soft people skills, not just hard legal training. Despite winning numerous business awards Toni takes greatest pride from the community based awards that have recognized the law firm’s contribution to society and for making their clients lives safer.

The other winners were:

Nikki Hesford, Company Director of Miss Fit UK, from Lancaster is the winner of The Artemis Award for the most inspiring entrepreneur between the ages up to 25 sponsored by Crystal Clear. Nikki started Miss Fit UK three years ago after noticing a gap in the market for beautiful clothes and lingerie for petit women with small backs but big busts.

Inspired by her past experience of the difficulty in finding work as a single mother, Nikki has put in place a company employment policy that seeks to "employ the unemployable" with priority going to single parents, ex-offenders, ex-homeless, disabled applicants and people on long term state benefits.

Emma Elston, Director of UK Container Maintenance Limited, from Cheshire is the winner of The Demeter Award for the most inspiring entrepreneur between the ages of 26 and 35. 13 years ago Emma set up UK Container Maintenance with her husband after having the idea of repairing damaged waste & recycling containers.

They now refurbish 65,000 containers per annum for local authorities and waste companies throughout the UK, which in turn has saved them £23m in new bins over the past two years. The company also employs teams that are based around the country who visit local councils and waste companies to carry out emergency repairs, refurbishments and on site welding.

Emma has expanded the business further with the new site in Essex opening in November 2010 and plans to develop the company’s online waste auction website ‘binbay.co.uk’.

Camilla Stephens, Product Director & Founder of Higgidy, from Shoreham By Sea is the winner of The Athena Award for the most inspiring entrepreneur between the ages of 36 and 49. After working for Justin de Blank and then Good Housekeeping magazine, Camilla developed the food range for Seattle Coffee Company - bought by Starbucks.

She then started her pie company, Higgidy. Together with two partners, each putting in £50,000 for their start-up capital they were soon supplying pies to Eat. and Harvey Nichols. When Camilla met her husband, he joined the business in 2004, buying out the other two partners and after perseverance they now supply to Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Booths, Boots and Budgens.

In addition to Higgidy, Camilla helped to re-open St. Peters church near Brighton, working with students, offering important marriage counselling and recovery courses and providing food for the homeless there.

Anita Lowe, Chief Executive of Venues Event Management, from Swindon is the winner of The Hera Award for the most inspiring entrepreneur aged 50 and over. Whilst working for Marriott, Anita successfully opened a new hotel in Swindon and won the Sales and Marketing Manager of the Year award for bringing in three million pounds of business.

Anita decided she wanted a new challenge and after spotting a niche in the market, she set up her own events company, Venues Events Management. The client base includes AXA, BT, BP, BUPA, Morgan Stanley, Mercedes Benz, and The National Trust.

Anita is involved with Leeds University, regularly speaking to students studying event management and in 1991 Anita became the first female President of the Chamber of Commerce in Swindon and as a result has won awards in her own right.

Anita also helped to fundraise for the new Prospect Hospital, getting National Power on board.

Mary Tomes, Managing Director of Colourful Coffins, from Oxford is the winner of The Gaia Award which is given to the most inspirational and successful female entrepreneur who runs a business with a clearly defined social and/or ethical purpose at its heart.

Mary set up ‘Colourful Coffins’, a business that offers coffins adorned with electronically printed designs from photos and pictures. Starting out with a catalogue of designs, they soon discovered that customers wanted their very own bespoke designs. Although there was a real market for her service, it was a real struggle to break through the market as people still had to purchase their coffins through the funeral director.

To get around this hurdle, Mary created a strong marketing strategy: a visual website and search-engine optimization so that customers would go to the funeral directors and actually ask for her coffins in particular.

Mary persevered and now has continual recommendations from funeral directors and a distributor in Ireland.

Helen Swanston, Textile Designer of Helkatdesign, from Devizes is the winner of The Hestia Award. Sponsored by Hunter Boots, this award is given to the most inspirational and successful female entrepreneur who runs a business in a remote rural location and makes a contribution to the local community.

Helen started her textile design-business, Helkatdesign, with business partner Hollie in 2008 producing hand printed, sewn soft furnishings and canvases using natural materials and vintage style fabrics. In a bid to improve their online sales the pair decided to sign up to Etsy, a global site promoting bespoke hand-made and produced items and the tide turned. In less than a year Helkatdesign had transformed into a highly profitable business.

Deciding to targeting the cushions to an overseas market meant that there is a constant demand from the US, Australia and Dubai, including enquiries from clothing companies and a well known yacht club, to produce their own cushion range.

Jo Malone MBE, Founder of Jo Malone and presenter of BBC One’s ‘High Street Dreams’, was honoured with the coveted everywoman Ambassador Award sponsored by Coutts & Co for inspiring future generations of entrepreneurs.

Source http://bit.ly/eQe4Ic

Now everyone’s taking notice of Bizpond success

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

AN ONLINE noticeboard designed to help users generate sales, meet business partners or locate clients is being pitched way beyond its North East birthplace.

Bizpond was founded by Di Gates to give users a place to offer their services or request local creative talent, sending messages that are then posted on the site as well as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Interest in the site is such that it has over 2,000 community members after four months, and Gates is now seeing more sign-ups from outside the region.

Gates said: “The fundamental reason it works is because it’s so easy that people aren’t scared of it.

“It’s started to reach into other regions now. We added another 100 odd people recently and a lot of them were from the North West.

“People know that funding is disappearing, and they’re looking for collaboration and partnership and that’s how something like Bizpond is becoming a success.

“Groupon is the fastest-growing company in web history, and it was only there last week looking for retail businesses.

“The most interesting thing for me is that people are looking for – and getting – business partners through it as well.”

While Gates said the site has increasingly attracted interest from graduates offering their services, she cites several examples of businesses that have benefited from Bizpond.

Teesside start-up Social Media Nanny rounded up a “big chunk” of the guest list for a pre-Christmas social event after putting out a call for interested businesses in the south of the region on Bizpond, while Newcastle’s DEAL Group tracked down a company with expertise in social media to help them promote a new enterprise award competition.

DEAL Group founder Karen Langdon said Bizpond “was the ideal vehicle at the ideal moment”.

She said: “We now have a much better idea of how social media can become part of a communications plan and who has the right approach for us.

“And the company we selected – Vistory – has now worked with us on other projects too.”

Gates, who also founded creative initiative Stick Theory this year to enable her and her team to channel their expertise into short-term projects, has seen Bizpond shortlisted in the B2B category of this year’s SMACS awards, which celebrate the North East digital community.

She said virtually all of her site visits have come from browsers typing Bizpond into search engines, and that 85% of those that find the site sign up.

She said: “It’s been a tough year, and if people want to grow their business there has to be an element of looking for new stuff.

“People don’t know where to start to find the staff that can help change their business. It’s making the world of technology more accessible to a business audience that hasn’t found it accessible to date.”

The fundamental reason it works is because it’s so easy that people aren’t scared of it

Source: The Journal

Reaching the Media

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Want to reach journalists more effectively with your company’s message? Sarah Hall, managing director of Sarah Hall Consulting, focuses on a website which can help you do just that.

It’s an interesting time at the minute with all sorts of new software bouncing around for those in the media industry and it can be very difficult to know which to choose.

However there is a new platform that looks really appealing from both a client and PR perspective. It’s called mediawasp and it’s this that I’m going to look at today.

One of the age-old issues with media relations is the challenge that comes with getting your message out to as many relevant journalists as possible.

In an ideal world, each story would be sold in one-on-one with a slightly different angle for each title, but when the hook is not unique and of broad appeal, it is more efficient to issue the story to a larger number of journalists in one go, often using a database that journalists have registered their details on and that the PR practitioner pays to access.

But this is where controversy lie

Media complain of badly targeted press releases that are irrelevant, have large attachments and clog up inboxes. Then there are the bouncebacks, firewalls blocking access and journalists changing the subjects on which they write.

When you’re working across regional, national, trade and online media and a range of clients, it can be difficult to keep up and know each title as intimately as you’d like.

The good news is that there are new and better ways to help PR practitioners connect with journalists and mediawasp is one of them.

In essence, this online site provides newsrooms for clients that can be branded appropriately and host all their press information in one location.

News bulletins, press releases, photos and videos can all go on there and social media sharing options ensure everything can be managed under one portal.

The offer is particularly appealing for any business wanting to ramp up its marketing efforts and raise its profile with key media. As journalists visit the mediawasp site to search for stories, it is easier to be seen on there than to try and attract influential writers to a stand-alone website, no matter how extensive and well designed the media room on there.

It’s more than a one-off press release hit too – via mediawasp, journalists can be proactively targeted with a link to a story to drive them to the newsroom, where the story and all the other company info and news awaits so they see a much bigger picture.

From there they can download any copy, imagery and videos made available, getting around the issue of unwieldy email attachments. There is an obvious benefit for those companies that only have a basic or out-of-date website or no website at all and no immediate funds to progress one because it plugs that rather significant gap.

There are advantages and disadvantages to every media platform but this one, for a reasonably low cost, offers an effective stand alone or complementary service for those keen to increase their media presence and get a higher hit rate from their press releases.

Good archive facilities, a daily news feed, a ‘direct request for information’ button for journalists – all these things have been designed with the media in mind and create a compelling product offer.

When you consider that 80 per cent of journalists look online first when researching a story, it’s probably worth having a peek.

For more information, visit www.mediawasp.com or visit www.sarahhallconsulting.co.uk

Source Nort Eat Times

Women advised to start businesses if faced with job cuts

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Women who are faced with security fears about their job could consider going into business, it has been suggested.

Highlighting the need for more business activity in the UK, Deb Leary, national president of the British Association for Women Entrepreneurs, told women to see redundancy as an opportunity for a change in career.

"It's going to be hard for some but one of the key things about this is that it's also an opportunity; it may be an opportunity towards self-employment," she said.

Ms Leary's comments come after figures from the Office for National Statistics published earlier this month show that the number of unemployed women has risen to its highest level since 1988.

Commentators have put this down to public sector job cuts, a large employer for women.

Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, explained: "The public sector, which has a relatively high concentration of female workers, is the only sector to record an increase in redundancies in the latest quarter."

The statistics revealed that employment has actually risen in the UK. During the three months to September, employment stood at 70.8 per cent, up 0.3 per cent on the quarter.

Much of this increase has been driven by self-employment and part-time employment, which has now reached a record high of 4.03 million and 6.76 million respectively.

Supporting the cause for seeking a new entrepreneurial career, Ms Leary said: "We need more women to develop businesses and not just lifestyle businesses but businesses that are going to be the next household brand name."

Source: Prowess News

100 most powerful women in Britain: Business, Academia and Politics

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The Queen, 84

The Queen for 57 years deserves her own category in our power list. She has survived decades of social, political and personal upheaval, and, at a time when the Royal Family was at its most unpopular, she showed that by letting us glimpse her vulnerable side – appealing to the public 'as a grandmother’ after the death of Diana – she could transform the public’s perception and save the monarchy.

BUSINESS

Karren Brady, 41
Brady is one of the most high-profile businesswomen in the country, and is famously dedicated – she was answering emails 24 hours after emergency brain surgery. The 'first lady of football’ is chief executive of Birmingham City, vice-chairman of West Ham, a board member of Sir Philip Green’s company Arcadia (owner of Topshop and other chains) and now a judge on The Apprentice. 'I always say, “Women have brains and uteruses, and are able to use both.”’

Marjorie Scardino, 63
Dame Marjorie became the first female executive of a FTSE 100 company when she was made chief executive of Pearson Group in 1997 (owners of the Financial Times, half the Economist Group, and Penguin). Despite the recession, the group’s share price is at an all-time high and Scardino, a former rodeo rider from Texas, earned more than £2 million last year.

Angela Ahrendts, 50
Under Ahrendts’ leadership, Burberry has become the first British fashion company ever to enter the FTSE 100.Ahrendts’ partnership with Christopher Bailey, the creative director, has given Burberry a reputation as the coolest, and most powerful, British fashion brand around.

Laura Wade-Gery, 43
As chief executive of tesco.com and Tesco Direct, Britain’s biggest internet retailer, Wade-Gery is possibly the most powerful woman in the country’s retail industry. Tesco’s profits from its online business were up 26 per cent last year and, with the company now moving into the books market, it could become a serious rival to Amazon.

Joanne Segars, 45
Segars has a lot to say about what happens to our pensions. As chief executive of the National Association of Pension Funds, the body that represents the interests of about 800 occupational pension schemes, Segars is one of the few senior women in the industry. With the sector in crisis, and the state pension age set to rise, Segars’s profile is going to be higher than ever.

Martha Lane Fox, 37
One of the original dotcom entrepreneurs, Lane Fox made £18 million when her company lastminute.com was sold. Then she recovered from a near-fatal car crash to open a successful chain of karaoke bars. She is a non-executive director of Marks & Spencer and Channel 4, and is leading the campaign to help the under-privileged of Britain have access to the internet.

Amanda Staveley, 37
Staveley is the glamorous ex-girlfriend of Prince Andrew and a 'super-broker’ in the Middle East (she earned £40 million commission when she arranged a deal between Barclays bank and some Middle Eastern investors). 'It wouldn’t matter if I was making £8 million or £200 million. I just want to go to bed at night and say I’ve done a good job,’ she says.

Angela Knight, 61
The chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association has a tough job – defending the banks – but an equally tough disposition. She admits 'we are natural hate figures’, but says bankers aren’t to blame for the financial crisis.

SOCIETY

Sarah Brown, 46
With international contacts at the highest levels, the wife of the former prime minister is poised to become one of the most powerful philanthropists on the planet. She recently hosted an international women’s symposium in New York alongside Arianna Huffington and Donna Karan. Global patron of the White Ribbon Alliance, which aims to prevent death in childbirth, she is the British female with the highest number of Twitter followers after Lily Allen.

Brenda Hale, 65
The first woman to become a law lord, Baroness Hale is now the only female Justice of the Supreme Court. 'Ms Diversity’, as she calls herself, campaigns for more women to join the judiciary.

Ceri Goddard, 39
As chief executive of the Fawcett Society, the country’s leading campaign group for women’s rights, Goddard leads the fight in the battle for maternity rights and equal pay. She has just launched a legal case against the Government, claiming that Treasury officials broke the law by failing to carry out an assessment of whether the plans for heavy spending cuts would hit women hardest. (According to the House of Commons Library, three quarters of the £8 billion extra direct tax and benefit changes will be paid by women.)

Cressida Dick, 50
Dick is assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and the most senior policewoman in Britain. She is likely to play a crucial role in preparations for the Olympics and has a chance of becoming the first ever female police commissioner in Britain.

Shami Chakrabarti, 41
As director of the human-rights group Liberty, Chakrabarti is a civil-rights lawyer who doesn’t shy away from a fight. She has been called 'the most influential Asian woman in Britain’ as well as 'the most dangerous woman in Britain’ by the Sun.

Harriet Lamb, 48
Last year sales of Fairtrade goods rose to record levels and, as a result, the lives of millions of farmers in developing countries have been improved. Much of the credit is due to Harriet Lamb, executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation in Britain.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, 47
Batmanghelidjh is the founder and director of Kids Company, a charity that supports 13,000 vulnerable inner-city children each year. Her work with young people has given her a legion of supporters as well as making her one of the most influential charity workers in the country.

Barbara Stocking, 59
Dame Barbara Stocking became head of Oxfam GB in 2001 and has just overseen the charity’s strongest results in its 68-year history. She not only co-ordinates its response to humanitarian disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti and the floods in Pakistan – helping 17 million people in 62 countries last year alone – she reminds us that inhabitants of the Third World are the real victims of the financial crisis and climate change.

Fiona Shackleton, 54
Known as the 'steel magnolia’, Shackleton is the country’s most high-profile and possibly most glamorous divorce lawyer, she of the pearls and perfectly coiffed hair. Her clients have included the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York and Paul McCartney. 'It helps to have a rod of steel through your back and loads of charm,’ she says.

Carol Black, 70
Dame Carol is the most eminent woman in British medicine. She is the director of the government body Health, Work and Wellbeing, chair of both the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the Nuffield Trust, and was the president of the Royal College of Physicians (only its second female president in 500 years).

ACADEMIA

Mary Warnock, 86
Britain’s leading moral philosopher is a former academic and headmistress who has chaired influential government reports on special-needs education and human embryology (leading to the legalisation of embryo research). She has attracted controversy as a supporter of euthanasia and assisted suicide. She was made a life peer in 1985.

Mary Beard, 55
Classics has never before been as fun as 'Beard’ – as she calls herself – makes it. The Cambridge professor is a distinguished author and chatty blogger (A Don’s Life), with a contagious enthusiasm for civilisations past and present. She ignited fires after 9/11, writing that America 'had it coming’. Next month she takes her first presenting job, in a BBC Two series based on her ancient-history blockbuster Pompeii.

Lisa Jardine, 66
One of our foremost intellectuals, Jardine is a professor of Renaissance studies, with books on Shakespeare and Francis Bacon to her name, but has also championed science to such an extent that she was made a member of the Royal Institution (she resigned over Susan Greenfield’s redundancy) and is head of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.

SCIENCE

Kay Davies, 59
In the 1980s the Oxford professor and human geneticist helped to develop the antenatal screening test for muscular dystrophy now used around the world. She has also isolated the gene sequence potentially instrumental in treating the condition. She was made a dame in 2008.

Susan Greenfield, 60
The dynamic brain scientist was the first female director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain – until being made redundant this year. Although scorched by controversy – she has accused the RI of sex discrimination, and her outspoken views on the damaging effects of technology on children have been challenged – she remains the most prominent female scientist of her generation.

Dorothy Rowe, 79
The thinking person’s self-help guru, Rowe, an Australian, established one of the earliest NHS departments of clinical psychology. Her 16 books, covering topics such as depression, siblings, money, faith and lying, have helped to popularise the study of psychology. Her mantra for the modern woman, whom she believes demands too much of herself is, 'If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.’

Alice Roberts, 37
Best known as a presenter on BBC One’s popular Coast series, the anatomist Roberts is a visiting fellow at the University of Bristol. She has also presented Dr Alice Roberts: Don’t Die Young and, most recently, the archaeology series Digging for Britain. She is one of the few women representing science on mainstream television.

Athene Donald, 56
The Cambridge professor and most senior British woman in physics was given a DBE this year. Her research into the way molecules and cells function has implications for sufferers of Alzheimer’s disease and the development of hip replacements and prosthetic limbs. Married with two children, she is dedicated to boosting the number of women in science.

Sue Ion, 55
The former head of technology at British Nuclear Fuels Limited, Dame Sue is a visiting professor and government adviser. According to the engineer, anyone who believes that renewable energies can replace nuclear is 'living in cloud-cuckoo land’.

POLITICS

Theresa May, 54
She has survived the leaderships of William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard to become only the second ever female home secretary (after Labour’s Jacqui Smith). A former financial adviser to the Bank of England, she has risen to the top through dogged determination and a refusal to tame a taste for leopard-print shoes.

Samantha Cameron, 39
Whether she likes it or not the PM’s wife is the public face of the Conservatives in power, and has the tough job of keeping up with the Sarkozys on a cuts-friendly budget. Having gone part-time at the posh stationer Smythson, the baronet’s daughter and mother of three is set to take on an important role in the promotion of British fashion.

Yvette Cooper, 41
Before Labour lost power, the current shadow foreign secretary was running the Department for Work and Pensions, one of Whitehall’s biggest, as well as raising three children. The former financial journalist decided not to run against her husband, Ed Balls, for the Labour leadership, but is seen by many as a future leader.

Margaret Thatcher, 85
Her election as prime minister in 1979 made history, and even while out of the political limelight her legacy is still felt in British politics. The debate continues as to whether she should be considered a feminist icon, but has Britain ever seen a more ambitious, ruthless leader? As she said, 'In politics, if you want something said ask a man. If you want something done ask a woman.’

Sayeeda Warsi, 39
The former solicitor is the first Muslim woman to serve in Cabinet and certainly the only minister in modern times with experience of an arranged marriage. The Tory party chair, who was born in Yorkshire, received a peerage from David Cameron in 2007 and has since become one of the most outspoken women in British politics.

Harriet Harman, 60
After nearly 30 years in parliament, Harman is the most senior woman in the Labour Party. The deputy leader is a committed feminist and a strident champion of equality. She pushed for all-women shortlists to increase the number of female MPs and piloted anti-discrimination legislation through parliament.

Caroline Lucas, 50
Elected as one of the first Green MEPs way back in 1999, the leader of the Green Party this year became its first MP in the House of Commons.

Source http://bit.ly/dEU1eH

The 20 Countries With The Highest Percentage Of Female Entrepreneurs

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The lack of female entrepreneurs has been a popular topic lately, so we decided to look at the subject on a global scale.

In 2007, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor studied the role women play in business in 41 countries around the world.

The 41 countries studied make up 70% of the world's population and 93% of global GDP.

Countries were separated in three categories: low/middle-income Europe and Asia, low/middle-income Latin America and Caribbean, and high-income.

The results indicate more women are entrepreneurs in lower income countries. This could be due to necessity.

The one country with a higher percentage of women entrepreneurs than men? Japan. The U.S. has a pretty poor showing, coming in 16th on our list.

To read more and to see the source http://read.bi/g48D1s

Big Society risks ignoring rural enterprise

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The Big Society is at risk of sidelining enterprising rural communities, the Plunkett Foundation has warned.

At Plunkett’s tenth annual conference last week, CEO Peter Couchman said the government should not ignore the success and strength of rural enterprise, such as village shops and pubs. If it does, Big Society could fail.

‘The withdrawal of public services and the closure of private business, including shops and pubs, are having a huge impact on rural communities,’ he said.

‘The Big Society vision is at risk of ignoring the potential that enterprise has for tackling the challenges facing rural communities. Communities are best-placed to address the problems that are affecting them, and they are doing just that, from owning and running shops and pubs to setting up next generation broadband access and renewable energy schemes, co-operatives, mutuals and social enterprises provide a viable long-term solution to the challenges facing rural communities, but this is at risk of being ignored by the government.’

Couchman used the example of village shops to highlight the success of enterprising rural communities.

Of the 254 community-owned village shops that have opened over the past 25 years, only eight have closed, he said.

‘Due to the level of commitment this business model is able to unlock from their communities, community-owned village shops are able to draw on over one million hours of volunteer time per year,’ Couchman said.

The conference, which had a Better Business theme, also saw the launch of a new publication, which highlights how co-operatives, mutuals and social enterprises are a better form of business for communities.

Source Prowess

North East in a battle to keep going in blizzards

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

BLIZZARDS took their toll on businesses yesterday as councils and emergency services continued their battle to keep the region moving.

Heavy snowfalls across the North East continued to cause major disruption to motorists, schools, companies and farmers, with some areas of Northumberland reporting up to two feet of snow.

The terrible conditions meant the region’s two airports both faced delays and temporary closure as they continued their efforts to keep planes moving.

Many employees who could get to work had to head home again to care for children as many schools either closed early or failed to open at all. In all, 447 schools across the region closed.

Crucial events were cancelled, including a planning committee consultation to help Durham establish itself as an economic power.

Insurers have put the potential cost to North East businesses at millions of pounds a day, with some firms suggesting the snow could hit the Christmas trade retailers are relying on to boost profits for the year.

There are hopes that the region will be spared further blizzards today, as a band of snow moves south. However, it is expected to remain bitterly cold for days to come.

Services provided by local authorities also fell victim to the snow, with bin collections cancelled in North Tyneside, Newcastle, South Tyneside, Gateshead and Northumberland.

Other authorities said they had to divert staff from their usual jobs to help deal with the snow.

Director of neighbourhoods for Durham County Council Terry Collins said the early snow had been testing.

“We are doing everything we can. The gritting crews have covered the priority routes round the clock.

“We have enlisted the support of farmers who hold winter maintenance contracts to help clear other areas and we have redeployed staff from certain normal duties to help clear snow from pavements in high priority areas.

“Crews have been busy re-filling salt bins so that communities can also help themselves more and I would like to thank both staff and residents for their great support.”

Farmers across Northumberland also faced challenges. Charles Armstrong, 38, a farmer of North Charlton in Alnwick, Northumberland, said: “We have had a lot of extra work because we have to feed all the animals – that’s 10,000 sheep we are now feeding every day. Then getting from A to B has been very difficult. It will cost a lot to feed the animals but money is set aside for occasions like this.”

The region’s tourism industry also faced setbacks. Northumberland Tourism’s annual conference, due to take place today, was rescheduled for December 15 at Longhirst Hall near Morpeth.

At Cragside estate, near Rothbury, Northumberland, head gardener Alison Pringle said: “I thought the snow in January would be the worst but this tops that. We had five inches on Thursday and now it is over two feet.”

Mary Ann Rogers, one of the UK’s most popular wildlife artists, was supposed to hold her Christmas Exhibition at her studio in West Woodburn near Hexham but the snow made it difficult for customers to make it.

In North Tyneside bin collection drivers and crews were redirected to gritting and snow clearing duties.

North Tyneside Council’s head of Environmental Services Phil Scott said: “We have suspended collections to ensure the safety of the public and our crews.”

Source: Sarah Scott, The Journal

VAT rise to hit vulnerable businesses hardest in 2011

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

NEW research has highlighted that the biggest challenges facing business in 2011 is the imminent rise in VAT and the expected squeeze on the Time To Pay facility.

Insolvency trade body R3 carried out the research amongst its nationwide membership to find out about the policy and commercial issues that are facing the UK economy as it continues to recover from the recession.?

?Half of those questioned believe that the VAT rise is the biggest policy-related issue facing British firms over the next 12 months.

Almost a third believe that a squeeze of the Time to Pay facility would have a significant impact on companies’ capacity to continue to operate in what remains a very challenging business climate.?

Linda Farish, Chairman of the North East arm of R3 and Director of Recovery & Insolvency at Newcastle-based accountants RMT, said: “The rise in VAT will make spending more expensive, serving a further blow to struggling businesses, such as retailers and restaurateurs, that rely on consumer spend.?

“As a percentage, the hotel and restaurant industry suffered most during the recession and many vulnerable businesses will find themselves either shouldering the extra tax burden or suffering a further fall in consumer demand by passing the tax on.”

The Business Payment Support Service, or Time To Pay scheme, was introduced in late 2008 to allow companies to agree a delayed payment schedule for their PAYE, National Insurance and VAT obligations.

?More than 11,000 North East businesses have delayed ‘crown payments’ totalling £180m in the last two years through agreements reached under the scheme.?

?Linda Farish added: “Our members have seen how invaluable the Time to Pay scheme has been to north east firms in the last two years.

“We believe that it is important that it remains available as a breathing space for viable businesses.”

Source: bdaily business news network

Will Snow & Ice Mean A Boost For Online Sales?

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Those charged with buying the office Christmas corporate gifts this year will be eyeing the calendar this week as December comes around. If you don't have too many to buy then you might have been tempted to hit the High Street and get into the festive spirit when buying your Christmas corporate gifts, but nationwide snow and ice has left many roads and pavements treacherous, and freezing temperatures have meant that hitting the high street is only for the brave.

This unseasonably cold weather might well be good news for online stores as customers shun the freezing temperatures in favour of doing their Christmas shopping in the warm. The only real restriction to online shopping is lead times, but with more companies now offering a quick turnaround even on large orders, the web is opening up a whole new world of options for those who are leaving their Christmas corporate gifts shopping late.

So with temperatures plummeting across the country, will customers choose to shun the high street in favour of shopping in the warm?

One big advantage the high street has over internet shopping is the atmosphere created, with shops putting on Christmas displays and playing music to get everyone in the holiday mood. There is also the social aspect of shopping with friends and colleagues, and hitting the high street can be more than just the process of buying your gifts.

Forecasters (economic rather than metrological) are predicting that online stores will make big gains in the market this year, and a combination of ease of use and variety of choice makes online shopping an appealing prospect even with warmer weather outside.

High street shops will be hoping for a rise in temperatures as freezing conditions will inevitably drive more shoppers indoors, and short lead times will mean more businesses using online stores to buy their Christmas corporate gifts in December.

One thing that the internet does not have however is a Christmas atmosphere, and with consumers getting their pre-Christmas pay cheques over the next week we will soon see what effect the cold conditions are going to have. With the weather outside set to stay frightful for the foreseeable future, we will soon see if it will be a delightful festive season for online stores.

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

Online Christmas Could Cost Britain Billions, Experts Warn

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The growing popularity of online shopping, combined with the fledgling recovery, could cost British businesses billions in the final month before Christmas, experts have warned.

Today has already been dubbed Manic Monday* by online retailers expecting Brits to spend a staggering £537million over the Internet in just 24 hours.

But while that may be good for e-tailers, businesses everywhere are footing the cost of the trend to shop online through poor productivity as workers go gift-hunting from their desks.

Peter Mooney, an employment law expert with compliance advisors, ELAS, warns that between now and Christmas, that lost time will amount to a bill of £2.5billion for UK Plc.

He said: "Every year, more people are going online for Christmas presents, and even those who don't will end up spending hours window shopping on the internet.

"So while internet retailers might expect to be manic, for those employers whose staff are doing the shopping from the desk, today will be anything but.

"In fact, we expect British businesses to lose around £275million in lost productivity today, and around £2.5billion in total between now and Christmas."

ELAS expects full-time workers to spend an average of 30 minutes a day shopping from their desks in the run up to Christmas. Working on an average hourly wage of £12.97, that could amount to a total of £2.475billion in lost time during the next 18 working days to December 22.

"If this was restricted to people's lunch hours, then most employers would have no complaint," explained Mr Mooney.

"But it's not. In fact, even those who leave the office and shop on the High Street during their lunch hours are spending valuable time looking for ideas or comparing prices from their desks when they should be working.

"No boss wants to shoot a hole through goodwill and office morale by playing Scrooge in the office, but this time adds up and, in reality, costs money."

To combat the problem, employers should remind staff of their responsibilities - and what better time to do that than the busiest day of the year for online shopping, suggested Mr Mooney.

"A simple internet policy outlining what is acceptable personal use during work time, together with what action staff can expect for breaching that, circulated on Manic Monday should be enough for most staff to toe the line.

"Without that, not only could bosses lose a lot of work time to bargain hunting, they could come unstuck legally for taking excessive action when they do deal with it."

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

Entrepreneur Fiona shares secrets of success

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

MULTI-MILLIONAIRE entrepreneur Fiona Cruickshank, who picked up her OBE at Buckingham Palace yesterday, will be sharing the secrets of her success at Newcastle Business School next week.

Cruickshank, who co-founded Prudhoe-based drugs firm the Specials Laboratory, will be speaking as a guest of Caroline Theobald in her regular “In Conversation With” series.

The entrepreneur used some of the proceeds from the £20m-plus sale of the Specials Lab to generate momentum for a second venture SCM Pharma.

Established as a clinical trials manufacturing facility for big pharmaceutical companies SCM has since moved into commercial manufacturing and product testing and recently opened a US office.

Theobald, managing director of the Newcastle-based Bridge Club said: “If you want to know why Fiona established SCM, the characteristics that have prompted her to invest in a second business having sold the first, why she chose to work in a strategic rather than operational role, the dynamic between two of the region’s most innovative business women, the importance of educating the next generation of scientists, the enthusiasm that is being invested in SCM regionally, nationally and internationally this conversation is a must!”

The event is at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, at 6pm on December 2. For information, tel: 0191 230 5742

From North East to Middle East

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

COMPANIES in the region are being offered the chance to explore business opportunities in the United Arab Emirates which could help firms get a share of a projected £12 billion exports industry by 2015.

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) will be taking a delegation from the region to Dubai and Abu Dhabi next year from January 22-28.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) provides a wide range of business opportunities in transport, infrastructure, energy and utilities, education and training, financial services, and the creative industries.

Geoff Charlesworth, one of UKTI’s International Trade Advisers, who will accompany the Market Visit, said: “The UAE is the largest export market in the Middle East, with around £3.6 billion worth of goods and services exported from the UK.

“It is also one of UKTI’s designated High Growth Markets, so we’re keen to help companies in the North East exploit the lucrative business opportunities that are on offer. “

British contractors and consultants have been involved in some of the most iconic infrastructure projects in the Middle East, including the Burj Khalifa, the Yas Island Formula One circuit, the Sheikh Zayed National Museum and the Al Faisaliya Tower.

Geoff Charlesworth, said: “Market Visits are a great way for businesses to gain an in-depth understanding of their target market and to meet potential customers.

“With enhanced support from UKTI now available – including a financial contribution towards the cost of the trip for eligible companies – there has never been a better time to explore the numerous opportunities in this market.”

Achievement and skills praised at awards

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

THE achievements of inspirational women whose entrepreneurial and leadership skills have helped to boost the region’s economy were celebrated last Friday.

The winners of the 11th Annual Women Into the Network (WIN) Awards were revealed at a ceremony in the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead Hotel.

The prestigious Susan Dobson Award for Entrepreneurship was picked up by Lilian Mains, chair of North East training business Zodiac Training, which has fast become a national provider of specialist courses and consultancy for employers.

The company has grown rapidly as firms look to beat the downturn by increasing the skills of their staff. It is increasing its 200-strong workforce all the time as it grows into a national business and heads for a turnover of £10m over the next year.

The Durham County Council- sponsored small business category was picked up by Angela Place, founder of Seaham-based hair and beauty business Hair X Tensions.

The judges cited the impressive way in which she has quickly grown her online firm and her vision for the future – which involves building an international presence and creating jobs – as key to her award victory.

The Best New Business category, backed by Business Link, was won by Jo Foster, who runs Northumberland-based flowers, chocolate and wine business Dillies.

Foster was recognised for her boldness in starting a business in the recession and, according to the judges, sets an example of how personal service can give you the edge on mainstream retailers.

Cathi Harrison, founder of Para- Sols, was hailed for her bravery in sacrificing a job during a recession to go it alone as she was named Young Entrepreneur of the Year, sponsored by Gateshead Council.

WIN chair Nickie Gott, who runs events management company She’s Gott It!, said: “The standard of entry this year was extremely high and of course, there were many difficult decisions to make in selecting the winners.”

The awards were sponsored by The Susan Dobson Memorial Fund, Business Link, SpaceCraft, North East Social Enterprise Partnership, Durham County Council, Once upon a Tyne Productions, Barbour and Gateshead Council.

Source: Iain Laing, The Journal

County Durham Future Business Magnates 2010-11

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

FBM is a fun competition with an important business message.

FBM was started in Durham City and has run successfully for 5 years. The competition is now county-wide and 22 schools have signed up to participate in the 2010-11 competition.

The competition provides an opportunity for schools to encourage enterprise skills and introduce students to the excitement and exhilaration of working in business.

FBM introduces local businesses to the world of education and provides a basis for developing corporate and social responsibility.

Companies and organisations can be involved in a number of ways, as follows:

Business Partners

Each school has a nominated business partner to support their team. The minimum expectations of a business partner are:
• A named employee (ideally 2 employees) who will act as mentor for ‘their’ team and will take phone calls and e-mails from students, offer advice and guidance, and contribute directly to the delivery of the team’s proposals and challenge submissions
• Attend regular meetings at the business or school premises with their team and teacher
• A willingness to share business skills and experience, and to welcome the team into the business, involving colleagues as and when appropriate
• Attend Challenge Days, such as Team Building Day, to support their team. In addition, attend awards dinner.

Average time commitment – 2-4 hrs per month between November and July

If any business would like to find out more about what is involved:
Look at web-site www.fbmdurham.info

Brian Wray from Mechplant North East Ltd has been a business partner for 2 years and is passionate about the competition. He would be willing to have a chat over the phone if a potential business partner wanted to find out more about what is involved.
Tel: 0191 377 8222 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0191 377 8222 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

If any businesses are interested in supporting the competition but are unable to commit the time to be a business partner, there are two other ways they can be involved:

• Being a business source
• Providing sponsorship for the competition

Business Sources

These are businesses that are enthused by the competition and want to be involved to provide specific advice, but are unable to commit the time required to be a business partner.

They may have expertise in marketing, finance, business premises etc, and be willing to make their expertise available for all teams to call upon.

Sources will offer information and advice when required, over the telephone or by e-mail, and may be able to meet with representatives of the teams to answer specific queries.

Business Sponsorship

For the first time this year there will be a number of additional prizes awarded in addition to the overall winner and runner-up of the competition, as follows:

1. Most innovative business idea
2. Best brand name
3. Best marketing slogan
4. Best use of advice and support
5. Most effective team
6. Best use of technology
7. Best presentation
8. Best financial plan

The cost of sponsoring one of the above prizes is £500 which entitles the sponsor to the following:

• Named as sponsoring prize in the competition brochure to be distributed to all schools and business partners participating
• PR opportunities
• Invited to attend launch
• Two seats at Awards Dinner in July 2011
• Present prize trophy to the winning school team at Awards Dinner
• Be associated with successful competition developing enterprise skills in young people.

Sponsorship towards the overall competition is welcome. Any business providing sponsorship will receive:

• Named as sponsor in the competition brochure to be distributed to all schools and business partners participating
• PR opportunities
• Invited to attend launch and Awards Dinner
• Be associated with successful competition developing enterprise skills in young people.

Business start-up centres set to launch

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

TWO start-up centres to encourage more people to set up in business are opening in County Durham.

Be Enterprising, the county’s local enterprise growth initiative (LEGI), is behind the new centres in Spennymoor and Newton Aycliffe, which will open next Monday to coincide with the start of Global Enterprise Week 2010.

The centres are part of the Government’s Solutions for Business package of publicly funded business support to help companies grow.

Experienced enterprise coaches will staff each one, giving advice to people with business ideas and practical support to help them turn into reality.

Jeremy Wright from Be Enterprising said: “We need to encourage more people to consider self-employment as a genuine way to earn a living and a key part of this is making advice and support as easy to access as possible.

“Be Enterprising coaches are active across County Durham. With the new centres, people can visit us when they are in town shopping or on their lunch hour.

“We see so many people with really good ideas and all the skills they need to run a business, all they need is a helping hand to get started. With the new centres we can help more people to do this and encourage anyone – whatever their idea – to come along.”

The centres, on Beveridge Way in Newton Aycliffe and in Festival Walk, Spennymoor, will be open between 10am and 4pm, Monday to Friday.

The organisation is launching the new facilities to coincide with Global Enterprise Week, which celebrates self-employment and entrepreneurship.

The Be Enterprising programme, which is part-financed by the European Union’s ERDF Competitiveness Programme 2007-13, secured £4.1m ERDF money for the region through One North East. It is part of £300m coming into the North East to support innovation, enterprise and business support from the ERDF pot.

Be Enterprising began in 2006 and since it has worked with more than 3,000 people, 1,845 of whom were supported in moving from benefit dependency to economic activity. Of those, more than 1,000 people started their own businesses.

Venture capital statistics reveal "clear desire" to invest in small firms

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Venture capital statistics reveal "clear desire" to invest in small firms

Figures from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have revealed that the amount of money raised through Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) is on the increase. In 2009/10, the amount of VCT money raised was £340 million, an increase of 127% on 2008/09 figures. Alternative finance firm Hotbed has claimed that the figures point to renewed interest in investing in private equity despite the economic slowdown. Gary Robins, chief executive of Hotbed, commented: "The recovery still has a way to go, and trading conditions for small companies are still tough, but there is undoubtedly a rediscovered willingness to invest in growing small and medium-sized businesses."

Source www.hotbed.uk.com

To read more please follow the link http://bit.ly/98Cg2r

Government to review length of service period for unfair dismissal claims

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Government to review length of service period for unfair dismissal claims

Lord Young is to look at the length of service an employee must have completed with their employer before they can claim unfair dismissal, as part of his enterprise tsar remit. Currently, this period is 12 months but the Government is considering whether to extend it to two years in a bid to boost employment. Lord Young has said that when the Government doubled the length of the service period in the 1980s, the result was that employment rates went up.

Source www.peoplmanagement.co.uk

For more on this story go to http://bit.ly/cf1uXL

The business of innovation: Steven Johnson

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Standing on the station platform, waiting for the Philadelphia train one night in the summer of 1902, Willis Carrier was about to have his 'eureka moment'.

As the fog rolled in across the track, he suddenly realised how he could fix the nascent air-cooling system he'd been working on, using water as a condensing surface.

This sudden moment of inspiration led to the invention of modern air-conditioning, a fortune for its inventor, and the foundation of a multi-billion dollar company.

The lone genius, beavering away in the seclusion of his lab is how most of us imagine the great moments of innovation have come into being. But is this really the whole story?

Not entirely, according to author Steven Johnson. He believes Willis Carrier is very much the exception rather than the rule.

"It's not that the individuals disappear in this, it's just that they need to be part of something larger than themselves to be able to do the work that they do."

This is not completely new ground for Mr Johnson. He has written seven books on how science, technology and human experience interact, including the best-selling Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter.

He is the co-founder of three websites - the now defunct Feed magazine, Plastic.com and his current project: hyperlocal aggregator outside.in. He also has nearly 1.5m followers on social media site Twitter.

Isolation v collaboration

His latest book, Where good ideas come from: The natural history of innovation, is his attempt to explain the phenomenon of inspiration.

"[Good ideas] come from crowds, they come from networks. You know we have this clichéd idea of the lone genius having the eureka moment.

"But in fact when you go back and you look at the history of innovation it turns out that so often there is this quiet collaborative process that goes on, either in people building on other peoples' ideas, but also in borrowing ideas, or tools or approaches to problems.

"The ultimate idea comes from this remixing of various different components. There still are smart people and there still are people that have moments where they see the world differently in a flash.

"But for the most part it's a slower and more networked process than we give them credit for."

The book spans a huge period in history, ranging from the invention of double entry accounting, and Gutenberg's printing press in the 15th century, through to Tim Berners Lee and the world wide web, and ultimately YouTube.com.

He had the idea for the book while writing The Ghost Map, about the cholera epidemic of 1854 in London, and the subsequent discovery of the origins of the disease. The story goes that a man named John Snow had had the idea to map cases of the disease, and using that map pinpointed the source of the outbreak - a water pump.

As he researched the story he realised that it simply wasn't true - that Snow had had the idea for some time before this and that he also had had a collaborator, a vicar named Henry Whitehead who was central to the investigation. This is what Mr Johnson calls the 'slow hunch'.

"I realised there was this theory about innovation, and the spaces that made innovation possible, that was lurking in the background of that story"

Innovation space

The book starts with a young Charles Darwin on a sun-drenched tropical beach in the Keeling Islands, as he formulates his theory on the creation of these coral islands - not simply pushed up by volcanic forces, but the result of the work of millions and millions of tiny organisms - the coral itself.

He is at the beginning of the 'slow hunch' that would result decades later in his theory of evolution. The coral reef also provides Mr Johnson with his analogy for the perfect innovation environment - a hugely diverse eco-system where despite the constant competition for resources, existence is dependent on collaboration.

This could be a city, a coffeehouse, an environment where ideas come into contact with each other - as Mr Johnson puts it, a liquid network.

"You know I think that there are two [perfect reefs] that really stand out. Clearly the web itself has been an amazing reef. Just the speed with which it's transformed itself over the last 15 years is just amazing.

"And so much of that is because it's wonderfully set up for other people to build on top of other people's ideas. In many cases without asking for permission.

"But I think that the other thing I want the book to be a reminder of is how much important innovation both in the commercial space and the private space comes out of the university system.

Universities, Mr Johnson argues, have in many ways exceeded the market in terms of the pace with which they generate ideas - despite the lack of the 'direct reward' found in the commercial arena.

"I think there's this abiding belief that markets drive innovation, corporations drive innovation, entrepreneurs driven by financial reward drive innovation, and while that's certainly true in many cases there's also this very rich long history of important world-changing ideas coming out of the more or less intellectual commons of the universities.

"The internet was not commercially useful to most ordinary consumers for 30 years really. It was in a sense a 30-year-hunch. It was providing other services in that time but in terms of the ordinary consumer and the payoff for investment it took a long time.

One of the other great preoccupations of the book is the concept of the 'adjacent possible', a phrase coined by the scientist Stuart Kaufman. In essence it means that invention is dependent on the right circumstances - as in a chess game, where there are a finite set of moves available at any given time.

"You can't invent a microwave oven in 1650, it's just beyond the bounds of possibility. There are too many intermediate steps on the way to something that complex.

"So the trick is to find the points of possibility in your own particular place and own particular space. And not jump too far ahead. It's kind of an argument for small modular steps using the ingredients available to you and not trying to reinvent everything.

Building your reef

So what should companies be doing to foster innovation in their workforces? Mr Johnson argues that creativity is a continuous process.

"Part of the problem is that one day a year they have a corporate retreat and they all go into the country, and they do brainstorming sessions and trustfalls and then they go back to work.

"But equally you don't want to have a non-stop creative process where nothing gets done.

"Corporations have an opportunity to cultivate hunches and hobbies and the sideprojects of their employees because those are such great generators of ideas."

Google is one company that has famously capitalised on giving space for workers to innovate, with its 20% time system. Employees are required to spend 20% of their time working on their own pet projects.

According to the company, about 50% of new features and products have resulted from it, including Adsense, Google suggest and social network Orkut.

"One of the lessons I've learned is that so many of these great innovators, Darwin is a great example of this, one shared characteristic they all seem to have is a lot of hobbies."

"I mean the web was a hobby for Tim Berners Lee, that's one of the wonderful things about it, it was a side project at his job at Cern."

Mr Johnson's open, collaborative environment is the antithesis of the closed rooms of corporate Research & Development and the increasingly litigious world of the intellectual property lawyer. For some companies betting on the slow hunch that may pay off in 30 years may seem a risk too far.

But for those who yearn to find the spark within ourselves, Mr Johnson rounds off the book with this advice:

"Go for a walk; cultivate hunches; write everything down; but keep your folders messy; embrace serendipity; make generative mistakes; take on multiple hobbies, frequent coffee houses and other liquid networks; follow the links; let others build on your ideas; borrow, recycle, reinvent."

Source: BBC News Online

Web Host's Research Shows Small Firms Update Websites Infrequently

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A worrying number of firms could be taking their foot off the Internet pedal, according to two sets of research released today by Streamline.net, (www.streamline.net), a leading UK provider of value web hosting.

The study of 2400 UK firms(1) finds that only 10 per cent of small firms are updating their websites on a daily basis. 1 in 3 firms admit that updates are being done ‘infrequently’. A further study of 400 UK firms(2) finds that over half of Britain’s small companies are now building and maintaining their website themselves. However, the data reveals that many time-strapped business owners are limited to using their evenings to address their web presence. Whilst businesses clearly see value in the web, the research suggests that many could be losing revenue by cutting corners with their web presence.

Streamline.net’s latest ‘Small Business Bytes Survey’ finds that many small companies with a website struggle to maintain a compelling web presence. Despite two thirds having had a business website for 2 years or more, only 1 in 10 firms succeed in making updates on a daily basis. 1 in 4 companies admit to updating their websites on a monthly basis. Over half (54 per cent) admit to making technical tweaks only ‘infrequently’. In general, investment in the web is modest. For example, one third of companies surveyed use only a single domain name, and three quarters own less than 6 domains.

It appears that for many firms online marketing is an area that can be neglected. Alarmingly, nearly half of firms (48 per cent) are not currently advertising on Search Engines. 1 in 3 (34 per cent) are unable to quantify the popularity of their website as they do not look at their visitor numbers. For many companies, the web is still not performing as strongly as traditional methods of generating new business. At present, ‘word-of-mouth’ is viewed as the most important driver, with the company website ranking third after printed advertisements in second place.

Claire Lewis, Marketing Manager at Streamline.net, said “Important elements like Search Engine submission and website measurement can transform the return from a website. There are now easy-to-use and affordable tools for achieving these to suit all budgets, so every company should check they have these bases covered”.

A further study of 440 UK firms finds that building and maintaining a company website DIY-style is a task undertaken by 57 per cent of UK businesses. Only 1 in 5 firms report that they have the funds to pay an external designer to oversee all aspects of their online presence. The poll finds that more than half of those responsible for the website (55 per cent) frequently use their evenings to tackle all aspects of their website. For 22 per cent of companies, late-evenings is only time they have ever dedicated to their website.

Lewis added “Business owners have felt the pressure in recent years. It is perhaps understandable that work on the company website can often get relegated to evenings. However, every firm should ensure they invest quality time and energy into presenting the right image and engaging with their website visitors. Leveraging an up-to-date website package can help, as today there are features designed to make the process far quicker and more enjoyable".

As a market leader for value web hosting, Streamline.net can offer small businesses a high quality professional, reliable service at low cost. Customer websites are hosted in a state-of-the-art UK data centre, and customers receive free technical support by phone or email. Streamline.net offers a comprehensive range of web solutions including domain name registrations, email packages and tools for online marketing.

For more information on Streamline.net, see the website at www.streamline.net

(1) 2479 UK small businesses using a website surveyed via electronic feedback form

(2) 410 UK small companies using a website surveyed by OpinionMatters via electronic feedback form

About Streamline.net
Established in 1999, Streamline.net is a leading value web hosting provider. Based in the UK and operating 24x7 from dedicated UK data centres, Streamline.net hosts over 150,000 websites. The company focuses on providing unrivalled value for web solutions. Streamline.net delivers a high-quality online service at the lowest possible prices. Streamline.net products include tools for web design, search engine optimisation, web mail and eCommerce.

Source: TH-NW

Lip Service

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

How did you get the idea?

I was in Belfast on a night out and got a drink sent over to me. The barmaid told me to take care because drink spiking was rife in the city. When I got home I did some research on drink spiking detector kits and thought there was nothing out there that would be attractive for women to use, so I had a plan to couple the idea with a lip gloss product.

What was the development process like?

I contacted the company that manufactures the detector kits and they did a bespoke design for me and now make the product we sell in the lip gloss package. For the gloss itself, we looked into products from China but found the tones weren’t right so we sourced a manufacturer in the UK who worked with us to develop the colour range.

How did you increase exposure?

We blogged our product heavily and on the back of that we got an interview with an Australian television news channel which led to an Australian distribution deal in January this year. Through a PR campaign we got people blogging about us and the sales just took off. Now we are stocked in Superdrug and Tesco in the UK.

What was your financing means?

A friend invested £16,000 for a 40 per cent equity stake, with the rest of the financing coming through a bank loan. In total I raised around £54,000 to set the business up.

What next?

We can’t compete at the moment with the largest fashion players so I decided to concentrate our efforts on lip gloss. In future, not all our products will come with a testing kit. We’re aiming to launch a quality collagen lip gloss at the middle to upper middle end of the market and we’ll be looking to bring out seasonal product ranges.

Source: smallbusiness.co.uk

Female know-how beats the recession

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

According to the Vodafone Working Nation, one in ten female workers said they were having to learn more as staff numbers have been cut, compared to just one in twenty men.

Of the 1700 employees surveyed, 12 per cent said they had to learn new skills, with 80 per cent of those saying they have not had sufficient training.

Peter Kelly, enterprise director at Vodafone UK, says: ‘It’s important to investigate how to reorganize workforces and what you can do to manage costs without destroying old and new skills.’

According to the report, one in five say they now have a gap between the skills they have in the workforce and the skills they need to survive and succeed.

Last month a survey by recruitment site Monster found that three-quarters of small and medium sized businesses are recruiting at lower levels than normal.

Source: smallbusiness.co.uk

Raising the Bar

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

What is your connection to enterprise?

It really comes from my own professional experience of meeting women around the world who face discrimination and the realisation that with some support, they could become financially independent and have more of a say in their own lives and their children’s lives. As a barrister, I am an entrepreneur in a way – I had to carve out my own practice and build up my business. And when I started out, there was a very small percentage of women at the bar. I was successful because I had a network of support that I could rely on, and I’d like to give something back, to help disadvantaged women so they can enjoy the benefits that come with achieving a level of success and earning your own income.

What holds women back from becoming entrepreneurs?

There are a number of reasons – in many countries women do not own land or other assets and so they find it difficult to access credit. Many continue to face discrimination and are discouraged from seeking financial independence. In other cases, women have the motivation but do not have access to the networks necessary to start their own businesses. Others still have gaps in business skills such as marketing or financial management. There are so many women with the potential to be successful entrepreneurs, but they lack the support needed to make it happen.

So how can your foundation change that?

Our focus is on fostering female entrepreneurship mainly in developing countries – particularly at the small and medium business level. Working with local partners, we support women who either are ready to start a business or are ready to expand to the next level. We are particularly focused on helping women grow their businesses to a size where they can make a sustainable profit and create employment opportunities in their region, helping them to contribute to their economies. We launched our first projects in August 2009 in the Middle East and have since expanded internationally.

Will it provide capital to women launching businesses?

The Foundation does not provide direct investment to women but partners with loan organisations and formal financial institutions to secure funding for promising entrepreneurs. Our aim is to improve access to finance, as well as access to business skills training and networks.

Why do we need to encourage women to get into business?

Because it isn’t just good ethics – it makes economic sense. Research shows that on average women invest 90 per cent of their income back into their families, so female entrepreneurship means benefits for more than just the women themselves, it has knock on benefits for those they directly support and their economies as a whole.

For more information on Cherie Blair's organisation vist The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women website. To find out more about entrepreneur newtworks go to The Indus Entrepreneurs website.

Source: smallbusiness.co.uk

Why Online PR is like a dinner party

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The recent popularity of shows such as Come Dine with Me, along with the recessionary drive to save money, has lead to a renaissance in the art of the dinner party. With my tongue only slightly in cheek it has often struck me that Online Public Relations is a lot like a dinner party. At RealWire we think good PR is governed by four main principles – permission, relevance, content and influence. So how do these apply to the art of the dinner party?

Permission

First of all you have to either be invited to someone else’s party or host one of your own. In practice this means knowing who is going to be interested in you, who you have things in common with and then finding and getting to know these people. Until you have done this you aren’t likely to get many invites and if you invite people to your own party they aren’t likely to turn up!

Relevance

If you have decided to host a party you must ensure that the dishes you create for your guests take account of their culinary preferences e.g. vegetarians, nut allergies and religious factors. No matter how good the food, if it isn’t relevant to them they aren’t going to eat it and causing serious harm to your guests health or sensibilities isn’t likely to mean they will respond positively to your next invite.

The other key area where you need to consider relevance is in the conversations you have. Before you dive in with your latest achievement or talking all about your work or your kids find out about the person you are talking to. What are they interested in? Then you might find that there is something about you or something that you know about that they might value and so an interesting, and relevant, conversation ensues.

Content

Whether you are hosting your own, or attending someone else’s party, the food you serve, and the conversations you have, need to also be both of sufficient quality, and interest, to provoke a positive reaction on the part of the guests. This means planning and creating fabulous dishes and/or coming prepared with stories that will engage the other guests’ attention. It’s no good inviting all these people on the promise of a gastronomic extravaganza and then serving cheese on toast.

Influence

If you have done all of the above then guests at parties you host should not only want to come to your next one, but are likely to tell all their friends about how great the evening was. And in the case of parties you attend the other guests will not only tell their friends how interesting you were, but they are also likely to attend any party you might host.

So follow these four principles, and not only will you be a great dinner party host and guest, but you might also find your PR improves

(This post also appeared today in my Fresh Business Thinking Online PR newsletter)

Source: Adam Parker of RealWire PR

Simplifying statistics

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

This is told in a tone that assumes this is very high. But the figure is given in a way that makes it difficult to appreciate what this means in everyday life.

Let’s put this statistic into context. Half a tonne is 500kg. Let’s say a person in Britain lives to the age of 70. If we work out 500 divided by 70, we can work out that this person eats about 7.1kg of chocolate per year. That’s just less than 140g of chocolate per week, which is less than 20g per day. This is the weight of a small bag of crisps. This may or may not seem like a lot of chocolate to you!

So, before you allow yourself to be talked into feeling shock at a statistic, which is not delivered in a form that you can relate to, try to convert it into a form where it is more meaningful.

Source: GCSEPod

Third sector offers more equality for women

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Female public sector workers who may have to transfer to the private sector because of the cuts could find gender inequalities significantly greater.

New research undertaken by the Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC) found that gender inequalities in the third sector were less marked than in the public or private sectors. The third sector offers greater opportunities for women to establish and lead organisations, as well as to gain employment with higher rates of pay

However, gender inequalities were found to be significantly greater in the private sector than either the third or public sectors. This should provide a note of caution at a time when the government expect many jobs lost through public spending cuts to be transferred to private business, says the report.

Their report found that:

* Women made up 67% of the third sector workforce. This compares to 64% in the public sector and 40% in the private sector

* The proportion of women within the third sector attaining higher managerial positions was similar to that in the public sector, and much higher than in the private sector

* Women represented 50% of higher managers/professionals in the third sector. This compares to 46% in the public sector and 24% in the private sector.

* The pay gap between men and women was lower in the third sector than the public and private sectors.

* Among higher managers and professionals the gender pay gap almost disappears in the third sector.

* However, while the gender pay gap may be lower in the third sector, research finds that women at all levels are paid less than in the public sector.

TSRC researcher Steve McKay said "It is encouraging that the third sector, whilst small, seems to provide opportunities for women to advance to management positions. Of course these figures don't tell the whole story. We need to better understand the role of mitigating factors such as ethnicity and social class in determining pay and career success, as well as gendered differences in different types of third sector organisation.

"Further research will be undertaken by TSRC to help understand the motivations and experiences of a range of people working within the sector, including their career trajectories."

Source: The Guardian Newspaper

How great leaders inspire action

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers -- and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.

In 2009, Simon Sinek published the book Start With Why [Amazon UK; Amazon US] -- a synopsis of the theory he has begun using to teach others how to become effective leaders and inspire change.

Sinek also contributes to several efforts in the non-profit sphere: He works with Count Me In, an organization created to help one million women-run businesses reach a million dollars in revenue by 2012, and serves on the Board of Directors for Danspace Project, which advances art and dance. He writes and comments regularly for several major publications and teaches a graduate-level class in strategic communications at Columbia University.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks.

Source: The Guardian Newspaper

Role models: someone to look up to

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

In June 2007, a media circus descended on a detention centre in Lynwood, California. Here, in the space of that single month, the socialite Paris Hilton was locked up, released on medical grounds – and then locked up again. A 400-strong swarm of paparazzi buzzed around her, serious political figures were moved to comment, and the veteran US interviewer Barbara Walters, who has sat down with a multitude of world leaders, divulged that Hilton had called her and said she had both "become much more spiritual" in jail and had dry skin without her moisturiser.

It was the day of Hilton's final release that Abi Moore snapped. A creator of web content from Lewisham, south London, Moore had been working on a film about Naomi Halas, a pioneering chemist researching a treatment for cancer. It was one of a series of CNN films about visionaries – CNN being the very network that also ran Hilton's first post-jail interview.

Moore spent the day of Hilton's release flying from Texas to the UK, and, hard as she tried, she couldn't escape the story. "The next day I was at work. Everything was still Paris-crazy, and something inside me went 'Twang!' I called up my sister, Emma, and said: 'What do you think about setting up a website for girls, with real role models?'"

Fast-rising food prices feed inflation fears

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Fresh evidence of inflationary pressure emerged today when the latest snapshot of high street prices showed the cost of food rising at its fastest rate in more than a year.

The monthly British Retail Consortium/Nielsen price survey found that shoppers were paying more for bread and meat as a result of sharp increases in the price of wheat and corn.

Vegetable oil and margarine showed double-digit price hikes, while fruit showed its biggest price increases since April 2009 following poor harvests and increased transportation costs caused by rising oil prices.

The report found that food prices in October were 4.4% higher than a year earlier, up from 4% in the year to September and the highest annual increase since June 2009.

Shop price inflation overall rose from 1.9% to 2.2% last month, its highest since January 2010, as dearer food blunted the impact of price discounting and special promotions by retailers.

The BRC said it expected keen competition in the high street in the crucial Christmas period as shops sought to woo consumers affected by higher prices, low wage settlements and falling house prices.

Further increases in food inflation are in prospect over the coming months following the recent rises in global commodity prices, while the rise in VAT from 17.5% to 20% in January will push up the cost of non-food items.

Stephen Robertson, British Retail Consortium director general, said: "Shop prices are rising but retailers are shielding customers from the full impact of the increasing commodity costs that are causing that inflation. Wheat is up 47% compared with a year ago, affecting the price of staples such as bread and some meat products, as feed costs work their way up the supply chain."

Clothing and footwear prices are falling despite the impact of a 90% increase in the cost of cotton over the past year.

"Weak consumer confidence and a sluggish housing market mean retailers are competing even more fiercely for the limited discretionary spending available," Roberston said. "That situation is unlikely to change in the run-up to Christmas, with retailers clamouring to win the attention of cash-strapped consumers through discounting and promotions."

Mike Watkins, senior manager of retailer services at Nielsen, said: "We are seeing the impact of the cost price increases that have been filtering though for a number of months, reflected in increased shop prices during October.

"So it is of no surprise that both non-food and food retailers have reacted by maintaining or increasing the level and depth of promotions to help drive headline sales. And, with volume growths in food retailing slowing in recent weeks, shoppers can probably look forward to even more promotions and offers this Christmas."

The consumer prices index measure of inflation remained steady at 3.1% in September after a jump in the cost of clothing and footwear was offset by falls in air fares and petrol prices.

Source: The Guardian Newspaper

New look for centuries-old tipple

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Helen Mulholland broke into one of whiskey's oldest boys' clubs when she was appointed to the coveted role at Bushmills, Co Antrim.

The 38-year-old mother of one from nearby Portstewart has now turned another tradition on its head, helping to design a modern bottle for the ancient single malt.

Mrs Mulholland revealed the design, which is embossed with Bushmills original 1608 license to distil, to an exclusive gathering of international whiskey experts at London's famous Irish bar, Waxy O'Connor's.

Seventeen years after joining Bushmills, the master blender said she is still learning the trade.

"Master blenders have been working in the Bushmills area for more than four centuries and I am lucky enough to have access to all the recipes and see all the work they done down through the years.

"I am a scientist but you soon learn that when the whiskey goes into the cask it becomes an art.

"The techniques we use now are basically the same as they were four centuries ago, just the equipment is a bit more high tech."

The bottle rebranding comes at the close of an unprecedented year of success for the Irish brand, with its 10, 16 and 21 year old malts all winning gold medal recognition at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

The 21-year-old was also named the World's Best Irish Single Malt at the World Whiskies Awards.

Source: The Independent

Northumberland Council leader's plea over looming cuts

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

More than half of people in Morpeth are employed in public sector roles, according to the TUC.

Jeff Reid admitted Chancellor George Osborne's spending review announcement on 20 October would hit the area badly.

He said the county needed time to replace public sector jobs with a "regalvanised private sector".

Morpeth has 52.9% of its working population employed by the public sector - the largest proportion in England.

This followed an expansion of public sector roles to counteract the loss of traditional industries like coal mining in the 1980s and 1990s.

Link: The Spending Review: Making It Clear

Mr Reid said: "The are no two ways about it, it is going to be tough. We have to be weaned off government support and be able to fend for ourselves."

"But it is a challenge and if we get ourselves in a downward spiral about how depressing it is going to be, then I think we are doing ourselves a disservice."

"The people of Northumberland are resilient and they will find other work. What I am hoping the government won't do is turn the tap off too quickly, simply because of the high proportion of people we have working in the public sector."

"Now we have to turn things around and regalvanise the private sector. We have to get people to bring jobs and create businesses here and you cannot do that overnight."

The TUC has warned that women in the county will be hardest hit by the government's proposed spending cuts.

It said almost 50% of women work in the public sector, compared to fewer than one in three men.

A spokesman said the organisation feared thousands of women would lose their livelihoods.

Source: BBC News Website

Businesswomen still hitting 'glass ceiling'

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The research carried out by the legal firm Tods Murray said that 57% had experience of the gender barrier.

Nearly a third of the women blamed the need for longer hours as a barrier to getting ahead and 29% said the lack of encouragement was also a factor.

However, the vast majority of the women rejected gender quotas for boardrooms.The EU is planning to introduce quotas forcing companies to fill at least a fifth of their top jobs with women if the private sector does not increase female representation in the boardroom over the next year.

Fiona Buchanan, a banking and finance partner at Tods Murray, said: "It is clear that while more and more women are coming into the business arena, very few are making it into the boardrooms of Scotland's companies and organisations.

"We want to understand the barriers and the routes to success for Scotland's business women."

'Tenacity and ambition'

A total of 96 women, in mainly senior management and board positions, were questioned to find out why there was a lack of women in top jobs, ahead of a debate on the issue.

Of those who said they had successfully broken through the glass ceiling, 88% felt that they had to make some sacrifices along the way and those who chose not to did so for positive lifestyle reasons.

Susan Rice, managing director of Lloyds Banking Group Scotland - and the first woman to head a UK clearing bank, opened the debate and questioned whether glass ceilings existed.

She said: "As soon as we start blaming them for lack of success, we have given up trying. Taking our place in the boardroom requires hard work, tenacity, ambition and aspiration."

She added: "Being there can be stimulating and exciting - for some, though not for others. But the only way to find out is to reach for it."

Source : BBC News

Maternity and paternity leave: the small print

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

European policy makers need to balance not just their desire to provide security for mothers, and to ensure they do not damage their careers, but also how far to encourage gender equality by encouraging fathers to stay at home and, not least, the significant consequences for employers.

According to much of the research, there are some fundamental questions that politicians need to ask themselves before making a policy.

First of all, what is the real "replacement value" of the benefit? That means: how much do women actually get paid when they are out of work?

Often a headline figure of, say, 100% of salary, is misleading. Frequently there will be a "ceiling rate" to the benefit, meaning highly paid employees will not get their full salary.

In some cases percentage rates will decrease over time, or there will be a statutory base rate.

This, in turn, will affect the "take-up rate" of maternity leave. If a woman knows that she will be losing a significant amount of her income, she may be tempted back to work sooner rather than later.

Sustained leave can also affect pension rights and the long-term career prospects of a woman. If she sees she will be losing lots of money, or a promotion further down the line, again that may alter her decision on how much maternity leave to take up.

In some countries, certain employers offer significantly better benefits than those mandated by law.

There is also the issue - in some countries - of parental leave. This can be taken by either mother or father, or split between the two. This is usually paid at a lower rate than maternity leave but can last a lot longer.

And what of paternity leave? The European Parliament wants to force countries to offer two weeks' paternity leave at full pay.

Here are a few examples internationally of how these issues are handled:

Germany

Women get 14 weeks' paid maternity leave paid at 100% of salary (with no ceiling payments - so it could be very expensive). Some 2% of this is funded by health insurance but the rest is paid for by the employer. This is quite unusual and obviously places a heavy burden on businesses. The take-up rate is almost 100%. There is no mandatory paternity pay.

France

France has 16 weeks' paid maternity leave at 100% of salary (up to a ceiling). Mandatory paternity leave is 11 days but the employer will provide a few extra days on top. The take-up rate of the benefit amongst mothers is 99%.

New Zealand

New Zealand is interesting. Women receive 14 weeks' maternity leave at 100% of salary (up to a ceiling). But the woman does not need to be employed to receive this benefit. So economic protection at birth is considered a universal right. Because of its universal nature, take-up is around 100%.

UK

Minimum maternity leave in the EU is currently 14 weeks but could increase
Women get 52 weeks' maternity leave. Six weeks is paid at 90% of average salary. Weeks 7-39 are paid at a maximum of £124.88. Over the total period, women end up with average compensation of around 40% of salary. The take-up rate for the 39 weeks is 84%. There is two weeks' mandatory paternity leave in the UK, at a statutory rate.

Iceland

Iceland has one of the most interesting systems. Couples get nine months' paid leave at around 80% of salary. Three months is reserved for the mother, three months must be taken by the father and the couple can choose to share the remaining three. By 2007, dads were taking their full allocation of 13 weeks, the rest was being taken by the mother.

USA

The USA has 12 weeks' maternity leave mandated by federal law but there is no pay during this period. A number of states - including California, Rhode Island and Hawaii - have disability benefits that can be used by pregnant women. Only 42% of mothers in America access some form of paid maternity cover. This is low compared to other developed countries.

Source : BBC News

Agenda for change: releasing the economic potential of England’s rural areas

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 01:00:00 +0100

Since the beginning of 2009 the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC) has led discussions with rural entrepreneurs, communities and their representatives about how to release this potential. From these discussions, we have drawn up ‘Agenda for change: releasing the economic potential of England’s rural areas’.
The CRC’s ‘Agenda for change’ highlights the need for:

•more attention to be paid to ensuring economic policies and delivery address the needs of rural communities;

•local authorities and other public bodies to demonstrate a commitment to responding positively to community-led plans (locally-developed plans which embody the ambitions in the Government’s Big Society agenda);

•the planning system be used to support rather than frustrate sustainable economic growth in rural area;

•improvements in communications infrastructure (broadband and mobile) in rural England (essential if rural businesses are to realise their potential and contribute to national economic growth).

Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “I welcome the work that the Commission for Rural Communities has done to capture the views of rural businesses and communities across England. I am confident that the resulting report ‘Agenda for Change’ will have useful insights and recommendations on ways to pursue and deliver further economic growth in rural areas.

During the transitional period to our new Rural Communities Policy Unit, I have asked the CRC to discuss with relevant departments and other bodies how best the CRC can support them in considering and, as appropriate, working with their proposals.”

Dr. Stuart Burgess, Chairman of the Commission for Rural Communities said: “More of the potential of our local rural economies can and should be realised. Following this Government’s emergency budget it is clearer than ever that helping the release of this potential must be a big part of the next stage of our national economic growth.

“We are pleased that the coalition Government’s ‘programme for government’ includes a commitment to introduce measures to ensure the rapid roll-out of superfast broadband across the country and that Government will seek to introduce superfast broadband in remote areas at the same time as in more populated areas”.
Cllr Andrew Bowles, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Rural Commission, contributed to the discussions leading up to this report. He said: “It is good to see the leadership role of local authorities being so strongly recognised in this report.

Through the work of Local Enterprise Partnerships, local authorities are going to be central to releasing more of the potential of rural economies in future. I commend this ‘Agenda for change’ to rural local authorities and to rural local councillors.”

PLease click here for further information

Source: Wire, September 2010

Firms could benefit from flexible working, says TUC

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is urging businesses to try out home working on their employees in order to support and encourage flexible working practices. According to the TUC, around one-fifth of workers have their requests to work flexibly denied, and it has come up with five reasons why businesses should consider using flexible working practices in their firms.

Better staff recruitment and retention - Home working can widen the recruitment pool by attracting people who have traditionally struggled to find work, such as single parents and those with disabilities.
Improved motivation and productivity - Employees are more likely to have high morale where employers are seen to take account of their needs. Employers as diverse as the Nationwide Building society and the Ministry of Defence are reporting productivity gains achieved by home working.
Improving the quality and reputation of the service - Good employment practices can enhance the reputation of businesses. Home working and flexible working can extend the hours when businesses are in touch with customers.
Reduction of sickness absence and travel costs - Not working in an office environment can reduce exposure to colds, flu and other contagious diseases. Cutting out the commute can reduce stress.
Infrastructure cost savings - Home working can save on car parking space, office rent and running costs. BT saves £2.2 million per year through home working and flexible working, whilst Suffolk County Council was able to cut the size of its new central services office block by a third by using these practices.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Working for home is growing in popularity but millions of staff are still unable to try it out thanks to over controlling employers.

'Too many workers are wasting their time making journeys they don't need to, clogging our transport networks during the rush hour and adding to their carbon footprint unnecessarily, while companies are losing out on the cost and productivity benefits of home working. Surely we can be a lot smarter than that.

'Many employers are still nervous about introducing home working but National Work From Home Day offers a great opportunity to try it out and see how it benefits both staff and business.'

Chief Executive of Work Wise UK Phil Flaxton said: 'The nature of work is changing and an increasing number of the working population can now work remotely or from home.

'Apart from enhancing work-life balance for employees, with the added health benefits, and reducing the need to travel, working from home can significantly improve productivity, enabling organisations to reduce costs whilst improving efficiency.

'I urge UK employers to embrace new smarter working practices by supporting this year's National Work from Home Day.'

Source: www.tuc.org.uk/workplace

'Britain's Burgeoning Army Of Stay-At-Home Moms Is Great For The Economy'

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100

"Over 60% of new businesses are started from home and most of them are being created by mothers who want to stay with their children," said Krista Waddell, CEO of gold party organisers Ounces2Pounds.

According to a report by the government adviser Enterprise Nation more than 1,400 new home businesses are created every week - far more than any other type of start-up.

"There has always been pressure on women to stay at home with their children and they can be left with feelings of guilt when they leave their child in a nursery. Home-working is the ideal solution which allows a woman to bring up her children and run a business," said Krista Waddell, CEO of gold party organisers Ounces2Pounds.

Stay-at-home mums are responsible for setting up the most home-businesses followed by young people and the over 50s.

"The home-business is a route is an excellent way to bring people into employment who might otherwise not contribute to the economy," said Ms Waddell, whose company is included in The Guardian's top 50 good ideas for home-working.

Ounces2Pounds and cosmetics giants Avon and Body Shop are all reporting a huge up take the numbers of stay-at-home mums who are offering the services as party organisers and home-workers.

Ounces2Pounds are active supporters of Enterprise Nation (the UK's resource for home-workers) which advises government of small and home enterprises.

"We are proud to sponsor this year's Home Business category of the Enterprise Nation awards for £3, 000," said Ms Waddell. "Ounces2Pounds has seen a huge increase in the number of stay-at-home mums who are applying to be party hostesses."

Almost one third of the UK workforce is employed by home businesses (28%) and they produce a combined turnover of over £364 billion.

Karren Brady has recently joined Avon Cosmetics to mentor their part-time female home-workers.

The vice-chairperson of West Ham United FC has taken on the role because she wants to be able to motivate self-employed women.

"One of the key messages for all women is that you don't have to have an ambition to run a global bank and you don't have to be at home just running a family," said Ms Brady.

"There is a combination between the two things; there are other opportunities out there to find that combination."

Founded in 2006 by Emma Jones, Enterprise Nation has grown to become the largest community of home-workers in the UK. Their website contains invaluable information about home business, lifestyle and technology as well as videos, competitions and a community forum.

Source: Reuters

Newcastle entrepreneurs launch waterproof business

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100

TWO friends are making Britain's bad weather pay for them by providing colourful waterproofs for fashion-conscious women.

Rainfrog is the brainchild of Newcastle-based entrepreneurs Karen Thorne and Heather Goodhand, who spotted a niche in the market to import brightly-coloured rainwear from Europe and Japan to sell online.

Ms Thorne said: “The idea for Rainfrog came from how miserable our weather can be, coupled with the fact that there is a limited women’s fashion market in the UK for funky rainwear.

“Through shopping online I discovered that in countries such as Holland and France there is a large dedicated market for stylish waterproofs.

“It seemed strange to me that there wasn’t similar choice in the female fashion market here, given the amount of rainfall the UK receives, and it appeared there was a definite window of opportunity for Rainfrog.”

The company started trading in February and is planning to expand its range on the back of demand. Most orders have come from the UK, but Rainfrog has also dispatched orders to Norway, Sweden, Russia and Ireland. Ms Thorne said: “We spent a lot of time analysing weather patterns in the UK compared with the established markets overseas like Holland.

"This might sound a bit geeky but it was important we got all our planning right in order to get a clear idea of the potential demand for our products.

“All the research seems to point to the fact that our weather is only going to get wetter, so why not make the best of the rain and use it as a chance to brighten up your wardrobe even if the sky overhead is gloomy.”

Ms Goodhand added: “Both Karen and I had previously worked for employers where we had become constrained in our roles and wanted more freedom and control over our careers and lives generally.

“Although setting up a company in a difficult economic climate did seem daunting at first, it really was a case of ‘now or never’ and was definitely the right decision.”

The pair launched their enterprise after receiving support from Business Link and attended a series of free start-up events, covering issues such as tax and marketing.

Business Link also pointed them in the right direction to apply for funding to develop Rainfrog’s website.

Source: The Journal, Karen Dent

Networking can benefit your business

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100

WITH more than 165 million registered users tweeting more than 190 million times each day, it's no wonder that Twitter is high on the agenda for a growing number of businesses.

Twitter is a major news source, making it an ideal platform for businesses to share updates, comments, opinions and lead discussions. But are North East businesses making the most of social media and reaping the rewards of online marketing?

Online marketing and social media are growing trends and increasingly, more of the businesses we work with are utilising this form of marketing.

If used well it can have a big impact – enhancing brands, networks and contacts, online presence and increasing sales. It is also a lot more cost-effective than traditional advertising and marketing methods, making it accessible for businesses of all sizes and in all sectors.

However, there are a few things to consider to ensure it works for you.

Choose the right network for your business goals. Ask yourself why you are joining a network. What do you want to get out of this activity?

Develop your user profile. Networking is all about relationships. The more people and businesses know about you, the closer that relationship.

Avoid the hard sell. Your core motivation for joining an online network may be to sell your goods or products. Try to avoid hard sales pitches on your networks as these are usually rejected.

Obey the network rules. Ensure you are aware of the etiquette in place.

Commit enough resources. When joining online networks that support your sector, think about how much time and resources you have available.

Maintain contacts. Identify the key contacts you want to maintain a relationship with as this will enable you to better budget your time and resources.

Enhance your brand. The working relationships you can build via networks is an essential component of modern branding practice.

Include online networking within your marketing mix. Online networks may have marketing at their heart, but don’t forget the other forms of promotion your business is using.

Create original, engaging content. Write relevant, engaging content each time you contribute to a network.

Source: Melanie Hill, The Journal

Newcastle City Council signs up to help small firms

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100

NEWCASTLE City Council has become the latest local authority in the region to sign up to an agreement aiming to benefit local small firms.

The council has committed itself to the Federation of Small Businesses’ (FSB) Small Business Engagement Accord, which outlines areas of action that local authorities can take to help smaller enterprises.

It includes appointing business engagement champions, making consultation documents easier to respond to and using newsletters, information on websites and text messages to communicate better with small firms. Coun David Faulkner, leader of Newcastle City Council and Bill Keenlyside, FSB Newcastle/ Northumberland branch chairman, will take on t he roles of business engagement champions

Mr Keenlyside said: “I’m absolutely delighted that Newcastle has demonstrated its commitment to small businesses by signing the FSB Accord. This will help develop the successful relationship that the FSB and Newcastle City Council have developed over recent years.

“There are a number of challenges that the region will face as public spending is cut. This will have an impact on a number of small businesses who supply the council and impact on local communities. However, this joint partnership between the public and private sectors will help us meet these head-on.

“We are looking forward to building on this signing by working with Newcastle City Council by helping more small and micro businesses survive, grow and prosper.”

Coun Faulkner said: “The accord represents a win-win situation for the city council and our local businesses.

“By following the principles of the accord, many of which are already reflected in how we do business as a council, we can ensure that the voice and interests of small business are central to any future consultations and developments.

“The accord also puts in place a structure to help ensure that councils and businesses work in partnership to ensure the continued growth and prosperity of the local economy.

“This is especially important as we come out of recession but have to face the necessity of a big reduction in public spending and its possible consequences for business.”

Source: Karen Dent, The Journal

Pay gap has ground to a halt warns new equality report

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The pay gap between men and women has reached stalemate and shows no sign of closing, claims a study by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The Commission's report, How fair is Britain?, warns long-standing inequalities ''remain undiminished'', although some areas including diversity have seen progress.

In its far-reaching report into equality, gender, health and tolerance, researchers found the gender pay gap for women and men working full-time in 2009 was 16.4%, and progress today ''appears to be grinding to a halt''.

The gender pay gap was lowest for the under 30s, but it increased more than five times by the time workers reached the age of 40 - statistics show women aged 40 earn on average 27% less than men of the same age.
But women with degrees are estimated to face only a 4% loss in lifetime earnings as a result of motherhood, while mothers with no qualifications face a 58% loss.

Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: ''This review holds up the mirror to fairness in Britain. It is the most complete picture of its kind ever compiled. It shows that we are a people who have moved light years in our attitudes to all kinds of human difference, and in our desire to be a truly fair society - but that we are still a country where our achievements haven't yet caught up with our aspirations.

''Sixty years on from the Beveridge report and the creation of the welfare state, his five giants of squalor, disease, ignorance, want and idleness have been cut down to size, though they still stalk the land.
''But in the 21st century, we face a fresh challenge - the danger of a society divided by the barriers of inequality and injustice. For some, the gateways to opportunity appear permanently closed, no matter how hard they try, whilst others seem to have been issued with an 'access all areas' pass at birth. Recession, demographic change and new technology all threaten to deepen the fault lines between insiders and outsiders.''
The study also found:

* Girls achieve better school results than boys at age five in England, and at age 16 in England, Scotland and Wales, and in every ethnic group.
* In 2009, female university students outnumbered men by a ratio of 4:3. Women are also more likely than men to get first-class or upper second-class degrees.
* But girls and women tend to be concentrated in some courses which tend to lead to relatively poorly-rewarded jobs.
* One in eight people in England provide unpaid care to adults.
* One in four women and nearly one in five men in their fifties are carers.
* Women represent less than a quarter of Westminster MPs and barely three in 10 councillors in England.
* 4% of Westminster MPs are from an ethnic minority background.
* One in four Bangladeshi and Pakistani women work, compared with nearly three in four white British women.

Source: WM Magazine, 11 October

Small businesses lead the way with remote working

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Almost nine out of ten small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) give their staff the option to work away from the office, either from home or in a flexible workspace.

This is according to a new survey by telecommunications giant, Orange. In their survey of almost 2,000 customers they found that 74% now choose more creative workspaces including the beach, football grounds and even a barn at a dairy farm.

Orange also found that 82% of business owners surveyed believe they are able to work as productively in a flexible workspace or at home compared to a traditional office. It seems this improved productivity - a result of flexible working, subsequently means that business owners can finish their work earlier with 55% of respondents working six hours or less a day whilst a third admit they focus solely on work so they can finish earlier than they would if they were working in an office.

The majority (46%) said they relied on a mobile or smartphone to work flexibly. This contrasted with the 26% who continue to work in an office and said their average day lasted at least eight to nine hours.

Martin Lyne, SME marketing director, Everything Everywhere said, “When running a business, many dream of shorter more flexible working days with the hope of leading a better quality of life. Whilst there is no denying that setting up a company can involve a lot of blood, sweat, tears and time; what this research highlights is that small and medium business owners are able to work when it suits them and make the most of their free time. The Orange business customers that were surveyed felt that they were able to get a lot more done in the day, not only in terms of finishing their day earlier (or starting later), but by also having the option to mix work and daily chores throughout the day through working more flexibly.”

The news is at odds with recent findings from theTrades Union Congress(TUC) which found that nearly one in five workers want to work from home but are being prevented from doing so by their employer.

Source: WM Magazine

Quango cuts: backlash begins

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Quango cuts: full list of bodies under review

The Daily Telegraph today revealed details of the taxpayer-funded bodies that are to be abolished under Coalition plans.

A further 94 are still under threat of being scrapped, four will be privatised and 129 will be merged, according to a Cabinet Office list compiled this week, while 350 other bodies have won a reprieve.

The list discloses for the first time the extent of David Cameron’s plans for the “bonfire of the quangos”, designed to save the taxpayer billions of pounds. Thousands of jobs will go as part of the reforms.

However, following the disclosure, critics lined up to warn that the plans may fail to fulfill Coalition objectives.

Sir Ian Magee, co-author of a recent Institute for Government report on arm's length bodies, warned that culling quangos may not save money and risks continuity of services.

Sir Ian said: "Ministers need to be clear why they are culling quangos. If it is to save money, a simple cull may not produce the right results - much lower spending will only be achieved where functions or programmes are cut or reduced.

"Transferring functions back into government, or merging bodies, may lead to long-run efficiencies, but often with high upfront costs and risks to service continuity, and the Government needs clear plans to make sure those savings are delivered and expertise maintained.

Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell has launched an inquiry into the leak. A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said: "We deeply regret any extra uncertainty for employees that this irresponsible leak has caused."

Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, acknowledged the authenticity of the list but noted that it was subject to revisions.

The biggest cuts concern the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with more than 50 bodies to be abolished, and the Department of Health, where about 30 bodies will be cut or have their functions transferred back to the department.

These include the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the Health Protection Agency and the Commission for Rural Communities.

Baroness Deech, a former chairman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, said the Coalition had picked the wrong target.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's raised great dismay.

"This is one (quango) that deals with new life, new baby life and health and very important medical matters.

"It only costs £5 million and it is not taxpayers' money, most of the money comes from the patients.

"This is not a burden on the taxpayer. It's £5 million that comes off the patients and I'm sure the patients won't pay any less if the functions are picked up by other bodies."

As already announced, the Audit Commission and UK Film Council will be scrapped along with eight regional development agencies, the list shows. The Commission for Integrated Transport, the School Food Trust and the Sustainable Development Commission are to be abolished.

Construction workers' union Ucatt warned that the potential privatisation of ConstructionSkills would be a "disaster" for apprenticeship training.

ConstructionSkills is the commercial name for the Construction Industry Training Board, which provides training to the construction industry.

Ucatt leader Alan Ritchie said: "The idea that ConstructionSkills should be privatised is utter lunacy.

"Rather than looking to sell off such bodies, the Government should be concentrating on ensuring that there is a far higher level of quality construction apprentice training. Inadequate skills training exacerbates the problems of a growing skills gap and an ageing workforce. "

The BBC World Service, the British Council and the Environment Agency are among the 94 publicly funded bodies whose fate has yet to be decided.

The Competition Commission, the Design Council, the Energy Savings Trust, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Forestry Commission and the Office for Fair Trading are also still at risk. Whitehall insiders expect the majority to be abolished, removed from public funding or radically reformed.

In addition, the future of the publicly funded National Museums and Galleries service, which offers the public free admission to some of the country’s best-known cultural venues, is still in doubt.

According to the list, at least 70 more bodies will be lost as a result of mergers. Postcomm, the postal regulator, will be brought under the remit of Ofcom, the communications watchdog. Of the 129 bodies that will be either merged or consolidated are a number of sporting bodies. Heritage groups – English Heritage, the National Memorial Fund and the National Lottery Fund – will come under one single heritage body.

The National Lottery Commission will be merged with the Gambling Commission as one single regulator, according to the document.

Four bodies – the Film Industry Training Board, the Construction and Skills Training Board, the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board and the Tote Board – will be privatised. The sweeping abolition or merger of hundreds of other bodies will see thousands of job losses.

However, ministers will point to the billions of pounds that are likely to be saved after the number of taxpayer-funded quangos soared under Labour to cost an estimated £65 billion a year and employ more than 100,000 people.

A senior Whitehall source said: “These reforms represent the most significant rolling back of bureaucracy and the state for decades. Our starting point has been that every quango must not only justify its existence but its reliance on public money.”

The list shows that 350 quangos and public bodies have been reprieved. Some that had been under threat but will be retained include Acas, the mediation service, and the Food Standards Agency.

In these cases the quango has been shown to perform a technical role that cannot be better discharged by government, or sufficiently demonstrated their independence from government.

Source http://bit.ly/9lml9U

Fastest 50 companies 2010

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

THE waiting is over! Here we unveil the fastest- growing businesses in the North East.

Sponsored by leading law firm Ward Hadaway and backed by The Journal, the list celebrates companies and organisations in the region showing the strongest growth as a way of rewarding high-achieving companies and encouraging others.

Colin Hewitt, head of commercial law at Ward Hadaway, said: “Once again, the Fastest 50 has delivered a fascinating snapshot of the North East economy. The sheer variety of companies represented in the list demonstrates the continuing strength and vibrancy of the region’s business world and gives us all something to feel proud about – all the more important in view of the current economic climate.

“All the businesses listed are forging ahead and seeing turnover grow. They are real trailblazers who deserve our support, encouragement and applause.”

Experts from St Chad’s College/ Durham Business School were drafted in to help compile the list, making it even more authoritative.

Following today’s publication of the Fastest 50, an awards ceremony will take place at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead on Friday, October 8, when the winners of the Fastest 50 will be revealed.

There, awards will be given to the fastest-growing small, medium and large businesses, as well as an overall award for the fastest- growing business of the year.

Here is the Fastest 50 for 2010 in alphabetical order:

Arefco Special Products Ltd, Ashington

With its headquarters in Ashington and a US operation in Houston, Texas, Arefco supplies a range of blue-chip industrial companies with specialist engineering products including hydraulic and pneumatic seals.

Bannatyne Fitness Ltd, Darlington

Owned by Dragons Den TV star and entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne, this fitness club chain is one of the largest of its kind in the UK with more than 60 outlets nationwide. The company has previously won two Fastest 50 Awards, in 1999 and in 2000, and was also listed in the Fastest 50 in 2009 and 2008.

Bannatyne Hotels Ltd, Darlington

Bannatyne Hotels offers luxury accommodation in four locations, Darlington, Durham, Hastings and the Charlton House Spa Hotel at Shepton Mallet in Somerset. The latter hotel was bought in May 2010 as part of the company’s expansion plans. Bannatyne Hotels won the overall Fastest 50 award in 2006.

Carpet Line Direct Ltd, Middlesbrough

This company acts as a wholesale seller and distributor of carpets and carpet accessories, working from its base on Teesside.

Containerships (UK) Ltd, Redcar

Based in Redcar with further offices in London and Tilbury, this company offers a range of transport and haulage, warehouse and cargo-handling services, as well as a container depot. Earlier this year, it relocated from Teesport to Redcar to strengthen trading links with the eastern Mediterranean.

Costcutter (Eston) Ltd, Eston

This company is part of the national Costcutter franchise group of independent convenience stores. Across the UK as a whole, the group turned over more than £600m in 2009/10.

Coupe Construction Ltd, Birtley

Coupe Construction Ltd undertakes a wide range of civil engineering work from design and build, total management of project operation through to major groundworks contracts.

Culpitt Ltd, Ashington

Culpitt Ltd is the UK’s leading supplier of cake and food decorating products and the UK’s largest wholesaler of sugarcrafting edibles and equipment. The company employs almost 150 people at its Ashington factory and sells products to trade customers throughout the world.

Draeger Safety UK Ltd, Blyth

Draeger specialises in hazard management solutions and is one of the leading players in the £4.2bn-a-year market, supplying products to customers in a range of industries from the emergency services to shipping and mining.

Eden Farm Ltd, Peterlee

This family-run frozen food and ice cream wholesale and distribution company operates from a base in Peterlee with a sister site in Bradford and sells major brand products to more than 5,000 customers. It originally started in 1964 as a door-to-door seller of farm produce.

Elanders Ltd, New York, North Tyneside

Part of the global Elanders group, this company offers a range of printing services from individual products to total printing solutions with customers including Land Rover, Toyota and Bentley. Its New York facility is a complete printing plant.

Eurojag Ltd, Darlington

Eurojag is a leading supplier of new and used parts for Jaguar cars. The company has supplied parts and components for models since 1969 and has been in business for more than 20 years.

Express Engineering (Thompson) Ltd, Gateshead

Headed by well-known North businessman Chris Thompson, Express makes precision-machined components for customers in the UK and abroad in industries including sub-sea oil exploration and production, power generation and defence. It appeared in the Fastest 50 in 2009 and 2008.

Fenwick Ltd, Newcastle

An icon of North East retailing for more than 100 years, department store group Fenwick now operates 11 stores across the UK at locations including York, Windsor and London’s Bond Street. Its first store was opened in Newcastle in 1882 by JJ Fenwick, inspired by the department stores of Paris.

Fox Head Europe Ltd, Gateshead

Originally founded in 1974 as a motocross brand, Fox Head has become a leader in surf, BMX, wake, motocross and mountain biking and one of the most recognised action sport brands in the world.

Godfrey-Syrett (Holdings) Ltd, Newcastle

Office furniture maker Godfrey-Syrett’s products can be seen not only in workplaces and schools across the UK but, thanks to contracts with the Ministry of Defence, in military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Guisborough Car Sales Ltd, Guisborough

This independent car showroom was established in 1997 and specialises in buying and selling quality used cars, mainly ex-main dealer stock.

Henry Colbeck Ltd, Gateshead

Established in 1893, Henry Colbeck Ltd is the oldest independent supplier to fish and chip shops in the UK. The company supplies 1,500 products to more than 2,500 customers from its base on Gateshead’s Team Valley and is targeting further market growth share in Yorkshire and Scotland.

ICS Integrated Cable Services Ltd, Billingham

This cable installation specialist was formed in 2000 and has carried out work on a wide range of major building projects across the country, including at England’s rugby stadium Twickenham, the Home Office, the London Stock Exchange and the 54-floor Beetham Tower in Manchester.

J Barbour & Sons Ltd, South Shields

Outdoor clothing maker Barbour is known across the world for its iconic wax jackets, famously worn by the Queen and other members of the royal family, as well as a range of celebrities. The family-owned business currently holds three royal warrants.

Kitwave Ltd, North Shields

Trading as M&M Value, this confectionery wholesaler sells sweets, drinks and tobacco to independent shops across the North. Last September the company bought Telford-based Westone Distribution in a £3.2m deal as part of its expansion plans.

Melbourne Holdings (Northern) Ltd, Middlesbrough

Melbourne sells a range of tyres and exhausts to the wholesale and retail markets from its base on Teesside.

Midland Steel Traders Ltd, Chester-le-Street

MST provides the construction, mining, quarrying and plant hire industry with replacement spare parts. As well as its headquarters in County Durham, the company has service centres in Airdrie in Scotland and in Redditch, near Birmingham.

Nobia Holdings UK Ltd, Darlington

Nobia owns the Magnet brand, which manufactures and supplies kitchen, bathroom and bedroom interiors mainly through its UK network of more than 200 retail stores. It also owns Interior Solutions and Gower, which mainly supply flat-pack kitchens to multiple retailers.

OSG Ship Management (UK) Ltd, Newcastle

OSG Ship Management (UK) is part of the Overseas Shipholding Group, which is a market leader in global energy transportation services. OSG owns and operates a fleet of more than 100 vessels that transport crude oil, refined petroleum products and gas worldwide.

Owen Pugh Holdings Ltd, Cramlington

Established in 1946, Owen Pugh specialises in plant hire, earthmoving and demolition. The company has also expanded into land remediation and reclamation, quarrying, drainage and civil engineering.

Pacifica Group Ltd, Chester-le-Street

Pacifica is a major supplier to the domestic appliance industry throughout the UK and Europe. The company employs more than 400 staff and operates services including warranties, replacements and 0800 Repair, which fixes household goods ranging from dishwashers to vacuum cleaners.

Precision Engineering International Ltd, Newcastle

This is the holding company of Metal Spinners Group, which specialises in solutions in a wide range of engineered components, and sub-assemblies for customers in sectors such as oil and gas, medical and other high integrity applications.

Protek-CNC Ltd, Washington, Tyne & Wear

Established in 2004, Protek is a CNC machining company which specialises in subcontract work. The company bought a purpose-built manufacturing unit in 2006 and is now a preferred supplier to several of the UK’s leading valve manufacturers.

Read Holdings Ltd, Middlesbrough

Operating from its base on Teesside, Read Holdings specialises in manufacturing lifting equipment.

Renvac Scaffolding Ltd, Blyth

Based in Blyth, Renvac specialises in scaffolding and work platform hiring, erecting and dismantling and serves clients across the construction and property sectors.

Robson Brown Ltd, Newcastle

A well-known full service marketing and advertising agency, Robson Brown offers a range of services include media buying, design, public relations, film and video production. In March 2010 the company was bought by US marketing company Round2, which plans to further expand the business.

Saft Ltd, South Shields

Saft is a leading designer, developer and manufacturer of advanced technology batteries for industrial and defence applications. The company acquired the former Invensys factory in South Shields in 2001, where it employs 120 staff making a wide range of batteries.

Seton Care Ltd, Berwick

Seton Care provides a wide range of care and support services for people in their own homes and communities, and in residential accommodation. Part of the Berwickshire Housing Association Group, the company operates on both sides of the Scottish border.

Soil Machine Dynamics Ltd, Wallsend, North Tyneside

Soil Machine Dynamics – or SMD – is one of the world’s leading subsea engineering companies, specialising in the design and manufacture of remotely-operated vehicle systems. The company won the overall title in last year’s Fastest 50.

STR Enterprises Ltd, Newcastle

Family-owned leisure group STR Enterprises owns and operates a number of well-known sites in the North East including Newcastle’s Centurion Bar, Sunderland’s Quayside Exchange and the Victoria Hotel in Bamburgh, Northumberland. It also operates the Centurion Park golf club in Wallsend.

Svitzer Marine Ltd, Middlesbrough

Svitzer operates a number of specialist and inter-related services within harbour, terminal, and ocean towage, salvage and emergency response as well as fast transportation of crew and supplies to offshore installations. The Teesside operation specialises in towage services.

Techdrill Ltd, Morpeth

Techdrill specialises in safety fittings for offshore oil rigs. The company makes a range of valves, pipework and high-pressure fittings known as choke and kill manifolds and is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of manifold products with clients in areas such as Dubai, the US and Singapore.

The Abbeyfield Newcastle upon Tyne Society Ltd, Newcastle

This housing and care home specialist operates four homes on Tyneside, mainly around the Gosforth area.

The Clinkard Group Ltd, Stockton

The Clinkard Group is the leading independent footwear retailer in the North East and one of the largest independents in the UK. Its retail arm, Charles Clinkard, operates 36 stores across the country while the Intershoe wholesale division supplies and distributes footwear in the UK and Ireland.

The Hambleton Group Ltd, Stockton

Started by husband-and-wife team Bryan and Jeannie Goodall in 1976 as a Christmas hamper company, the Hambleton Group has grown to encompass five different divisions offering services ranging from contract packing to warehousing and caravan storage.

The Specials Laboratory Ltd, Prudhoe, Northumberland

Founded in 1999, The Specials Laboratory manufactures unlicensed medicines for the retail and hospital pharmaceutical markets. These “specials” are used to treat patients who don’t respond to normal prescribed medicine. The company was sold to Ireland’s United Drug for £20m in November 2008.

Thermon (UK) Ltd, Gateshead

Thermon is an industry leader in the specialised field of trace heating technology. The company offers a wide range of engineering and design services as well as manufacturing and installing trace heating systems.

Tranemo Workwear Ltd, Newcastle

Tranemo is an international quality workwear manufacturer and has production outlets in Sweden, Poland, Portugal and Bulgaria, in addition to its base in Newcastle.

Typhoon International, Redcar

Initially founded more than 60 years ago, Typhoon has grown to become the world’s largest manufacturer of drysuits. The company employs almost 100 staff on Teesside and supplies major military markets around the world, as well as the likes of the RNLI and the diving and watersports markets.

UK Independent Medical Services, Durham

Established in 2003, this company specialises in providing independent medical evidence to the insurance and legal industries in England and Wales.

Clients include solicitors, patients, insurers and medical experts. The company was runner-up in the Durham & Wearside Company of the Year Award 2009.

United Carlton Office Systems Ltd, Gateshead

United Carlton provides a range of IT and office equipment, including digital copier/printers, scanning and document management solutions. The company is ranked in both Toshiba and Sharp’s top 10 dealers in the United Kingdom and has more than 4,000 clients.

W Hodgson (Hartlepool) Ltd, Hartlepool

Fishmonger W Hodgson was established in Hartlepool in 1916. The company provides a ‘sea to plate’ service, running its own fleet of ships, fish processing plant, three fresh fish shops and a refrigerated delivery service to hotels and restaurants across the North East.

Wellburn Care Homes Ltd, Newburn, Newcastle

Wellburn operates 12 care homes and a day centre throughout the North East and Yorkshire. The family-run business achieved the Investors in People Award in 2000 and ISO 9000 in October 2004.

Wilton Engineering Services, Middlesbrough

Part of offshore and petrochemical industry specialist the Wilton Group, this company provides high-quality bespoke fabrications and associated services to blue-chip clients in the subsea, marine, offshore and renewable energy industries.

Today is the day when we reveal the businesses who have made it into the Ward Hadaway Fastest 50 for 2010. Iain Laing reports.

THE companies in this list have been selected from the table of fastest growing profit-making, private, regional companies, based on turnover growth.

Information has been compiled by researchers at St Chad's College/Durham Business School using data which is publicly available at Companies House of UK-listed companies.

The average turnover growth has been assessed on a percentage increase, based on the difference between turnover figures filed for the last three years.

To qualify, companies must be trading entities and have turnover in excess of £800,000 in the last three years of filed accounts, which are up to date as at July 31, 2010. Companies must also have made profits in each of the past three years’ accounts. Private limited companies which are subsidiaries of listed companies do not qualify.

Subsidiaries of foreign-controlled companies have been accepted if they have headquarters or a decision-making function in the region.

Ward Hadaway and The Journal do not accept any responsibility for any errors or omissions.

Source: The Journal, Iain Laing

New boot camp for Tyneside business starters

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

WOULD-BE Tyneside entrepreneurs are being asked to use their brain power to benefit from a special business boot camp.

Newcastle-based Enterprise Made Simple came up with the idea of running an intensive weekend where people with a potentially high-growth company could benefit from expert advice and support.

The free sessions, which have been organised with the financial support of the European Union’s ERDF Competitiveness Programme 2007-2013 and Newcastle City Council, will run over two weekends in November and competition for the limited places is expected to be fierce.

Andrea Clarke of EMS said the camps would offer a rare opportunity for business people to get a whole host of valuable advice and information over one weekend.

“People know all about boot camps but they usually associate them with physical activity,” said Andrea.

“This is much more about exercising the brain and giving them the opportunity to get advice and information, face challenges and take part in team-building exercises.”

The residential weekends will be held at the Calvert Trust’s outdoor activity centre at Kielder in Northumberland on November 19 and November 26, with places limited to 12 at each session.

The boot camps are aimed at start-up companies or organisations which are or will be VAT registered and employ staff and must be based in the Newcastle area.

“The camps are for people who have a desire to start their own business,” said Andrea. “It could be someone who is facing redundancy from a public sector job or someone with ambitious plans for a business.”

Those who are successful in their application will spend two nights and three days at Kielder, working with experienced business advisers in a mix of classroom-based and team building activities. All travel, accommodation and food will be included as part of the weekend and the hope is that these initial pilot projects will be rolled out to a wider area in the future.

“We believe this will be a really effective way for people to get the confidence and the help they need to move their business forward,” said Andrea.

John Musham, head of enterprise at Newcastle City Council, said: “New businesses, with the potential to grow, are crucial to the future prosperity of Newcastle and I would encourage anyone setting up in business to take advantage of this one-off opportunity.”

Anyone wanting further information or to apply for a place at the residential weekends is asked to contact Enterprise Made Simple on 0800 988 7122.

Source: Iain Laing, The Journal

Michelle Feeney: The pale queen of St Tropez

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

One of the first things you notice about Michelle Feeney, the chief executive of St Tropez, the world's leading self-tan company, is her alabaster-like complexion.

But that doesn't mean she has fallen in with the popular papers' representation of her range as cheap and nasty, used only by orange WAGs and wannabes: "I do use it," she says. "It's a myth that you have to look overly tanned with self-tan; one of the myths that I've tried to bust in my three years in the job. It's about skin perfection and about enhancing your own skin. Giving it a glow."

And, keen to convince that these are not just the words of the consummate beauty PR, Feeney tells the story of how she decided – on second asking – to take over the running of the leading company in an industry worth £100m to the UK.

"I had never had a self-tan before, as I had been living in the States and missed the decade when St Tropez grew. But I came out of Debenhams having had a spray tan thinking, 'Oh my God this is phenomenal'. It makes you feel much better about yourself and people react differently to you. It was then I decided, 'I've got to take this message out there'."

And now, three years on, spurred on no doubt by Feeney's evangelical drive, and the largely successful buffing-up of its image, profits at St Tropez are believed to have risen from £2.6m to £4.7m in 2009, with like-for-like sales rising 24 per cent to £60m in the recession-ridden year to April.

Evangelism clearly runs deep in Feeney, now 47; her professional and personal lives seem rooted in the drive to share all the benefits of life. It's a drive that has taken her from the suburbs of Solihull, which can still be heard in her faint Brummie burr, to the very centre of the massive US beauty market as a senior manager with Estée Lauder, via Newcastle polytechnic and London's bedsit land.

But despite her glowing marketing credentials, she does not cite creating the cult branding around the £500-a-tub Crème de la Mer wrinkle cream in 1994 as her career high. Nor her time as head of marketing for the now discontinued Prescriptives brand. But she does mention the time she was able to hand over $75,000 from the MAC Aids Fund to the UN to help fight the disease in Africa.

"I was thinking of leaving Estée Lauder, when it bought [the make-up brand] MAC," she recalls. "It had something that was close to my heart – the Aids Fund, set up by the founders Frank and Frank [Toskan and Angelo], partners in business and life. They had very bravely started the fund, with a 6ft4in black transvestite, RuPaul, as their frontman.

"They had to be persuaded to go big on the fund, but I got stuck in. After discovering that Aids/HIV rates were increasing among young black American women, I signed up Mary J Blige and Lil' Kim and learnt how to use the power of commerce to do real, true good."

MAC had launched the Viva Glam Lipstick, with all proceeds to Aids charities. "That lipstick was literally saving lives, [and] businesses began to give in much bigger numbers than we could." Viva Glam, which has just signed up popstar Lady Gaga, has so far raised more than $100m for Aids causes across the world. "That is my professional high," says Feeney.

This need to become involved in her community is why she and her family have just returned from Kenya, where they are using their own money to help fund a village school, and why St Tropez is now involved with the Prince's Trust. "I was challenged by the board about giving money to a charity but the benefit is everyone feels inspired and part of something. The Trust link has really worked for us – as trust is all about self-esteem, for those people who society forgets."

Feeney is chair of the Trust's health and beauty leadership group, which is bringing out a charity lipstick called Trust, made by Karen Alder, singer Pixie Lott's make-up artist, who was given her first make-up set by the Trust.

While riding the crest of the MAC wave, launching in 40 countries and raising sales from $65m to $1bn in seven years, Feeney met her husband, Mark Neale, the managing director of Mountain Warehouse, which has 120 stores in the UK, and decided she wanted to move back to London. After the birth of her daughter in 2005, she stepped down from MAC and "took a back seat" doing consultancy work from home. "I wanted to take time to be with my children [she also has a teenage son]. But when St Tropez came calling, I was ready for the next challenge."

The St Tropez spray was invented in LA but the product made its name under the stewardship of entrepreneurs Judy Naake and Norman Oley, who distributed it in the UK to salons and spas, where it came to the attention of celebrities such as Victoria Beckham. In 2006, LDC, the private-equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, paid £70m for the firm and gave Feeney the top job.

"I wanted to learn more about the business of business. Because a lot of women get to the point where they shy away from that and this thing called 'private equity'. It's talked about as if it's some mystical thing, but it's so not. It was the next phase for me. Time to layer on the hardcore stuff, the bottom line, the PNL [Profit aNd Loss]."

And learn she obviously has, as St Tropez now has 40 per cent of the self-tan market, which itself grew 10 per cent last year, and now there's the impending sale. Talks with suitors, whom Feeney would only narrow down to two, took place over the summer and a deal is expected soon. Analysts predict the sale price to be around £50m.

Feeney says a sale is necessary, as St Tropez needs capital to develop the technologies that will keep it ahead of its peers. "We need to invest in beauty technology if we're to go into skincare and other things. You always have to be moving on the technology. That's the life blood of any brand."

Feeney's plans for St Tropez's future are centred around growth in north America, where the brand has grown by 48 per cent in the past year, based on slots on the TV channel QVC, a website, and social media. "Self-tan is in its infancy in the States, so we have been able to lead the process there.

"What's brilliant about new social media [is] it spreads much more quickly. What would take me seven years to do with MAC would take seven months now. You have to be bloody good, or people will tell you so directly."

There are also markets to break in to in Europe, particularly in the east, and again new capital will help the brand expand in those countries where salons, with their staffing costs and overheads, are the way to consumers' hearts.

Whoever ends up owning the company, Feeney is convinced it will flourish. "St Tropez is strong and good and that's my legacy. But I've got lots of other ideas for other brands as well."

She certainly has no plans to sit back and take it easy. "The next few years should be the most exciting of my life. I love being back in London. I have a real affinity with the industry, small brands as well as retailers like Boots.

"And I love the mentoring aspect of this role and feel very strongly for the non-profit side. The confidence of having had success with St Tropez means that whatever I do in the future I think I'll succeed."

Source http://bit.ly/d86rFP

Does sacking the boss really work?

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Chief executives are almost never sacked, but an unexpected resignation usually tells its own story. There have been quite a few of those recently, and at some very big names. Yesterday another corporate titan bit the dust as the curtain was brought down on Nam Yong's time at the head of LG Electronics. He agreed to "take responsibility for the flagging performance" at the world's third biggest mobile handset maker.

The company is hoping his replacement, Koo Bon-joon, the brother of the chairman of parent company LG, is the man to lead a revival at a business that saw second-quarter profits plunge by 90 per cent as it struggled in the fiercely competitive smartphone market.

Mr Yong's departure came just days after rival handset maker Nokia rearranged its deckchairs, parting company with chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, a 30-year veteran at the Finnish giant, in favour of Microsoft business manager Stephen Elop. Mr Elop, a Canadian, is the group's first leader from outside Finland. Closer to home, BP have announced the end of Tony Hayward's tenure (in July) in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, while James Hussey, the boss of the scandal-wracked banknote printer De La Rue, walked the plank in August.

And they won't be the last. Ian Tomlinson-Roe, a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) human resource services business, says that investors are "asking deep and searching questions of executive leadership teams within companies" during the current period of financial and economic pressure.

But does the answer to these questions lay in changing the men, or more rarely the women, at the top of the companies they own? And what are the chances of the new leaders mentioned above turning their corporate Titanics into sleek new ocean liners?

Reasonably good, says Markus Perkmann, a research follow at Imperial College Business School. He notes that the incidence of defenestrations at the top of big companies has increased over the last 10 to 15 years.

"CEO turnover is more likely when the performance of companies is low, and it is more likely that outside candidates are brought in when things are particularly bad. There has been a lot of research recently on whether changing the CEO works and it seems that the effect is usually either neutral or positive," he says.

Mr Perkmann says this is particularly true for deeply troubled companies: "When a new CEO comes in to these situations it is easier for them to do things. They have the legitimacy to make changes."

Outsiders, capable of fresh thinking and new approaches, are particularly successful, he says. However, he adds: "It is much easier to have a more positive impact if you are working in a growing industry as is the case with, say, LG Electronics or Nokia than if you are looking at a company like BP, which is a more mature business and where its product is more static."

He also has one key piece of advice for the new boys: "They will have legitimacy and if they come from outside they will have new ways of thinking, but they are more likely to be successful if they don't try to do too much at once."

Michael Rendell, global head of the human resource services business at PwC says an external hire isn't always the best move: "When looking for a replacement, organisations should take time to reflect on the talent in their own ranks. On a CEO's departure, the kneejerk reaction is to look externally, often at a competitor's CEO. This drives up pay levels and may not always be the best move."

He adds: "It [a change at the top] can work. Sometimes just the appointment of a new CEO can change sentiment, which can have a very positive effect. A new CEO can also set a new strategic direction and if they have a proven track record in turnaround situations the results can be beneficial and visible quite early on.

"Each case, though, depends on a number of unique and sensitive factors so there is no definitive answer."

Henry Nicholson, a partner in Deloitte's reorganisation services team, is a specialist in the distressed sector and notes that struggling businesses are not always struggling because they have bad chief executives. They often find themselves in difficulties because they have been left with too much debt that was built up in the era of cheap credit before their current leaders took over.

"Does changing CEO work? It very much depends on the situation," Mr Nicholson says. "When a business gets into real trouble the challenge for a CEO is whether they can they shift their mindset from maximising value for shareholders to protecting value for creditors and trying to ensure a business survives. Many recent restructurings have involved decent, well-run businesses with bad balance sheets."

However, he says that in some situations it is necessary to change a chief executive for a business to move forward: "You have to ask whether the CEO can make the changes needed, to recognise the changes in a business's circumstances. Changing CEO can have a galvanising effect. It can put the people at the top of their game, for example. But it can also create uncertainties and that can cause problems.

"Certainly in the distressed sector there hasn't been that much changing of CEOs because the companies we see are not facing problems caused by bad performance. They are facing problems caused by bad balance sheets."

Source http://bit.ly/ds5wk4

'Women, take control of your financial destiny before it's too late'

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Are you a Smart Woman? That's the question Barclays is asking its female customers. The bank is the latest company to try to capitalise on the growing band of women-only websites and chat forums. Its new website, BarclaysSmartWoman.co.uk, joins existing sites such as CouttsWoman.com, mymoneydiva.com, SavvyWoman.co.uk and Addidi.com in providing money advice specifically tailored to the fairer sex.

But are these offerings condescending marketing ploys, or is there a real need for female-friendly financial services?

Barclays considers women just as financially able as men but says the evidence shows that women lag behind their male counterparts when it comes to personal finance and investing.

For example, despite living an average of five years longer than men and retiring five years earlier, only 11pc of Barclays Stockbrokers' self-invested personal pension (Sipp) customers are women, and an even lower percentage of Sipp accounts in the past 12 months were by opened women, suggesting dwindling interest.

According to Prudential, the annual average pension for women retiring this year is more than £7,000 less than the average man's, and three in 10 women over the age of 40 admit that they are relying on their partner's pension for income in retirement. But 60pc of men's pension policies will provide for them alone, and considering half of marriages end in divorce, taking such a punt on your future security is risky.

Perhaps more worryingly, a further 22pc of women are depending entirely on the state pension for their income. While 90pc of men qualify for the full state pension, just 35pc of women do, largely as a result of work breaks to care for children.

It is not just retirement planning that women seem to be failing to take an interest in. Among Isa investors, men outnumber women by three to one.

Vince Smith-Hughes from the Pru said: "Relying on someone else's pension and savings and the meagre amount provided by the state to support you in retirement is an extraordinarily risky strategy. It is understandable that many women do not have retirement savings of their own, but while they're still working and have got many years to go before they retire is the time to take control of the situation and their own destiny, and start making retirement savings plans."

Sarah Pennells, the author of books such as Divorce: How to Help Yourself and Your Finances and the founder of SavvyWoman.co.uk, said much of the existing financial information seemed to be aimed at men, or not written with women in mind.

Barclays Wealth agrees. Barbara-Ann King, head of investments and the front woman of the SmartWoman initiative, argues that the traditional business model fails women.

"The way stockbroking and wealth management companies communicate just doesn't tend to work for women, so they don't engage, don't invest and ultimately lose out," she said.

"We recognise that there is no 'one way' of communicating with women and were not surprised that research showed that different women were motivated by different messages. We certainly wish to avoid simply applying 'pink' branding."

SmartWoman is looking to emulate the success of web forums such as Mumsnet.com and Wesabe.com, offering peer-to-peer advice through the associated web forum.

CouttsWoman has also found that women are more comfortable talking about investment and philanthropy with other women and it offers seminars on subjects such as angel investing.

Launched four years ago and offering clients a monthly online magazine, CouttsWoman says women have different personal and financial priorities to men.

"One of the key issues facing professional women is the lack of time they have to juggle many commitments, including family life. By understanding their individual requirements, we can offer a range of tailored services to make their financial management as smooth as possible," reads the website.

Ms Pennells said women tended to feel less confident about taking risks with their money than men. As investing is viewed as a ''risky'' option, this can hinder their financial decision making.

Stock market investment does not necessarily mean obscure Japanese equities, however, and regular drip-feeding into an investment has a smoothing effect in turbulent markets.

Ignoring stock market investment entirely can mean even those with a large disposable income find they run out of money in retirement.

Cash is eroded by inflation while reinvested dividend income is hard to argue with.

Women can make more profitable investors too; their generally less hasty nature means they do not incur the costs of frequent trading and have the patience to ride out market blips.

According to The Little Book of Behavioral Investing by James Montier, women's aversion to risk means they are less likely to invest actively and therefore achieve greater returns.

Financial adviser Philippa Gee has observed that women tend to be more loyal to their investments and have an eye for opportunities.

But not everyone agrees that women lag behind men when it comes to managing their finances. Nicola Horlick, the City's original superwoman, was surprised by Barclays' claim that women ignore their finances to such an extent. Ms Horlick, who set up Bramdiva, a business offering wealth management services for women, in 2005, said: "I'd like to see the evidence as that is certainly not the case in my experience."

However, she said Bramdiva did find that women were extremely conservative and loath to take risk.

"If you don't take risk, you don't make money," Ms Horlick said. "Leaving money on deposit in a building society, which many of the women I meet are doing, makes little sense when interest rates are this low and there is a bit of inflation in the system. They need to think about putting more into equities."

Alan Marshall, a private banker at Coutts, said many of his clients in the retail and fashion worlds had become ''very savvy'' when it came to capitalising on their cash.

"They are clever about allocating their money to different assets. Some buy stylish properties and use their expertise to kit them out in a nice way and make money like that," he said.

"Others certainly focus on stock markets and are very astute about what to invest in. They are always pretty clued up on the economic side of things – particularly on people's spending habits."

Source http://bit.ly/9HQnVT

Peter Jones claims youth enterprise schemes 'put good money after bad'

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Peter Jones, the Dragons' Den panellist and mobile phone entrepreneur, has labelled the Government's youth enterprise initiatives a waste of money.

Mr Jones, who is chairman of one of the organisations behind a scheme called Enterprise UK, said some of its plans were "putting good money after bad".

Instead, Mr Jones wants the Government to help him adapt an enterprise curriculum he has developed with Edexcel, the qualifications awarding group, to use in schools.

Speaking at the launch of the third National Enterprise Academy last week at Sheffield City College, Mr Jones expressed his frustration that despite the Government's rhetoric about supporting enterprise education, it had not yet contacted him.

"[I want them to say] Peter Jones has spent enough money. He's done a good job. Let's do it. I have not received a phone call and I would like to," he said. "I want what we have got to go into our central school system because it's worked. I want my son to have this as a curriculum."

He added: "I am asking for a meeting with the current government. I want David Cameron to pick up the phone and say 'Peter Jones, we are not going to allow the last three years of your life and the millions of pounds you have invested to go to waste'."

Mr Jones hopes that around 30,000 students will attend enterprise academies by 2015, and has plans to open six more across the UK using £9m of public funding that has been matched by private sector sponsors like Orange. The students receive a level two or three BTEC diploma.

At the same time Mr Jones is overseeing an overhaul of Enterprise UK, which received £20m of public money for enterprise promotion.

He described as "totally wrong" the organisation's campaign for engaging schools in enterprise education, called Make Your Mark.

The campaign includes a national competition that will launch the Government-backed Global Enterprise Week in November, as well as initiatives like "Tenner", where 40,000 schoolchildren are given £10 each to inspire them to make a profit from their ideas. Mr Jones lent £100,000 this year to Tenner.

"It's a flawed concept, putting good money after bad," said Mr Jones of the Make Your Mark campaign.

Mr Jones also singled out Young Enterprise, a charity which exposes teenagers to the challenges of setting up and running a company, for criticism. "We don't need another Young Enterprise. The learnings are not passed [from school to school]," he said.

However, John May, Young Enterprise chief executive, countered: "Last year we inspired more than 30,000 young people to get involved in setting up and running their own Young Enterprise companies. Our company programme alumni are more passionate about their jobs, more successful in their careers and twice as likely to start their own business as their peers."

Source http://bit.ly/clTzhX

Government plan for regional stock exchanges rejected by business

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, were both vocal supporters of re-establishing regional exchanges to reduce private sector reliance on the City and to better provide small companies outside of London with equity financing options.

However, the British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) has led calls for the idea to be scrapped in its submission to the Treasury and Business Department's joint consultation on financing the private sector, which closes on Monday.

Simon Horner, BVCA public affairs manager, said: "We don't think it's a very good idea. We need something scaleable and we don't think you get that with regional exchanges. We have seen liquidity issues with Aim [Alternative Investment Market]. With regional stock exchanges that would be even more acute."

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) agreed. Steve Hughes, its economist, said: "Quite frankly there is no clear demand for them."

George Osborne, the Chancellor, and Mr Cable are seeking views from industry and finance on measures the Government could take to reduce the economy's reliance on "underpriced debt". It is keen to stimulate new markets in mid-sized company debt and explore whether a national loan guarantee scheme should be created in case credit availability deteriorates again.

The consultation stated that if private companies accessed "a more diverse range of sources of finance" Britain could have a "more stable financial system".

It called for wider private sector use of equity finance, noting that only 2pc of small and medium companies had accessed this form of finance in recent years.

"Encouraging more small businesses to consider equity finance, improving their capability to access this source of finance and ensuring that there is a supply of equity finance for viable firms will support efforts to diversify the sources of finance used by businesses," it stated.

The BVCA backed this idea, arguing business owners lacked awareness of equity finance and proposing the creation of an "Entrepreneur's Academy", using the resources of a leading business school, to provide more support.

Source http://bit.ly/de9RL0

Government prepares fund to help small business become more energy efficient

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Under the plans, firms will receive loans to replace old boilers, freezers and other pieces of energy hungry equipment, with the cash repaid from the savings made in their monthly energy bills.

Whitehall officials are talking to high street banks about the design and funding of the scheme, as well as to energy providers such as British Gas about how to administer it.

The scheme, which has the working title "The Green Deal for Business", echoes the Government's plan to loan around £6,500 to up to 14m households to pay for home insulation and new boilers.

Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, has had civil servants working on the plan for four months.

Kanat Emiroglu, managing director of British Gas Business (BGB), said: "There should be something in the Queen's Speech in November, in the Energy Bill.

"We are talking to the Government about its energy efficiency scheme for SMEs [small or medium-sized enterprises]. They are very receptive about it. I am hoping it will be introduced in a way that's not bureaucratic."

British Gas is confident it can guarantee savings on the installation of certain types of modern, energy-efficient plant and machinery. This data could form the basis of a loan programme, giving the lenders confidence that they would be repaid while not costing the small business owners any cash upfront.

To fund the scheme, which could see tens of billions of pounds lent if it is successful, the Government is seeking to involve Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. The scheme would form part of their efforts to lend £94bn to British businesses by next February under legally binding agreements.

Mr Emiroglu said British Gas wanted to see the scheme up and running quickly, adding that the group would contribute up to £20m to prove the concept worked. He said British Gas was examining how to isolate the energy savings accrued by a piece of equipment to take into account the fact that energy consumption may rise or fall for other business reasons.

Existing government-funded initiatives, such as the Carbon Trust's interest-free loans to small businesses, had not worked, he added.

"The Carbon Trust has only touched a tiny percentage of SMEs. I would guess its less than 1pc," he said.

Separately, BGB has calculated that thousands of companies face fines totalling up to £15m for failing to register their energy use with the Environment Agency.

Companies that use more than £500,000 of electricity a year have to sign up the Carbon Reduction Commitment by September 30.

Source http://bit.ly/b7Heca

Pigeons faster than broadband

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Pigeons carrying a video film on a computer memory card took 75 minutes to fly 120 miles from a Yorkshire farm to Skegness, Lincolnshire.

A broadband download of the same film started at the moment of their release was only 24% complete when the birds arrived.

The stunt – organised by Tref Davies, co-founder of the internet service provider Timico – gained widespread media coverage.

“The farm we are using has a connection of around 100 to 200 Kbps,” Mr Davies told the BBC.

“The kids need to do school work and the farmer has to submit online forms but the connection is not fit for purpose.”

The stunt was also reported on numerous websites, including Telegraph.co.uk

Around one-third of homes cannot get decent broadband, claimed Mr Davies.

But telecom provider BT disputed his figures.

Some 99% of homes could now get broadband, said a spokesman.

This left an estimated 160,000 lines "where excessive line length means broadband won't work".

Rural areas continue to lag behind urban areas when it comes to broadband, according to the Commission for Rural Communities.

This is mainly due to the distance of households from their nearest telephone exchange, it confirmed.

Problems were specifically in relation to broadband over telephone lines, known as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL).

About 30% of households in village, hamlet and isolated dwellings in sparsely populated areas have speeds slower than 1 Megabits per second (Mbps).

Some 80% have speeds less than 5Mbps, according to the commission's 2010 State of the Countryside report.

Urban areas are likely top have the fastest internet connections.

"This is due to the speed being mainly dependent on distance from telephone exchanges," says the report.

"These settlements are generally more compact and have their own exchanges so most households are close to an exchange."

Source http://bit.ly/9YtQVi

Shock fall in UK retail sales adds to fears of double-dip recession

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Fears that Britain is heading for double-dip recession were heightened today after official figures showed high street spending fell last month for the first time since the turn of the year.

Amid signs that consumers are growing anxious about George Osborne's draconian plans to slash public spending, the Office for National Statistics said that retail sales dropped by 0.5% in August.

The unexpected dip in consumer activity provided the latest piece of evidence that the economy has cooled sharply since the middle of the year, casting a shadow over the coalition government's plans to suck billions of pounds out of the economy in next month's comprehensive spending review.

Data since the start of the month has suggested that the second quarter of 2010 was a mini-peak for the economy following six quarters of decline between the spring of 2008 and the autumn of 2009. The spring recovery – which saw falling unemployment, rising manufacturing output, strong retail sales and the sharpest increase in overall economic activity in nine years – came too late for Gordon Brown but provided David Cameron with the best possible start to his premiership.

In recent weeks, however, the news has become less encouraging. At the start of every month, the Chartered Institute for Purchasing and Supply provides a snapshot of what is happening in the three key sectors of the economy: services, manufacturing and construction. In September, all three pointed to a slowdown in the pace of growth.

The latest CBI industrial trends survey, released today, painted a similar picture. UK factories expect output to increase over the coming months but at a less rapid rate.

In the housing market, the slowdown has already arrived. With first-time buyers thin on the ground, activity is running at half pre-crisis levels and prices are falling. The end of the government's "cash for clunkers" scheme to persuade motorists to trade in old bangers has led to plummeting new car sales. And, after falling steadily in every month since January, the number of people out of work and claiming benefit edged up by 2,000 last month.

Today's data added to the sense in the City that the summer was as good as it got for the economy. James Knightley, analyst at ING, said: "The August UK retail sales numbers are awful."

But some analysts warned it was unwise to read too much into one month's figures. Vicky Redwood at Capital Economics said that even after the August fall, retail sales since the election have averaged a robust 0.4% a month and were likely to be up over the third quarter as a whole.

Despite slightly weaker order books this month, the Confederation of British Industry believes it would be wrong to push the panic button. Ian McCafferty, the CBI's chief economic adviser, said: "The outlook for manufacturing activity seems to have held steady this month. Demand is still considered to be better than it was in the first half of the year, export order books are holding up reasonably well and expectations for production growth in the coming quarter remain solid."

Even so, the warning signs for Osborne are there. The International Monetary Fund has explicitly warned of the risks of tightening policy too quickly, while the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development – which in May backed early action to tackle budget deficits – has said developed countries may need to delay their austerity programmes.

David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, said today's spending data was a sign of things to come. "While weaker than expected, the figures are not entirely surprising, given the squeeze on people's disposable incomes and the pressures facing consumers as well as businesses. These pressures will inevitably intensify as the government implements its deficit-cutting programme, highlighting the need to rebalance the economy towards exports."

As yet, there is little evidence of this rebalancing occurring. Indeed, last week's trade figures revealed that Britain's current account deficit in the first three months of the coalition's life hit an all-time high, despite the boost to exports provided by the 20% drop in the value of sterling since the crisis began in mid-2007.

The risk for Osborne is that he kicks away state support for the economy at the worst possible moment. There have been tentative signs of weaker growth in the euro area and the United States – the UK's two biggest export markets – and businesses are still mothballing investment plans. Meanwhile, households are facing a triple whammy of pay restraint, inflation and looming spending cuts, making it questionable, according to City analysts, that the recent pick-up in consumer confidence will be sustained.

In the short term, Osborne will plough on with his plans for the toughest public spending round since the 1920s. The chancellor will rely on the Bank of England to keep interest rates at their current emergency level of 0.5%, and to pump more electronic money into the economy through the process known as quantitative easing. Mervyn King, the Bank's governor, dropped a strong hint in his speech to the TUC on Wednesday that Threadneedle Street stood ready to do just that.

But any further evidence of a double dip will add to both economic and political pressures on the chancellor to think again. His pitch to the public has been that financial markets will turn nasty unless the Treasury shows it intends to get to grips with the deficit. But markets now seem to be as concerned about growth as they are about debt, something that has not gone unnoticed on the opposition benches.

Ed Balls, one of the candidates for the Labour leadership, said in this week's issue of the Labour magazine Tribune that there were growing concerns about economies around the world: "While policymakers in the US are asking what more they can do to support their fragile economy, the UK government is pursuing a deflationary strategy that risks repeating the catastrophic mistakes of the 1930s and 1980s."

Source: The Guardian

A licence for chauvinism

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

As three female former Goldman Sachs employees launch a sexual discrimination lawsuit against the firm in New York, commentators have put the alleged behaviour of the firm's male workers – from ordering prostitutes to holding boys-only meetings on the golf course – down to the "testosterone-fuelled" banking culture.

The link between testosterone and the charging of escort services to corporate hospitality accounts remains unproven by modern science, as does the association between the male sex hormone and the exclusion of female employees from the golf courses of middle America. Indeed, a 2009 study suggested that oestrogen may have as much to do with aggressive behaviours in male mice as testosterone does.

The argument for testosterone as a cause of male chauvinism is cowardly – after all, you can't take a hormone to an employment tribunal. Blaming a "testosterone-driven culture" for sexism stops men taking responsibility for their behaviour. This is as sexist as any piece of cod biological determinism, suggesting males somehow can't help behaving like idiots – after all, sheer liquid chauvinism is flowing in their veins.

In fact, testosterone has been shown to be most effective as an excuse for social aggression rather than a cause of it. In another recent study participants performed more aggressively in a financial simulation game if they believed they had been given a shot of testosterone – even when they had been given a placebo – whereas those who had received testosterone unwittingly were in fact more likely to "play fair". "It's possible that people who are inclined towards selfish, aggressive or dominant behaviour would find it easier to rationalise their actions if they felt that they were under the spell of testosterone," says science writer Ed Yong, noting that the study suggests that "testosterone's negative stereotype" can give people a "licence to misbehave".

Feminists often rightly take offence when men dismiss women as "crazy" or "over-emotional" because of the neurotypical effects of premenstrual syndrome. Women do not wish to be reduced to our hormones, so why should we do the same to men? Blaming steroid aggression for corporate sexism is a cop-out.

Source: The Guardian

Sun, sea and grit: Israeli and West Bank women risk jail for day at the beach

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The day starts early, at a petrol station alongside a roaring Jerusalem road. The mood among the 15 Israeli women is a little tense, but it's hardly surprising – they're about to break the law and with it one of the country's taboos. They plan to drive into the occupied West Bank, pick up Palestinian women and children and take them on a day trip to Tel Aviv.

Today's is the second such trip – another group of women went public with a similar action last month. It is hoped that these will become regular outings, designed to create awareness of the laws that govern movement for Palestinians, and to challenge the fears that Israelis have about travelling into the West Bank.

Riki is a 63-year-old from Tel Aviv who, like the other women did not want to give her surname. She said it took her time to sign up to the trips. "I was resistant to breaking the law. But then I realised that civil action is the only way to go forward, that breaking an illegal law becomes legal."

The women take off in a convoy of cars, through an Israeli checkpoint used by settlers and into several villages around Hebron. There are dozens of Palestinian women waiting for them and each Israeli driver is allocated passengers.

As two young Palestinian women climb into the car, they remove hijabs, scarves and floor-length coats to reveal skinny jeans and long hair – a look that ensures they pass through the Israeli settler-only checkpoint without scrutiny. "I am afraid of the soldiers," said 21-year-old Sara, nervously. But she and 19-year-old Sahar, visibly relax as the car breezes past the checkpoint.

They pull CDs out of bags and are soon listening to loud Arabic dabke music as the car heads along a road that joins the main highway to Tel Aviv. "It's like we are using the tools of the occupation," said Irit, one of the drivers. "It just wouldn't occur to the soldiers at the checkpoints that Israeli women would want to do this."

As Tel Aviv nears, the Palestinian passengers silently survey the tall buildings and outdoor cafes and seem especially taken with the ubiquitous motorcycles and mopeds that speed around the city. "I would like to ride on one, like that," said Sara, pointing to a woman in shorts perched on the back of a bike. But all the Palestinian women have just one request: to go to the sea. For most, it's their first trip to the seaside, even though it is a short drive from home.

The passengers join another carload and head to the promenade in Jaffa, the mixed Arab-Israeli city stuck to the tail-end of Tel Aviv, where the Palestinian women race to greet the waves crashing against the bright rocks. "It is so much more beautiful than I thought," said Nawal, watching her gleeful seven-year-old daughter skipping backwards to avoid being sprayed by the waves. "It is more beautiful than on TV, the colour is amazing."

Fatima, 24, gazes out at the horizon. "I didn't know that the sound of the sea is so relaxing," she said. Sara asks for a sheet of paper, speedily folds it into a paper boat and writes her name on it, intending to set it out to sea. "So that it will remember me," she said.

The group convenes at a Jaffa restaurant – about 45 of them in total, including seven children. They are a cheerful party stretched across two long tables. From afar they seem just like any other restaurant party, as the women chat about children, weight gain and health.

But the excursion is far from ordinary. All Palestinians need permits to enter Israel and the penalties for not doing so can involve imprisonment. It is also against the law for Israelis to "smuggle" Palestinians without a permit across the Green Line.

A few months ago Ilana Hammerman, an Israeli journalist, wrote an account of her day trip to Tel Aviv with West Bank Palestinians in Haaretz newspaper. That prompted a criminal investigation against her, for violating Israel's law of entry. But it also inspired a group of women to take the same trip and then take an advertisement in the newspaper to publicise the fact. Since then, there have been hundreds of signatories to a petition of support and many women, on both sides, ready to defy the law.

That's one of the purposes of the action, said Esti, who has been on both trips. "We want more Israelis to realise that there is nothing to be scared of. We want more people to refuse to accept the ideology that keeps us apart – and to just refuse to be enemies."

Restrictions

Before 1991, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza could move freely and restrictions on travel into Israel were the exception.

Then Israel began a permit regime, whereby Palestinians cannot travel without a permit issued by Israel's civil administration, set up by military decree to operate in the West Bank.

The permit system wasn't seriously imposed until the mid-90s, as response to a wave of terrorist attacks inside Israel. Since then, Israel has introduced increasingly restrictive criteria for obtaining a permit and constructed physical barriers – such as the separation wall – that have made enforcement of the system more effective.

West Bank Palestinians granted permits include a quota of workers, who must be over 35 and married; medical patients; students, although under restrictive circumstances; and older persons for religious reasons, such as to pray or to visit family during religious holidays. Some traders and VIPs are also given permits to travel into Israel.

Gisha, the legal centre for freedom of movement, estimates that around 1% of Palestinians are given permits to enter Israel. Some 24,000 Palestinian workers are permitted to enter Israel from the West Bank.

From Gaza, entry for Palestinians to Israel is exceptional and mostly for medical or humanitarian cases.

Source: The Guardian, Rachel Shabi

New horizons open up for female entrepreneur

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

DOUBLE success in last year’s Women into the Network (WIN) Awards has opened up a raft of new opportunities for communications, marketing and events agency Cynergy.

Rebecca Howard, owner of the Stokesley-based business, scooped both the Best Small Business gong and the overall Susan Dobson Award for Entrepreneurship.

Cynergy had worked exclusively in the health and public sector but since winning the awards, the 18-person team has broadened its remit.

Ms Howard said: “We have been pleasantly surprised at how the awards have helped us to open doors as we constantly seek to develop and diversify the business while remaining true to our ethos of only undertaking projects which make a positive difference.

“We know we offer a unique approach, and winning the awards makes it just a little bit easier to convince organisations we really can help them.

“We have begun diversifying our offer into other sectors where it works equally well, such as social enterprise, schools, the green economy, business start-ups and enterprise.

“It shows that inspiring communications and events can change attitudes and behaviours positively, and help organisations achieve their goals.”

The 2009 WIN Awards were the first business awards Ms Howard had entered since Cynergy was set up eight years ago.

She said: “It all started when a member of our team Natalie, our events co-ordinator, sent me an email link with a prompt to enter.

“At first I was unsure as to whether to enter, my ethos is you are only as good as the people behind you – if we were going to enter, it was important that it was a team approach.

“Many conversations later with the team we decided to go for it and in true Cynergy style all of the team got busy pulling together the application process and nominations.”

And she reckons it was definitely worth it. In addition to recognition and business opportunities provided by the double success, Ms Howard says the process had a number of knock-on benefits.

“Just entering the awards makes you take the time to reflect on how far you’ve come, what you might do differently and where you’d like to go.”

Female entrepreneurs have until 5pm on Saturday (September 18) to enter the awards. Visit www.womenintothenetwork.co.uk/awards

Source: Karen Dent, The Journal

Search starts for business achievers

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

FEMALE entrepreneurs from across Tynedale are being urged to enter the North-East’s annual awards for women in business, which is now in its 11th year.

Women Into the Network’s (WIN) North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards aim to celebrate the achievements of women of all ages and reach out to companies new and old, and entry is now open ahead of the glittering awards presentation and dinner later this year.

Previous winners from the district include Sue Moffitt, owner of the Fifiefofum art centre and gallery, in Newton, being crowned the region’s best cultural and creative business and Gill Burgess, director of Hexham-based r//evolution marketing, who was named Rural Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2007.

And at the helm of WIN is Hexham-born former cultural chief, Deborah Anderson, who was head of communications at Tyne and Wear Museums for a decade and was appointed managing director of the networking membership organisation in December.

Categories for the 2010 awards include the Susan Dobson award for entrepreneurship, best new business, young entrepreneur of the year, best small business, best social enterprise, best creative business, best home-based business, best use of technology, best rural business and best retail business.

Di Gates, chairman of the WIN board, said: “If you run a business in any sector, of any size, shape or turnover, we want to hear your story.

“It doesn’t matter if you’ve just started or you’ve been trading for years, there’s a category for you – and entering couldn’t be easier.”

Business women interested in entering can do by visiting www.womenintothenetwork.co.uk and completing the online form.

It is possible to enter yourself or nominate a friend or colleague.

Di added: “If you need a boost of confidence or inspiration you’ll also find it on the website, with stories from previous winners.

“A WIN Award is a major accolade that could really open doors for your business, so please don’t be shy, or put off your entry until next year.”

The awards are open to any woman who operates or owns an enterprise in the North-East.

Entrants must head up an independent organisation and be the main driving force behind it, whether it’s a business or a social enterprise.

The closing date for entries is 5pm on Saturday, September 18, ahead of the shortlisting of nominations on Tuesday, September 28 and the presentation and dinner on Friday, November 19.

Tickets for the North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards evening, at the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead, are available from the WIN website.

Small business owners hit back at banks' reluctance to lend

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Small business owners have reiterated that it is the banks' reluctance to lend, rather than weak demand, which is stifling the flow of finance to small firms.

Business owner-managers claim that banks are asking for increased personal security, are offering businesses more expensive overdraft facilities and are making inconsistent lending decisions.

Gavin Wheedler, CEO of translation agency Applied Language Solutions, told BAD News that he was expected to put up security when he approached a bank for a loan: "We approached the banks and our experience was pretty poor. Unless you have big assets that they can take as security, then their answer is 'no'. What's happened is they've gone from one extreme to another, instead of being in a sensible middle area."

Meanwhile, members of the Daily Telegraph's business club have also reported a range of negative experiences with the banks. One start up owner said he asked the bank for an overdraft and was offered an unsecured facility at "11.23% above the base rate".

Other business owners accused banks of operating with a 'tick box mentality', and being too reliant on computer scores rather than understanding and assessing a small business.

Lending to small businesses through the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme has also dropped, according to the latest Government figures. Statistics from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) show that lending under the scheme dropped from £254 million in the first quarter of 2009 to £186 million in the first quarter of 2010. Lending fell further between the first and second quarters of 2010, down from £186 million to £149 million.

Source: BAD News

Iran: women on the frontline of the fight for rights

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

From the mother sentenced to death by stoning to the lawyer arrested for defending opposition activists, women are prominent symbols of Iran's struggle for democracy.

When Shahrzad Kariman finally saw her imprisoned daughter Shiva Nazar Ahari earlier this month, it was for a brief moment outside the Tehran courtroom where the 26-year-old human rights campaigner had been brought. "We could see her for a few minutes," Kariman told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran last week. "Just enough to hug her. But we couldn't ask her how the court session went… We didn't know what the charges were prior to the court session."

The charges against Nazar Ahari are among the most serious that can be levelled in Iran: muharebeh (enmity against God), a crime, in theory punishable by death, originally intended to be used against armed gangs and pirates, not dissidents.

Nazar Ahari is also charged with assembly and collusion aiming to commit a crime, propagating against the regime and disrupting public order. But perhaps most dangerous among the allegations – strongly denied both by her family and her organisation, the Committee for Human Rights Reporters – is of "relations" with the banned Mojahedin e-Khalq group, which is accused by the Iranian regime of terrorist activities. Her family says that she deplores the organisation.

Arrested twice since the disputed Iranian elections in June 2009 and held in the notorious Evin prison, in north-west Tehran, Nazar Ahari has been kept largely incommunicado since December, when she was arrested with several other women activists on her way to the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in the city of Qom. Also detained was Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, another prominent women's rights activist and film-maker, who has since left Iran and was sentenced in absentia to two-and-a-half-years in jail and 30 lashes for her part in a 2007 protest.

For the 15 months since Iran's stolen elections, the faces of these women and others like them have been visible from Paris to New York, in London, Berlin, Sydney and the Hague.

Their pictures have been held aloft at demonstrations, appeared on human rights websites and are plastered almost daily across newspapers and television screens. They have joined the faces of other Iranian women who, through their activism or by dint of becoming victims of the regime, have come to be the most visible symbols in the west of the wider political and social oppression in Iran under its conservative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Then there are the images of the dead, such as Neda Agha-Soltan, shot on 20 June 2009 while attending an opposition demonstration to protest at the theft of the Iranian election by Ahmadinejad and his supporters.

If female activists have been prominent, so too have women threatened with death, such as Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the 43-year-old mother-of-two thrust to international attention after she was sentenced to being stoned to death for adultery.

And if Mohammadi Ashtiani is not an activist but a victim, her shocking case has become a lightning rod for activism for Iranian human rights, an example of how women are treated in the Islamic republic and the failure of its judicial system. This has been seized on by film stars and celebrities such as Colin Firth, Emma Thompson and Carla Bruni, the wife of France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, by politicians such as foreign secretary William Hague, and by institutions such as the European parliament and the Vatican.

The consequence has been that some names and pictures have become as recognisable as those Iranian women internationally renowned before 2009, such as Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel prize-winning human rights activist.

There is a simple reason why the cases of those women being persecuted for their activism and the case of Mohammadi Ashtiani are connected. Their stories reflect different aspects of the same confrontation in Iran: the place of women – and how women who fall foul of the regime can be accused and charged with anything, with no guarantee of a fair trial.

While the existence of this faultline long predates the events surrounding the 2009 election and the rise of the Green Movement, what is true is that Iran's opposition, for a while at least, has amplified the calls for women's rights which have come to define both the international anxiety about and protest against Ahmadinejad's regime.

Dr Ziba Mir-Hosseini, a Cambridge-based activist and scholar, argues that the current thrusting of women to the fore of the struggle between "despotism and democracy", as she calls it, has been inevitable given the history of women's rights in Iran.

It is a tension, she argues, that has been exacerbated by the contradictory attitude of the 1979 Islamic revolution towards women's political rights. For while the family protection law, introduced by the shah to give women equal rights in issues such as divorce, was quickly revoked after his downfall, the Islamic revolution allowed women to continue voting – a political right, ironically, that was invested with more meaning after the revolution, even as women's human rights were being eroded again under the pretence of the revolution's "protection of women's honour".

The reformists also opened up political space for women to operate, according to Mir-Hosseini. "Mohammad Khatami, during the eight years of his reformist presidency, set up a Centre for Women's Participation that saw the number of women's NGOs in Iran increase from around 45 to over 500."

The consequence, she believes, was that feminism – a word that could not even be uttered in the early 1980s – and a feminism linked strongly to notions of wider human rights, took hold in a new generation of Iranian women.

But even during the period when the country's women were actively encouraged to participate, conservative elements of the regime were working to silence them.

With the birth of the One Million Signature campaign, set up by veteran women's rights activists in 2006, a year after the election of Ahmadinejad for the first time, the scene was set for a confrontation.

And while the campaign was successful in forcing the temporary shelving of Ahmadinejad's own new family protection law, which would have made polygamy easier for men and divorce more difficult for women, the emerging power of women activists, who became leaders of the street protests against the 2009 election result, set them on a collision course with the increasingly hardline regime.

"I think part of the reason there has been so much focus on women's rights since the election is the important role women had in the protests [in 2009]," says Maryam Namazie of the international support group Iran Solidarity. "They were at the very forefront, leading the chanting of the slogans. It is also a fact that women's rights are very much the target of this government."

If the face of that activism went largely unnoticed in the international media before the 2009 election protests, confined to the figure of Shirin Ebadi, the violent sweeping up of those protests catapulted a wider group of women to global attention, both as prisoners of conscience and campaigners on an international stage.

This was partly due to the Neda effect, which drew attention to the role of women activists after Neda Agha Soltan was gunned down, with her death, recorded on video and viewed around the world.

But if that event created a climate of intense interest in the often young women protesters, the response of the Ahmadinejad regime in clamping down on female campaigners drew even more attention.

A final component is the global attention paid to the stoning sentence delivered against Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, which has served to underline what the women activists had long been saying about the broader attempt to dismantle women's rights.

Another prominent case is that of Shadi Sadr, who ran Rahai, a women's legal advice centre, campaigning against stoning and acted as defence lawyer for Nazar Ahari.

Arrested in July last year walking to Tehran University, where she had been planning to attend the Friday prayers led by the reformist former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Shadi Sadr was bundled into an unmarked car and taken to Evin prison. Here she was held in solitary confinement and interrogated about other women's rights activists and the election, before being informed that she would be charged with endangering national security by causing riots.

In court, she was named as a leader of a women's rights movement accused of attempting to overthrow the Islamic republic. Shadi Sadr fled to Turkey two days later.

Describing her attempts to defend Nazar Ahari last week, Shadi Sadr said: "I was never given the permission to meet Shiva [Nazar Ahari] until the day I myself was arrested and, ironically, taken to the same cell Shiva was kept in until the day before I was taken in.

"On the wall of the cell she had written her stories and the charges she thought she was facing. Can you imagine that? The lawyer and her client both kept in one cell within a day? I was not allowed to meet her to hear what she had to say in her defence but that day I read it all on a cell wall.

"Shiva's arrest and especially charging her with muharebeh, which is punishable by death, is a clear message to all women's rights activists in Iran and the message is that they face execution if they continue."

The fate of Shadi Sadr, Shiva Nazar Ahari and Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh since 2009 is deeply instructive. Their cases, as the Iran Human Rights Documentation Centre (IHRDC) argued last month in a report entitled "Silencing the Women's Rights Movement in Iran", have been used to attempt to dismantle the women's rights movement, and to cow it into silence under the cover of national security concerns.

That has included claims of links with "terrorism", as in Nazar Ahari's case, or collaboration with foreign countries, which was the explicit claim made by the Iranian authorities last year when they identified the women's rights movement as being one of six groups behind an attempted "velvet revolution".

Whether the regime really believes that or not, the aim since then, says Parisa Kakaee, a veteran women's rights activist quoted in the IHRDC report, is to present women activists with three options: "to become inactive, to go to prison or to leave the country".

There is no indication that the campaign against women activists is letting up. Last month it was the turn of Nasrin Sotoudeh, 45, an outspoken lawyer and colleague of Shirin Ebadi who has defended a number of opposition activists and protesters. A member of the One Million Signatures campaign, she had been threatened by intelligence service officials that she would be arrested if she continued representing Shirin Ebadi, who left Iran a day before the election for a conference in Spain and didn't return for fear of harassment.

Ebadi said of Sotoudeh's arrest: "The only reason she was arrested is because of her human rights activities, because of defending her clients without any fear. Since the election last summer, a new move of intimidating and putting pressures on lawyers and especially women lawyers has emerged.

"Many have been forced to leave Iran and some are in jail. In this situation, Sotoudeh was one of the very few lawyers and women's rights activists who was still working in Iran."

Ebadi is certain why the present Iranian regime is so afraid of women. In an article in the Guardian, she declared: "Mark my words, it will be women who bring democracy to Iran."

That socially potent coincidence of women's rights and democratic reform is something Ahmadinejad and his supporters are determined should not be permitted to arise.

Iran's regime has also targeted foreign women in high-profile cases.

It had been hoped that US citizen Sarah Shourd would be releasedcorrect to mark the end of Ramadan, but she remains in custody. Shourd is one of three American hikers who crossed into Iran from Iraq's northern Kurdish region in July 2009.

Iran has threatened to put Shourd and her two male companions on trial for spying. Their families say they were hiking in the largely peaceful region of Iraq and that, if they did cross the border, it was accidental.

Clotilde Reiss, a French teaching assistant, was released earlier this year after being initially accused, like Shourd and her companions, of espionage. Reiss was arrested during the mass protests in 2009, when she was 24, and given two five-year jail sentences. Two Iranian men tried on the same day were hanged.

Found to have attended a demonstration and sent photographs of Iran to contacts at home, Reiss was put on trial with more than 100 others accused of trying to topple the regime and spent a month and a half in Evin prison before she was freed on bail and transferred to the French embassy.

Source: Guardian

The Fairer Techs

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Jessica Mah is co-founder and CEO of inDinero.com, a business software company that launched in March 2009. A year-and-a-half later, 4,000 businesses use the financial-tracking platform to manage a collective $400 million. The startup also boasts $1.5 million in funding from YouTube's Jawed Karim and Yelp's Jeremy Stoppelman, among others.

But Mah, one of about a dozen female founders who initially received funding from Y Combinator, the early stage investment firm, refuses to talk about why there are so few female entrepreneurs. "It's a distraction," she said.

Mah's view may represent an extreme, but in the little-guy economy, many female founders of technology startups hesitate when asked about being female. They'd rather talk about the problems their ideas solve, how they got their businesses off the ground or how many users they have. Many say they don't feel disadvantaged being female, but would these women who defy the odds and start technology companies admit it if they did? Probably not.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal's Shira Ovide noted the lack of female entrepreneurs in technology startups. The story unleashed another round of Internet parsing of the subject. Union Square Ventures managing partner Fred Wilson posted in favor of an XX Combinator, an early stage investment firm for female-run startups. In a visceral response, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington urged women like Change the Ratio founder Rachel Sklar to stop complaining and "go out and start companies," which he promised to cover. Sklar's response? Mission accomplished.

As the Journal pointed out, theories abound for why there are so few women in tech. They're risk-averse. They don't have the right backgrounds. They have different timelines. They don't receive proper mentoring. But the hubbub obscures the fact that women long have been business owners and entrepreneurs, in spite of their enormous responsibilities as child-bearers (and, more often than not, child-rearers). Even though they make up only 1 percent of high-tech startup founders and boast fewer million-dollar-plus companies, female-owned businesses could create up to 5.5 million new jobs—one-third of all job growth—by 2018.

Female tech founders say they don't feel alienated by their male counterparts. Deanna Bennett, a former property manager in Chicago, co-founded RentMonitor.com, a software startup for small-time management companies. Her co-founder is a guy. Fine, it's her husband. But this year, she was one of just two women who received funding from TechStars, the seed investment firm in Boulder. Her area of expertise—business—is different from most startup founders, who, more often than not are male technologists, but she didn't feel patronized, ostracized or put off by other TechStars participants. If anything, there were a few cloudy technology talks. "There may have been a couple of those moments where it was like, 'I have no idea what you're talking about,' " she said.

Like many founders in the little-guy economy, female tech founders partner with people who have different skill-sets. Emily Olson was a private label manager for the Fresh Market when she followed her passion for food and partnered with entrepreneur Rob LaFave and technologist Nik Bauman to create Foodzie, an online food marketplace for small producers and growers, also a TechStars startup. She hadn't thought much about being a female entrepreneur until she became a go-to female entrepreneur for articles on women in business. "I never thought about it until people started asking me to talk about it, and I was like, 'Oh, this is kind of rare. How am I doing this and not many others are?' " She attributes the lack of female entrepreneurs largely to the childbearing conundrum for women in their 20s and 30s who don't have the luxury of time that a startup requires.

Similar to their male counterparts, female tech founders start businesses they are interested in, which suggests another reason there are so few women in tech. Women often don't pitch tech-heavy business ideas because fewer are interested in tech-heavy businesses. It's no secret that there are more women in marketing than in computer science and, while it's arguably because fewer women are encouraged to be technologists, it might also be because women find programming boring and overly technical. Often women are more attracted to content development, graphic design, and product management than being coders of software that is going to change the future of the Internet. So maybe the explanation for the relatively low number of female tech entrepreneurs is simple: They just prefer to start other kinds of businesses. But as businesses become more intertwined with technology, many of those upstarts will, by default, be tech startups.

Source: Jill Priluck

North East leading the way in overseas sales

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

THE North East saw the fastest rate of growth in overseas sales in the country during the second quarter.

Figures announced by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) show that the value of North East exports during the period was £2.9 billion, which is the second highest quarterly value ever recorded and is up 16.7% on the first three months of the year, and an increase of 35.5% on the same period in 2009.

The report shows that the West Midlands saw the second biggest increase in export activity, up 14.3% on the first quarter, with London recording a 5.3% drop.

The total value of goods exported from the North East over the last 12 months grew by 6% to reach £10.64 billion, which is 2% more than the average growth for the rest of England.

The value of exports to EU markets has recovered to around the levels recorded in early 2008, while exports to non-EU destinations have reached 45% of the region’s total export value.

Much of this growth can be attributed to a recovery in machinery and transport manufacture, which the HMRC report suggests is nearing export levels seen prior to the global downturn.

The figures will be welcomed by the region’s exporters, as they follow a report from the Office of National Statistics showing that the deficit on the UK’s global trade in goods rose to £8.7 billion in July - much higher than expected after a surge in imports of chemicals and oil.

David Coppock, international trade director at UK Trade and Investment, said: “These latest figures give us grounds for being cautiously optimistic, as the annual trend looks to be solidly upwards at present.

“The North East has a strong export tradition, and while it’s still a little too early to tell whether this improved picture is a significant long-term pattern, businesses should continue to put themselves in the best possible position for growth by looking for overseas opportunities. We at UKTI will continue to work with partners and with companies to ensure that this recent good form in export sales continues.”

Andrew Sugden, policy director at the North East Chamber of Commerce, said: “The North East has always has a good pedigree when it come to exports, so it is no surprise that it is the first to benefit once conditions start to improve.

“Nissan in Sunderland has had a very successful year, which reflects the high number of cars that have been exported out of the North East in recent months. It is clear that many firms involved in the region’s export market have positioned themselves well.”

North East and Midlands 'least resilient' areas

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Industrial areas in the North East and Midlands are least resilient to economic shocks, BBC-commissioned research suggests.

Middlesbrough is ranked as the most vulnerable, followed by Mansfield, in Nottinghamshire, and Stoke-on-Trent.

The Experian research suggests how England's regions may cope with further public sector cuts.

The study looks at the ability of each local authority area to withstand sudden changes in the economy.

A clear north-south divide is evident in the research.

Elmbridge in Surrey is the most resilient area in England, followed by St Albans in Hertfordshire and then Waverley in Surrey, the information suggests.

The research, commissioned by BBC English Regions, looks at four key themes; business, community, people and place.

Within these categories, a number of factors have been analysed, including the amount of vulnerable and resilient industry within an area, the life expectancy of residents, earnings of workers, unemployment and crime rates.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the Experian research showed a north-south divide was already present in England.

He told BBC Radio 4: "Even in the years of plenty over the last decade or so with a lot of government money going into areas of the North East, North West, and where I am an MP South Yorkshire, we still have not been able to shift that divide."

He said that large spending cuts to be announced next month should be seen as part of a broader effort to put the economy on to a more sustainable footing.

The cuts would begin in April 2011, he said, and would be "spread evenly" over the next four years - equivalent to an annual 6% budget reduction over four years.

In his speech on the government spending review, Mr Clegg stressed the need to "balance the books".

"Denying the need to sort out the public finances will lead to big problems in the longer term," he said.

'Fundamental mistake'

But Middlesbrough's Labour MP Sir Stuart Bell said Mr Clegg had "misconstrued" the economy.

"The reason there's a north-south divide is because we lost our major industries in the 80s, like steel and shipbuilding, and jobs from those sectors went into the public sector.

"We recalibrated the economy along those lines to the benefit of the North East."

Sir Stuart said the government was making a "fundamental" mistake in thinking that the private sector would step in to create jobs.

He added: "You don't go from the public sector to the private sector, you go from the public sector to the dole queue."

The BBC commissioned the research as part of The Spending Review: Making it Clear season, which looks at the government's plans to make deep public sector savings.

The results of the coalition government's spending review will be announced in October, when it will be revealed which departments will see their budgets cut and by how much.

The Experian research suggests Middlesbrough will be the least resilient to such public sector cuts.

It is ranked at number 324 out of 324 council areas. The Teesside town also appears as the least resilient in the business section.

Alastair Thomson, dean of Teesside University's business school, said Middlesbrough had a high number of workers employed in the public sector, particularly in the NHS and education.

The three largest employers in the town were public sector, he said.

Public sector employment, along with other industries like construction, engineering and metals, is classified as vulnerable in the Experian research.

Mr Thomson said there was very little of the traditional heavy industry associated with Teesside and the North East left, but new industries were emerging.

"We are seeing a lot of growth in the digital sector," he said. "It is an area we see as having a lot of potential for the future.

"Renewable energy is big business in this part of the world.

"We are a significant player in terms of bioethanol production."

Middlesbrough mayor, Ray Mallon, said the town's budget would be cut by more than £30m over the next three years.

But he said the council had planned for it and was confident it could cope.

"We will survive this because we have got the get up and go and the will to deal with what we have got in spite of a recession, in spite of an economic downturn, and that's very important," he said.

Continue reading the main story

Resilience: Full Data

DownloadExperian resilience data - in full[645kb]

DownloadExperian methodology[41kb]

The North East as a whole does not fare well in the Experian study.

Redcar and Cleveland, Hartlepool, South Tyneside and Sunderland are all in the bottom 20 of the overall resilience table.

One of the area's large industrial employers, Corus steel works in Redcar, announced the partial mothballing of the plant and loss of 1,600 jobs in February.

John Crook lost his job at the plant in March after working there for 25 years.

He and his wife Jan decided to start their own catering business and obtained funding from their local council and from the government's Business Link scheme.

Mr Crook said if such funding was cut by the government in the future, many people in Teesside would be unable to start their own business.

"I can only hope that the new government is sympathetic to the area, that there's no north-south divide," he said.

"We have relied very heavily on steel and heavy industry and most of that has gone now."

He said the mood among former Corus workers who have been made redundant was very "downbeat".

"There does not seem to be work out there," he said.

"What new skills can they bring to steel workers? That's the worry."

'Entrepreneurial area'

At the top of Experian's resilience table is Elmbridge in Surrey, followed by St Albans in Hertfordshire.

St Albans also topped the business resilience section, which looked at a range of variables including the amount of vulnerable sectors, key high-growth areas, new business start-ups and the percentage of working-age population that is self-employed.

Mel Hilbrown, director of St Albans and District Chamber of Commerce, said the main industry in the city was knowledge-based, working in areas such as finance and consultancy, which had proved resilient in the recession.

"It's always been quite entrepreneurial as an area," said Mr Hilbrown, who is also executive director of the St Albans Enterprise Agency.

"In the last five to 10 years, it's had a high number of business start-ups."

He said the recession had provided opportunities for such businesses in the area, and the city's proximity to London helped them.

"Even in the financial recession, things that the larger companies were not so interested in, there were businesses in St Albans starting to develop that niche.

"Small businesses can often be more resilient in a recession."

The Spending Review: Politicians come face to face with the public across England to talk about the cuts. BBC One at 2235 BST on Thursday, and on local BBC radio at 0900 BST on Friday.

How resilient is your area? What has suffered as a result of the downturn in your community? Are there signs of growth?

Send your pictures and videos to [email protected] or text them to 61124 (UK) or 0044 7725 100 100 (International)

Source: bbc.co.uk

Female bosses are more trusted

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

According to our poll, faith in CEOs holds up best when a woman's in charge.

It's the second year of the MT/Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM)'s Index of Leadership Trust survey and although the recession continues to cast a long shadow, the news is mostly good. Of the 5,000 people polled (2,405 managers and 2,595 non-managers), 47% of respondents thought their chief executive officers had handled the impact of the recession either 'very well' or 'quite well'. Another 39% gave their bosses an ambivalent 'neither well nor poorly' performance rating.

All of which means that the CEO index score, as researched by consultancy FreshMinds, has increased by four points to 63 this year. Leaders were rated particularly highly for their ability to create more open and understanding cultures. 'It goes to show that CEOs are doing a lot of work around their own visibility, but are also empathising with the experience their people are having,' says Penny de Valk, chief executive of the ILM. 'It plays to the strategy of "don't be a stranger".'

Of particular interest is the fact that overall trust in female CEOs remains higher than trust in male CEOs, as was the case last year. But the largest year-on-year increase in CEO trust is experienced between male employees and their female CEOs - an increase of eight index points on last year. And most of this increasing level of trust was experienced by non-managers, who registered an increase of a massive 11 index points in their trust for their female CEO between 2009 and 2010. It's a theme we explore in our interviews with Rosaleen Blair, CEO of recruiters Alexander Mann Solutions and Barbara Stocking, CEO of charity Oxfam GB, and some of their male colleagues.

What has fuelled this rise? Women rate more highly than their male counterparts both when it comes to employees having confidence in their boss's ability to do their job and also when it comes to being principled and honest. Female CEOs score higher than male CEOs in these areas by two and three index points respectively. But the really important differentiator is chief executives' knowledge of what their employees have to contend with in their day-to-day lives - female CEOs are seven points ahead of their male counterparts on this measure.

When times are tough, it helps to at least know that your chief executive understands your predicament, even if he or she can't do much about it. Downsizing has meant that people are often doing two jobs: to be able not only to acknowledge that but to understand what it feels like and also help people with their predicament is a big driver of trust.

But, says de Valk, it's wrong to rely on the gender stereotype that women are naturally more empathetic than men. 'We know that women are not likely to put themselves forward for new roles unless they feel 95% capable, whereas men will happily do so at 65%, so what happens is that when women are promoted, they are very familiar with the tasks their people are doing.'

Cost-cutting measures have had a clear negative impact on trust in CEOs. The greater the severity and spread of the measures taken within an organisation, the lower the level of trust felt by employees for the line manager and their CEO - although it's always the CEOs who come off worst, probably because they're not the ones to hold hands and provide shoulders to cry on when bad news is given out.

For employees working in organisations which have suffered no negative recessionary effects - cost- cutting, redundancies or office closures, for example - the CEO trust level score is 68. The score for a CEO whose organisation has been severely affected by recessionary measures is a miserable 51 - a drop of 17 points. 'It just goes to show that there is a massive residual consequence to taking cost cuts in your business by doing that through headcount reductions,' says de Valk. 'You must be able to build that level of trust back up as quickly as you can, because it will have an impact on productivity and engagement.'

There is also a dire warning here for the public sector, which over the next 12 months will be asked to make the eye-watering cuts the coalition government is demanding. According to our survey, out of all the sectors, local and national government employees have the lowest levels of trust in their chief executives. Says de Valk: 'If they are going in with such a limited trust credit in the bank, you've got to ask: how are they going to avoid eroding it further?'

ROSALEEN BLAIR AND ISHPAL BANSAL, ALEXANDER MANN SOLUTIONS

Not many bosses are comfortable admitting that they've made a mistake. But, for Rosaleen Blair, CEO of Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS), making mistakes is part of the culture at the company she founded and key to building trust. 'If people aren't making the odd mistake, they're probably not trying hard enough,' she says.

To work properly, trust must be a two-way thing: Blair and her top management team have to be trusted by their employees, but, equally, they have to trust their staff to make the right decisions. 'If I didn't have faith in the leadership, it'd be very difficult for me to put my heart and soul into the company,' says Ishpal Bansal, the recruitment firm's head of client services (pictured, with Blair). 'Rosaleen tells people it's OK to make a mistake; it's OK to falter.'

Vic Khan is director of global client service centres and responsible for 500 staff. He has been with the company for 13 years and is currently working in Poland. In his time at AMS, he has completed two masters degrees and built operations in the UK, Krakow and Manila. 'That culture of trust and entrepreneurial spirit made it possible,' Khan says.

This culture has been dented over the past few years. Not only did the firm feel the effects of the global financial meltdown, but Blair had just engineered an MBO. It was a lot to contend with and as a result she and her top team took steps to streamline processes across the business. 'Frankly, we probably went too far - we lost some individuality and agility,' she admits.

Blair is now taking steps to address this - what she calls 'putting the heart back into the business', including reinstating an employee awards scheme.

Bansal says that people within the organisation understand that certain things change during a downturn. He says that colleagues recognised that to continue to take big risks would be foolish. 'In a funny way, battening down and being a bit cautious helped foster trust, because at least we realised that the company was being responsible.'

The respect and trust for Blair are palpable from both these male managers. Bansal says he isn't surprised at the findings from the MT/ILM survey which show that female CEOs are more trusted than their male peers. 'Because it's not very often that you see a woman taking the top job, there's a recognition that when they do, they must be very competent.'

Blair herself feels uncomfortable being put into the category of female CEO. 'I just see myself as a businessperson,' she says. 'I'm lucky, because I've been able to create an environment that I want to work in and where I can be successful, as can other employees - regardless of whether they're male or female.'

BARBARA STOCKING AND CHRIS ASHWORTH, OXFAM GB

[BX] For an organisation such as Oxfam, trust is vital. Not only does there need to be a high level of trust among employees, but with donors, corporate partners and beneficiaries too. The charity's CEO, Barbara Stocking, says the key to being trusted by staff is demonstrating personal integrity. 'I don't just mean being honest, what I mean is that you are who you say you are and do what you say you will do.'

Chris Ashworth, corporate partnerships manager, one of Stocking's indirect reports, agrees. Despite his neatly managed response, it is evident he respects his leader. He has been with the organisation for four years and says that transparency is vital for him. 'You know the integrity's there, but it's about making it visible.' Stocking is good at this - she operates an 'open door' policy, to ensure staff who want to see her about a serious issue can, and communicates directly with employees every month by email letter.

Remaining visible and accessible is even more important during these straitened times. As the MT/ILM survey shows, the cost-cutting measures taken during the recession have stretched trust to its limit. Certainly the impact of the downturn was felt at Oxfam: the annual staff survey found that motivation and satisfaction were down slightly on two years ago, which Stocking attributes to the economic malaise.

Despite giving the orders for 70 redundancies in 2008 and implementing a pay freeze, Stocking doesn't feel that she is being held directly responsible. 'It's not a nice thing to do,' concedes Stocking, 'but again, it's about explaining.' She also says it was made easier by the fact that people were accepting of the external factors forcing her hand. Moreover, the nature of the organisation dictates that people are more understanding when it comes to saving cash. 'Donors give us money not to spend in Oxfam House, but to do good work in Pakistan or Afghanistan,' she says. They trust her to make the right call and ensure money goes to where it should - to the projects on the ground.

The downturn and its impact on male CEOs may help explain one of the most interesting findings of the research, that female bosses remain more trusted than their male counterparts. Ashworth suggests that the revelations around MPs' expenses and a procession of disgraced male CEOs being in the spotlight may have played a part. 'Male leaders have taken a real battering over the past year,' he says.

Stocking is hopeful it signifies a step-change in the way female bosses are viewed. 'Men may be just getting used to having women CEOs,' she offers. 'People haven't been accustomed to women in top positions. Now they can see more examples - and that they're doing a good job.'

Source: www.managementtoday.co.uk

Awards process nurtured setting up a second venture

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

TAKING time out to think about how her business had progressed and where it is heading was Jayne Graham's primary reason for entering the North East Woman Entrepreneur

(WIN) of the Year Awards last year.

But taking that time and being shortlisted in the Best Home-Based Business category with 20:20 Consulting gave her the added impetus to go for it and start a second enterprise from her home in Gateshead.

In addition to the business planning, mentoring and development consultancy, Ms Graham launched Space on Tap in June to help people find occasional space for their business and leisure needs. She initially set up 20:20 Consulting in 2004 and works all over the North East and nationally when the job requires it.

Ms Graham said: “I entered the awards purely and simply because I knew I’d benefit from the process of applying – nothing more than that

“I needed to take time out to think about the future, and this provided a great opportunity to reflect on the past five or six years since I set up 20:20 Consulting. Through writing the application I surprised myself as I recognised how much I’d achieved... more importantly I realised that I had actually achieved what I’d set out to do: I’d enabled change for my customers, for myself and for my family.”

And making it on to the shortlist in the awards for the region’s brightest and best female-run businesses was the independent endorsement she needed to persuade her to start thinking seriously of her next enterprise.

“It provided a real opportunity for me to draw a line under my first phase of self-employment and gave me the confidence to start thinking seriously about the next phase,” said Ms Graham. “That led to the launch of a new business that built on my experience of running a home-based business. Two months after the awards evening I had written a business plan for a new business concept, and the new business www.spaceontap.com launched in June.

“The short-listing and awards dinner also provided the opportunity for my business partner in Space on Tap to absorb the success of other women in business, reinforcing her desire to set up the new business with me.”

The WIN Awards are in their 11th year and female entrepreneurs have until 5pm on September 18 to enter. Entries will be shortlisted on September 28 and the presentation and dinner are on November 19. To enter visit www.womenintothenetwork.co.uk/awards

Categories for the 2010 awards are:

The Susan Dobson Award for Entrepreneurship.

Best New Business.

Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Best Small Business.

Best Social Enterprise.

Best Creative Business.

Best Home-Based Business.

Best Use of Technology.

Best Rural Business.

Best Retail Business.

Source: Karen Dent, The Journal

Six reasons why you're sabotaging your business (maybe)

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

You're irreplaceable. You don't want to lose control. You're lacking in focus. What's holding your business back from growing? Could it be as simple as... you? Heather Townsend gives us six reasons why you could be sabotaging your business.

1. Fear of losing control

"No-one else seems to be able to do the work to the same standard as me." Sound familiar? Does this type of thinking prevent you from delegating effectively? Unless you can learn to trust other people to do the work for you, the size of your business will be limited by your personal capacity to deliver.

2. Clinging onto the work

I see this often with technical specialists – e.g. accountants, lawyers, etc. They love the technical side of their work so much that they're reluctant to give it up or hand it over to someone else. There is always an excuse which keeps them clinging onto their work. If you want your business to grow, you have to be prepared to step up and lead your business, rather than BEING the business. Until I did some personal reflection, I realised that I was unable to justify why I shouldn't take on every new client for my business.

3. Lack of focus

We’ve all seen it happen. A business gets swamped with ideas, projects and initiatives, and in the end nothing gets done. Or it may be that the business loses its direction over what it’s all about. It’s interesting that when I'm coaching business owners, normally the first thing we do is re-establish the business focus and strategy.

4. Scattergun approach

Often, I see business owners trying too hard – particularly on their marketing efforts. They throw a bit of mud around in all directions and hope that some of it will stick. Steady business growth takes focus and clarity – as well as joined up marketing, sales, operations and financial thinking.

5. Thinking you're irreplaceable

When I identified the reasons why my clients were choosing to work with me, I identified elements of my expertise which influenced their buying decisions:

Social media knowledge and marketing savvy
Success in growing my own business around the demands of a family
Female who wanted to have quality time with her family, but build up a successful business
Qualified coach with many testimonials to prove this
Happy to move into a mentor role if needed

It was at this point that I drew a blank. I didn’t know anyone else who had this mix of skills and would be happy to take on associate work, and so fell into the trap of believing I was irreplaceable.

This can easily happen if you niche yourself and build up expert status within this niche. My subconscious had started to believe all my marketing hype and spin. But really, this was a mental block only in my head. As soon as I started to properly look within my network, I was able to find two fantastic associates to act as business coaches for me, who, for various reasons, would be very happy to do some associate work for me.

6. Lack of confidence

Confidence is often the difference between a business success and a business failure. Many businesses are crippled by their business owners' lack of confidence to take the right decisions, or kick the right doors down at the right time.

Heather Townsend, Britain's queen of networking, is the founder of The Efficiency Coach, a company that helps professionals achieve better business results for less effort. Follow her Joined Up Networking blog for more useful tips and tricks. She has just been commissioned to write the FT Guide to Business Networking.

Source: realbusiness.co.uk

Female Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0100

In recent years, the rate of new business formation by women has significantly outpaced the rate of new business formation by men across all ethnic groups in the USA. Similar trends are found across the developing world. However, women still own and manage significantly fewer businesses than men. The explanation for this phenomenon, the behaviour of female entrepreneurs in terms of traits, motivations, and success rates, and their gender-related distinctiveness are complex and multifaceted. Despite a growing literature we still need more research on female entrepreneurship—particularly in developing countries where we are seeing a growing number of initiatives aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and empowering women in the process. The latter tendency reflects a generally growing interest in female entrepreneurship in developing countries, which, in turn, is due to greater interest in the role played by entrepreneurship in the economic development process. Women have been assigned a special role not only because they stand to benefit from entrepreneurship being the poorer and more discriminated against gender, but also because they are seen as a critical driver of entrepreneurship in light of their unique role in the household and the rise in female-headed households across the developing world.
Within this context, UNU-WIDER's project on Promoting Entrepreneurial Capacity turned its focus towards a fresh look at female entrepreneurs in developing countries. The resulting research was recently published as a special section of the European Journal of Development Research (EJDR) (see further reading). This article provides a short overview of some of the key findings and recommendations contained in the special section of the journal.

Some stylized facts from three decades of research on female entrepreneurship in advanced economies

What are the stylized facts we have learned from the last 30 years of research on female self-employment and new business creation? We now know that significantly fewer women than men own and manage businesses worldwide. This could be because women fail more often than men or because fewer women than men start businesses to begin with, or both. However, some evidence exists that, after correcting for factors such as size of the business and sectoral distribution, women's failure rates are not that significantly different from those of men. Thus, at least a portion of the difference between genders must be due to the fact that fewer women than men start businesses. Evidence to date suggests that a variety of reasons contribute to explaining observed differences in entrepreneurial behaviour across genders, and that such differences have significant implications at the macroeconomic level. Perhaps women and men have different socioeconomic characteristics and, if we were to correct for factors such as education, wealth, family and work status, those differences would disappear. Indeed, quite a bit of empirical evidence shows that such differences exist. Also, women tend to possess fewer years of experience then men and tend to concentrate in different sectors. In addition, the propensity of women to start a business may differ from that of men for cultural reasons such as discrimination.

The businesses owned and managed by men and women are also different. We now know that women's businesses tend to be smaller and to grow less than those owned by men. Also, women's businesses tend to be less profitable than those of men and to generate lower sales turnover than men, even in same industry comparisons. Minniti (2009, see further reading) provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the literature on women entrepreneurs and their businesses.

Female entrepreneurs in developing countries

What do we know about female entrepreneurship in developing countries? Do 'stylized facts', as briefly noted above, also apply to developing contexts? The general question is whether the characteristics and role of female entrepreneurship vary across countries at different stages of development. Recent evidence shows that prevalence rates of female entrepreneurship tend to be relatively higher in developing then in developed countries. This has traditionally been explained by the fact that in developing economies women face higher barriers to entry in the formal labour market and have to resort to entrepreneurship as a way out of unemployment and, often, out of poverty. Research on female entrepreneurship in Latin America and the Caribbean, for example, found very high rates of female entrepreneurship in the poorest countries of the region—up to 35 per cent in Peru—and notes that only 13 per cent of women entrepreneurs in the region indicated that they expected their firm to grow over the following five years. In many cases opportunities and incentives are unfavourable for women to begin businesses, even when they have the abilities and knowledge.

This issue was again taken up by asking, as documented in greater detail in the special section of EJDR, what variables are systematically associated with female entrepreneurship, and whether they vary when countries at various levels of economic development are considered. It is found that variables associated with entrepreneurial decisions tend to be the same for men and women and across countries, regardless of level of development, and that gender differences in entrepreneurial behaviour tend to be remarkably stable across countries. However, the intensity with which each of these variables influences individuals does vary significantly across gender and across countries depending on their level of development. As a result, on average, participation rates for men tend to be 50 per cent higher than those of women creating a 'gender gap' in entrepreneurship.

Larger gender gaps in start-up activity are found in middle-income countries, whereas they tend to be narrower in lower-income countries probably because many women start businesses out of necessity. Surprisingly, women in poorer countries tend to be more self-confident about their abilities (skills and knowledge) to become entrepreneurs and less afraid of failure compared to women in middle- and high-income countries—notwithstanding subjective and possibly biased perceptions about self-confidence, fear of failure, and existence of opportunities or significant and systematically associated determinants of the gender gap across all countries.

Women in developing countries, like their counterparts in more developed ones, rely more than men on extended families which, in many rural settings are often their only or major social network. This is often constraining since women's marriage status, and the assets and incomes brought to their marriages, emerge as important determinants of their entrepreneurial decisions. Married women with young children are more likely to enter entrepreneurship than waged labour, and are more likely to be entrepreneurs than non-married women—although they are also more likely to quit a business voluntarily.

As far as female entrepreneurs' firm performance is concerned, the evidence from developing and developed countries is somewhat similar. Women tend to have lower growth expectations and their firms tend to grow slower in both sales and employment than those of men even if one controls for sectors. Some evidence suggests that women's primary concern in many developing countries is not with growth but rather with survival. This may be a reason for the finding that habitual female entrepreneurs in developing countries tend to be portfolio rather than serial entrepreneurs, as they attempt to diversify income sources and survival chances.

Further research

We conclude our overview by noting a few avenues where further research is warranted. Six stand out. First, we need more theory, as theoretical developments have not kept pace with the large amount of empirical studies.

Second, a significant and yet unresolved issue concerns what variables should enter the utility function of individuals when studying their allocation of time between household production, waged labour and self-employment—particularly in developing economies and when alternative views of the familial unit are considered. And when applied to serial entrepreneurship, the theoretical and empirical literature has very little to say on women in developing countries.

Third, questions related to cultural factors and migrations among the self-employed provide another very fertile area of inquiry for both theory and empirical work—with the possibility of making not only a significant contribution to science but also to policy and management practices. As migration becomes an important coping mechanism in the face of development shocks, further research would be very desirable especially at the under-researched intersection between gender, ethnicity, and migrant status.

Fourth, discrimination has been suggested as a possible explanation for the gender gap in entrepreneurship and this is likely to be more significant in poorer countries, although the evidence is mixed. Discrimination against women is often the result of gender beliefs inherent in a culture or society. This may have the effect of not only reducing women's likelihood of becoming entrepreneurs and their earnings as entrepreneurs, but may also reduce the non-pecuniary benefits women receive from entrepreneurship.

Fifth, very little is known about how the level of aggregate activity influences women's decisions about entrepreneurship and even less is known about how the latter contribute to growth. Although a significant amount of anecdotal evidence and some very good case studies exist on this topic, the lack of a systematic approach and data has prevented, so far, the formulation of a comprehensive and robust theory of female entrepreneurship and growth. Of course, no 'women only' theory is necessary. However, a solid understanding of how the distinctive characteristics of female entrepreneurship are accounted by existing models of growth would be very desirable for both science and policy.

Finally, the study of institutions and how they promote or discourage female entrepreneurship is particularly needed for its policy implications, especially in developing countries where issues of institutional development has in recent years been emphasised. Within this context, a post-institutional approach based on insights from economics and organization theory seems promising as well as economic approaches that integrate tools and methods from anthropology and ethnography.

Source: UNU WIDER, Maria Minniti and Wim Naudé

Show your supoort for somebody truly outstanding

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Do you know somebody who's played an outstanding role in promoting and encouraging business enterprise skills in the UK? Do you think their achievements deserve extra special recognition?

Then nominate them for The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion – the UK’s most prestigious award for individuals in business.

Who stands out for you?
Inventors to innovators, entrepreneurs to educators, the award recognises people who have gone that extra mile to work with people who need help setting out in business, like local communities, young people or students.

While any individual can be nominated, only the truly exceptional are recognised – there are just 10 awards given out each year, as well as one special Lifetime Achievement Award.
See a list of previous recipients here.

So as you’d expect, the process is meticulous and the judging is rigorous. You can make your nomination online here and if you have any queries, call our helpline on 020 7215 6880.

Share in the sense of achievement
If your nominated individual is successful, you and other nominators will be invited to a reception at Buckingham Palace with Her Majesty The Queen in July 2011 – so you can share in their success.

So make your nomination today and help someone outstanding achieve the recognition they deserve.

Gillian Hall, Senior Partner, Watson Burton

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

THE announcement of a senior partner at a Northern law firm rarely makes a notable claim on history. And in many ways the newest incumbent of the top job at 199-year- old Newcastle firm Watson Burton is very much what you may expect.

They are ambitious, fearsomely bright, popular, no nonsense and widely respected. But in one respect the diminutive figure smiling across a desk at the firm’s modern city centre offices is most unusual.

Surprising as it may seem, Gillian Hall is the only woman to have made it to the leading role at a full service law firm in the whole of the North of England.

And while she is modest, jovial and quietly spoken you don’t get to break the mould in a highly competitive business like corporate law without being pretty tough. Hall exudes an understated strength of character and is aware of her achievement.

I suppose I have always been a role model for women. When I started as an equity partner at Watson Burton in 1988 there was only one other female partner in the city, Catherine Wood, who is now at Sintons,” she says.

“That there are now more female partners must have had something to do with people seeing us and realising they could do it.”

Hall, who has headed the firm’s corporate team for 18 years, said that she had never felt her career had been held back by prejudice because of her gender.

“Of course, when I started here you couldn’t go in the Northern Counties Club or certain golf clubs, but I really believe the North East and this firm in particular is a meritocracy,” she adds.

Hers is a strength of personality which has its roots in growing up on a farm in North Tyneside. The 49-year-old says she had her first lessons in corporate wheeling and dealing from her father.

“When he took his wool to market once a year he would always wear scruffy clothes to make himself look poor. That was ingrained into me,” she says, looking smart in a cream suit.

“As a farmer’s daughter I spent my early life submerged in business and, if someone would pay the right price for what we produced, then we would have money to live on for the rest of the year. Doing deals was part and parcel of my early life.”

Hall went on to study classics and history at A-level and went on to become the first in her family to go to university, and she did it in style and took a first class degree at Cambridge.

Like most ambitious and bright young Oxbridge law graduates she headed to London. But while she enjoyed her two years at respected City firm Lovell White King she wasn’t overly fond of London and happily returned to the North East.

“When I cross the Tyne, I know I’ve come home. I could have stayed in London and probably become a partner there by now but I like being in the North East and always have done. This is a firm I really care about and it’s a huge honour to become senior partner,” she says.

An interview over lunch with then senior partner David Foster at Watson Burton and she was sold on the idea of a return.

“I interviewed a few firms and Watson Burton impressed me the most.” However this first marriage proved to be something of a Taylor/Burton affair with Hall departing after six months only to return a few months later.

She recounts: “I was thinking ‘this is real easy’ and I wanted to go into industry.” She soon landed a job with North East engineering giant NEI which saw her handling huge engineering contracts all over the world. But after a few months she says she realised: “It just wasn’t for me, it lacked the variety of a private practice law firm.”

She was welcomed back to Watson Burton’s corporate finance team with a target of becoming a partner within three years and did so in 1988.

Watson Burton, one of the region’s oldest law firms will celebrate its 200th anniversary next year. It was primarily developed by lawyer and philanthropist Robert Spence Watson, whose involvement with the firm started in the 1860s and lasted for over 50 years.

But the old firm has not stood still. Watson Burton was formerly based in Pilgrim Street, then Collingwood Street before moving into new premises at St James Gate in the city in 2004.

Since then it has opened office in Leeds and more recently another in the “Gherkin” building in the City of London, both of which are continuing to be successful and, Hall stresses, that despite scepticism in rival firms, will continue to stay open.

Hall has a strong sense of the firm’s heritage and believes Robert Spence Watson would be impressed with how the practice has progressed.

“We still have some of the clients Robert Spence Watson brought into the firm, the electricity board – in its latest incarnation – the Miners Colliery Managers Association and Parsons Brinckerhoff.

“If we’ve got them still then, he would be thinking, we must be doing something right. He would certainly be impressed by the new offices and the offices in Leeds and London. I think he would be very proud.”

However Hall will be Watson Burton’s third senior partner since its most recent move into new offices. Her mentor David Foster was replaced by the well-known, sports car driving, Andrew Hoyle as senior partner in 1996 after 16 years at the helm, with Hoyle stepping down 10 years later to be replaced by the genial and unassuming construction specialist Rob Langley, who left last month to become a partner at rival Newcastle firm Muckle LLP.

Hall, who lives with her academic husband Richard Whitaker and their son David, 13, in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, aims to become higher profile than her predecessor.

“In many ways Watson Burton has been hiding its light under a bushel in the last few years and I want to change that. I am already quite well known in the business community and now I am determined to get out there,” she smiles.

Hall is a member of the CBI regional council and sits on the board that helps distribute Government grants to North East business.

She now faces the challenge of heading a firm in a tough environment for professional services. Watson Burton saw its revenues slide to £19m in the 12 months to August 2009, from £22m a year earlier, and cut 55 of its 300 staff last summer.

“It’s been a rough 18 months for all professional services firms, and part of my role is to say the past is over and this is the future. We have a new Government and we are going into a big review of the public services. I believe there are opportunities for the private sector. I am cautiously optimistic,” she says.

“The firm has had the same strategy for the last three to four years. That strategy is to operate as a business and develop the new markets in Leeds and London, bringing some of the high-quality work back to Newcastle.

“But I think our mistake is that we have not made that strategy clear to the local market. We were maybe a little too focussed in other areas.

“Rob did a good job but he was not as active in the local market as I want to be. We want to reconnect locally.

“We will continue to have a presence in Leeds and London and we want to maintain and develop upon our existing good quality clients and lawyers.”

Source: Peter McCusker, The Journal

Going on to shortlist is a real boost

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

A BUZZ and a morale boost across the business is how Jill Roe describes being shortlisted in last year's North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

Ms Roe, manager of photography business Digitalab in Newcastle’s Ouseburn Valley, competed in the Innovation through Technology category after being put forward by her colleague Jeff Heads.

“The lab manager Jeff nominated me. I was gobsmacked. It was an absolute surprise,” she said.

“We’d never as a business done anything like that before. In the last two years, we have introduced new ways of working, new systems and a new online ordering system. This was our way of saying ‘yes, it’s working’.”

Since taking over as head of the family-run Digitalab, Ms Roe has overseen a major shake-up which allowed the business to grow by more than a quarter during the recession.

Ms Roe has worked there for 13 years and spent her university years as a van driver for the company. After completing her education, she worked on producing photographic digital prints before stepping up to running the business.

The company, which was set up in 1949, employs 10 staff working on photographic printing, exhibition and banner stands. The whole team went to last year’s awards ceremony.

“I was a bit disappointed not to win but to be shortlisted was great,” said Ms Roe.

“I am so proud of what I have achieved and especially to be recognised at the ceremony, it was a great buzz for myself and the staff.

“Everyone at work had a bit of a buzz about it and it was good for morale. We have the certificate in reception and it is a talking point when customers come in.”

The brightest and best businesses run by women in the North East are being urged to enter the region’s top awards for female entrepreneurs.

The Women Into the Network (WIN)’s North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, now in their 11th year, are kicking off across the region with a series of lunchtime events over the next week.

Any woman who operates or owns an enterprise in the North East can enter. Women can nominate themselves or be put forward by a friend or colleague.

The closing date for entries is 5pm on September 18. Entries will be shortlisted on September 28 and the presentation and dinner are on November 19. To enter visit www.womenintothenetwork.co.uk/awards

Categories for the 2010 awards are:

The Susan Dobson Award for Entrepreneurship
Best New Business
Young Entrepreneur of the Year
Best Small Business
Best Social Enterprise
Best Creative Business
Best Home-Based Business
Best Use of Technology
Best Rural Business
Best Retail Business.

Source Karen Dent, The Journal

Mixing business with pleasure: the new rules of business networking

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

I believe that today’s entrepreneurs can gain huge benefits from business networking. When I worked as MD for one of Richard Branson’s Virgin companies, I attended countless lunches, launches, cocktail parties and conferences, all with a distinctly corporate feel to them. This is why I understand why many business people today throw up their hands in horror at the thought of networking. But I’m not referring to the stiff corporate handshakes and formal exchange of business cards, but a new, more enjoyable form of networking, which aims to help entrepreneurs and start-ups feel part of a supportive community and gives them a chance to learn from each other’s experiences. If you’re still dubious, here are some “rules” to help you get to grips with the new business networking:

Thou shalt not start with a card
Networking means more than business cards and handshakes today – it is the sharing of experiences, personal and professional, and the chance to learn from one another and be inspired in an informal business environment, without ‘the big sell’. Backing this up, recent T-Mobile research found nearly half (43%) of female business leaders see business cards as one of the least important assets to a company.

Thou shalt mix business with pleasure
It is a reflection of how busy our lives are that we can no longer distinctly separate the personal from the professional. If you ask me, we should embrace the fact that we can now socialise and informally enjoy our peers’ company within a business context – why shouldn’t an educational discussion about a tax return at a networking event be followed by a burlesque dancing demonstration, for instance?

Thou shalt shout about thy achievements
It is amazing how modest many entrepreneurs can be, particularly those in the creative industries, who may naturally shy away from corporate formalities. With the help of a supportive business network, their achievements can be publicised for them, as word of their talents spreads organically through the group.

Thou shalt admit thy weaknesses
On the flip side to this, by admitting our failings to our peers we are effectively asking them for help. There is a real sense of community spirit amongst entrepreneurs today and many will volunteer their time and services to help you, in the hope you’d do the same for them.

Thou shalt not have a masterplan
Business networks are a great place to start if you are looking for inspiration for a new business, particularly for those who lost their job during the recession and are feeling unsure of their options. This can lead to dramatic and exciting career changes. They also offer an accessible talent pool to find your ideal business partner – for instance, one of my meetings brought together a nutritionist and a personal trainer, who have now formed a healthy lifestyle company.

Thou shalt get out of the office
Don’t feel guilty for abandoning your office duties and attending a networking event. The knowledge and contacts you gain through getting out and about are worth the time away. Having access to a smartphone means you won’t feel too guilty. I was late to join the BlackBerry party but, having just completed a week’s challenge to work out of the office with T-Mobile, I’m now an addict.

Thou shalt get on the net
Business leaders should see social networking as a cornerstone of the new business networking; a way to help them build a far wider array of contacts and gain more knowledge than was ever previously possible. However, they should not rely on it as their only means of networking. Face to face meetings will always be important.

Thou shalt make thy own rules
The great thing about today’s business networks is their diversity. A small amount of research will help you identify the type of network that is right for you and meet like-minded business people. The new business networking is all about breaking away from convention but don’t take my word for it – try it for yourself and make up your own rules!

Source:

Geraldine Brooks, founder of women’s business networking group, the sugargroup,

Show offers a launchpad for new rural businesses

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

A NUMBER of new entrepreneurs are using this year's Glendale Show in Northumberland to launch their businesses to the public.

The annual agricultural show, which is held in Wooler on August Bank Holiday Monday, has recruited a number of first-timers to its ranks of trade stands, including artisan food and craft enterprises.

They include Wooler-based Northumberland Nurseries, which opened for business earlier this year, and specialises in homegrown plants and advice. The business, set up by gardener Robert O’Rourke, is run along ethical and environmentally- friendly principles.

Alnwick-based mumpreneur Laura Rutherford has taken a stall to promote her online store Sweetie Home. The enterprise set up after the birth of Ms Rutherford’s daughter Bella, sells gifts for babies and the home as well as children’s fashions.

And Janet Lawlor is aiming to introduce her luxury Northumbria Muffins, made at home in Ellington near Morpeth, to shoppers in the food marquee.

She bakes sweet and savoury muffins using locally sourced ingredients wherever possible, which she mainly sells via farmers’ markets and regional outlets.

Glendale Show secretary Rachael Smith said: “For any rural business, the benefits offered by the Glendale Show are significant.

“As well as getting to sell their product and raise their company profile, they also have the opportunity to gain valuable customer feedback and to swap experiences with other stall holders.

“We hope this year’s show will continue to help support our rural businesses as they have an important role to play in Glendale.”

The show, which has been running for 118 years, now has around 300 stalls annually including a number of firm regulars, including Doddington Dairy.

The business, originally a farm diversification, now sells its products in supermarkets and across the region.

Ms Smith said: “Many of our stallholders are firm regulars and we work hard to make sure that the show is as successful for them as it is for the equestrian and livestock classes.

“Many of them are rural enterprises and may not have a shop window so this is a really valuable opportunity to put themselves in front of the 12,000 visitors who come to the show.

“Over 50% of the items on offer at the show are made locally and we have a policy of approaching new and start-up businesses in Glendale to encourage them to come to the show.”

Source: Karen Dent, The Journal

Will the next Google be started by a woman?

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

After decades investing in “white male nerds who’ve dropped out of Harvard or Stanford,” venture capitalist John Doerr broke a pattern in July: he invested in a woman.

Not that Kathy Savitt was a risky bet.

The former CEO of American Eagle Outfitters and a senior executive at Amazon, Savitt built Lockerz.com, a social networking and commerce site for ages 13 to 30. She grew it from 50 college and high school students to 15.5 million users in less than twelve months, leveraging natural networks of friends and social influence. In the web technology world, she’s a rock star.

Doerr, and his firm, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, are well-known for prescient, industry-leading investments including Google, Intuit, and Amazon. They estimate they’ve created 150,000 jobs.

But in an industry obsessed with placing bets based on what’s known as “pattern recognition,” women-led companies are funded less than 9% of the time. According to Shaherose Charania, this recently dropped as low as 3%. For women age 40+, the rates are even lower.

Savitt, a 47-year-old mother of two, breaks that mold.

Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, describes this more recent phenomenon: “There are more women in the world. They represent a greater share of markets and purchasing power. Being more proactive about increasing their presence in the industry just makes sense.”

Recent studies by the Kauffman Foundation and venture capitalist Cindy Padnos of Illuminate Ventures show high-tech businesses with women in leadership outperform the rest. They are more capital efficient, launching with 30%-50% less capital, generate 12% higher revenues, and have lower failure rates.

If women are so good at starting businesses, then why does it take them longer to start one? Well, according to a Tampa University study, women are bitten by the entrepreneurial bug later than men. Our startup sweet spot is between the ages of 35 and 45 — after we’ve finished school, gained professional experience, had children, and transitioned out of the early “interruption parenting” years. We are eager to apply what we know, to create new businesses on our own terms.

Nonetheless, the two-white-guys-in-a-garage stereotype remains the romantic ideal.

Consider Y Combinator, the tech industry’s most prestigious startup incubator.

Founded in 2005 and located in Mountain View, CA, Y Combinator’s mission is to introduce many ideas to the market quickly and cheaply, so mistakes are small and earnings arrive early. The model works.

It’s funded by big, smart tech money, which is backed by internet pioneers Paul Graham, Trevor Blackwell and Robert Morris. Its participants, who hail from around the country, get to rub elbows with the biggest names in technology. A Y Combinator badge is like flypaper for investors.

But it turns out that fewer than 3% of Y Combinator participants are women. According to Y Combinator partner and author of “Founders at Work” Jessica Livingstone, this ratio represents their applicant pool.

Now, I’m a swing-for-the-fences kind of gal so last year I looked into applying to Y Combinator. They require a three-month relocation to the Valley. Trouble is, I’m a 40-year old suburban wife and mother of two young kids from the New York. So no can do.

I blogged and commented in recent weeks about it, and learned I’m not alone.

Leading venture capital investor and blogger Fred Wilson also blogged about the topic to his 100,000 daily readers. And out came a tidal wave — four times his average comment activity. Hundreds of women emerged from the shadows.

Do we need an “XX Combinator” for women entrepreneurs age 40+? Perhaps.

But many male voices of “a certain age” came out too. So did women in their 20s and 30s, without kids. So did African Americans.

They offered compelling alternatives such as the “Kids-In-Bed Combinator” — prime work hours from 9pm to 2am!

Or we could call it “NY Combinator.” The New York startup scene is breaking out. Great wins are happening for our home-grown, such as Gilt Groupe, Foursquare, Etsy and Tumblr. While these groups weren’t conceived by women, despite some of them directly serving that population, New York’s creative class does provide a mother lode of female talent. According to Richard Florida’s 2007 “singles” map, he counted 185,000 more highly-educated, creative single women than men.

These creative juices could be flowing to tech startups if they could get products to market and raise capital. We should grab this moment to support the diverse technology innovation that is popping up all over New York and start serving up the best of what New York — and everywhere else — has to offer, including young-white-guys-in-garages too.

It’s taken me, a Wharton grad with 18 years experience and several startups and an IPO under my belt, twelve months to get from idea to product introduction. In an era where speed-to-market is the name of the game, that is way too long.

Our country is in desperate need of jobs. Innovation creates jobs. And great ideas can come from the most unexpected of places. Including a mom from the ’burbs who yearns to build the next Google.

Source: Tereza Nemessanyi, reuters.com

Tomorrow's media needs to be wired, inspired and for women

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Many national newspapers have more male readers than female. But that gap is closing fast, and the success of female-friendly websites like Mail Online are beginning to suggest a clear direction for the future.

Sex counts at the newsstand. If you're a woman reading the Daily Star, you're in an oppressed minority. There are only 733,000 of you, against 1,036,000 men (on the most recent National Readership Survey figures). The Sun is a bit of a boys' joy, too: 4,322,000 men against 3,429,000 women. But pick up a Daily Mail and (2,458,000 women to 2,423,000 men) the breakfast table is overturned. Welcome to the future – or at least to a slightly improved present day.

Once upon a quite recent time, it was male readers who mattered most. They were the movers, shakers and big-ticket spenders. The Independent's current gender breakdown, 375,000 men against only 260,000 women, wouldn't have caused any frowns. The Times, at 1,036,000 to 733,000, would have reflected the natural order of things. But now balances are shifting fast.

A summer research study from ComScore, an authoritative digital analysis company, shows women worldwide beginning to dominate social networking on the net and to stay online longer then men (buying as well as chatting). They're the "divas with the dollars" on the basis of this study; they are more connected; "they're embracing the internet in a way that men are not".

And some of that switch obviously has an impact on media fortunes, too. Jim Chisholm, a shrewd independent analyst, has just pulled the trends together for InPublishing magazine's electronic edition. Ten years ago, he discovers, some 62% of American men read a newspaper, compared with only 44% of women. By 2009, that had shrunk to 47% of men, compared with 44% of women. In Japan, the difference was 25% and is a mere 2% a decade later. In Britain, the gap has shrunk from 4% to 3%. Only Germany, among the major developed markets, has gone the other way.

Can you correlate these statistics with overall circulation performance, Chisholm asks. Maybe: Japanese newspaper sales have only dropped 7% in a decade, while Germany's have slumped by 20%. And there's just a minor intuitive jump to make when you consider the Daily Mail's startling website performance, at well over 40 million unique users and rising – roughly double the Times and the Sun before they slid behind results-averse paywalls.

The easy thing to say about Mail Online is that it's stuffed with celebrity gossip. But that may be just another way of saying that, as in print, it's particularly women-friendly at a time when women are the fastest-growing, most advertiser-attractive audience in town. Certainly, with its number of engaged UK visitors (those clicking on more than 10 times a month) rising from 7% to 12% in a year, there's an almost addictive feeling of momentum.

Very soon, now, the National Readership Survey will be issuing figures in two separate categories: print and on the net. Then we'll all be able to tell whether women, on paper and electronically, are the force of change one suspects. If they are, then you can expect to find many more websites and newspapers registering that change – and not just by the Times bringing back its Times 2 pullout.

But what, away from statistics, is it that women want? The ritual answer – from mostly male editors – is more health, more families, more fashion, more stories told through the eyes of people. More human coverage, in short. Less sport, less politics, less boring argument. But ritual male prescriptions are made to be overcome.

Watch this space, then. And while you're watching, note that 713,000 men, as against 618,000 women, read the Observer. Oh – and that 59,000 men read Woman's Own.

Source: Peter Preston, The Observer

Why youth enterprise is not the word on every parent's lips and why it should be

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

When I was a kid I can remember my Dad putting forward the view that being an entrepreneur rather than following a profession was the way of the future. Thinking back it is clear why he would espouse that view as from the age of about 40 he ran his own company. According to the Office for National Statistics, there are only 7,000 UK firms with over 250 employees so the majority of young people will work in a small and medium sized enterprise (SME) even if they do not own it.

As Peter Jones has said, entrepreneurs are not born they are formed by their experiences, which is why it is so important that opportunities are presented to young people through the schooling system. So why isn't this happening? Is it the way young people are taught in schools or is it something cultural or is it reluctance on the part of parents. The rest of this article will question whether schools are preparing young people for enterprise and give an example of one programme that does. It will conclude with the views of some parents.

Here are some statistics courtesy of a YouTube video entitled A vision of K-12 students today - an American project that was created to inspire teachers to use technology in engaging ways to help students develop higher level thinking skills.

Apparently 76% of teachers in the project have never blogged, used or created a podcast.
Only 14% of teachers let students create something once a week using technology
63% never do, yet all these young people today are digital learners.

This means that whilst many students spend a part of each week playing games like Nintendo DS; listening to books on their iPods; blogging and using social networking sites, their teachers think that using email means they are keeping up with their students. Their students however much prefer instant messaging, texting and tweeting to email! Add to that the fact that many will have 14 jobs before they are 38 and most of those jobs have yet to be created and it is clear we have a major challenge in the education system. Young people are thirsty for engagement but are switched off by the more traditional methods used by their teachers.

It is not all doom and gloom. Recently I had the opportunity to watch a master at work. Michael Martin's company Soul Traders Workshops offers taster sessions and embedded programmes on entrepreneurship for young people in the classroom and hard to reach NEET groups. Initially he wrote a 13 week modular course (to fit into a term) on Commercial/Social Enterprise and Economic Wellbeing. It was aimed at students in Year 11 and 12 however what has happened is that the work is mostly utilised by schools for Year 9 and 10 students. Often trainers are invited in to lead a one-off session during Global Entrepreneurship Week at the end of the academic year. In other words the workshops are perceived as a way to fill a gap in the curriculum even in the proactive schools.

This is incredibly short-sighted. In the two hour session I observed, students demonstrated 30 skills - virtually unaware of doing so given the engaging way the session was structured - that are needed to be enterprising in the workplace either in self-employment or as a permanent employee. Moreover, the session encouraged young people to take responsibility for their future and to consider key questions like what is important to them and how to ensure that is integrated into whatever vocation they end up pursuing, After all most of us will spend at least 45 years working. Interestingly, Michael used a range of media to get the message across which included hands-on activities, PowerPoint, the web, video and texting: contextualised learning to fit the environment in which young people prefer to interact.

So what is stopping more schools from addressing this need to teach young people about enterprise and prepare them properly for the world of work? There is certainly limited flexibility in the timetable for what is deemed cross-curricular activity, especially in terms of engaging external providers who offer valuable insights into the mindset and skillset needed for the modern workplace. This seems incredible especially now when we are reeling from the ramifications of a worldwide financial crisis and really need to inspire young people to think creatively and explore new things.

After fifteen years in working with teachers and students to improve enterprise awareness, Michael is philosophical about the challenges: there are some shining lights in education; teachers who recognise their role is to inspire, not to lecture or judge. We can be quick to criticise teaching staff so we shouldn't forget how difficult it is; few of us can do that job day in day out. There's the old joke about those that can, do; those that can't, teach. Especially pointed irony, in terms of enterprise. But I prefer to rephrase it as those that can, do; those that teach well, understand. The problem is an outmoded system.

Teachers' creativity is hamstrung by endless bureaucracy and classroom discipline management. It may be a reductionist view but lowest common denominator tends to rule policy. By that I mean the education system was originally designed by big business for big business. The industrial revolution brought about focus on creating a compliant labour force, seduced away from enterprise, as well as religious dogma, poor living conditions and outright lawlessness. One either had the choice of becoming an apprentice to a family trade, a member of the clergy or a highwayman (or woman).

It's still in place today. The one thing big business does not want is competition, ergo, enterprise learning only ever receives lip service spin. It's a fact that the funding for it is not ring-fenced. The academics have neither the prior experience nor time to deliver it, while school management teams must balance a budget against buildings/infrastructure and short-staffing of low paid positions. The outcome is less than ideally prepared students who require training at corporate expense, resulting in multinationals unable to better the quality or service of local retailers they put out of business, victims of their own lobbying with the consumer often the biggest loser.

The truth is large employers (and the education system) don't encourage rocking the status quo because it threatens power. I'm one who champions the rebel cause. As a qualified start-up advisor I've also assisted thousands into business (and to stay there) and can safely comment that students with dyslexia, ADD or who are what I call plain vanilla disruptive, make the best business people. In essence the creative ones who are considered failures academically seem to be better suited to and will be happier working for themselves than for someone else. Their 'success' - not just financially - tends to come in spite of their upbringing not because of it. Nature versus nurture will always be a debate but all I can do is give them the tools to make an informed choice, the rest is up to them.

It's all about preferences. No right or wrong, most people are risk-averse and we are prone to knock those who are different but we need better solutions to the world's problems .I for one am happy and privileged to play a part in encouraging young people to challenge conventional wisdom.

According to David McQueen who works with young entrepreneurs in schools as well as Enterprise UK, the challenges that are out there is that in some schools and colleges some staff are reluctant to encourage enterprise as they cannot control it. Some cite that it could encourage bullying or cite the limits on how much money students can bring into school, but the bigger picture is that they can control how things are sold through enterprise clubs and lunches.

Another potential barrier is reluctance by parents for their kids to engage in this kind of activity? Interestingly I tested out this hypothesis by asking a number of parents what their views on youth enterprise was especially in relation to their own kids. I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard.

One parent who has four children ranging from 9 -27 had this to say:
"As a mum I want to encourage my children to get as involved as much as possible so they are more rounded and understand the way the world works and what they have to do to get on in life. I have high expectations of my children but I also want them to have a great childhood. We love the fact that all 4 of our kids help us out in some ways. I have high expectations of my children but I also want them to have a great childhood. We love the fact that all 4 of our kids help us out in some way....I am in favour of children being enterprising, as long as they are guided and helped."

A single parent who was very enterprising from an early age, had this to say:
"My daughter (age 8) has followed in my footsteps already, and though I would certainly not let her do this alone I allowed her to have a section of a table at the craft fair I organised last weekend, where she sold things she had made (out of paper, natch). This was all her idea, and the only input from me was to provide her with some string, paper and plasticine! Basically I think if the urge is there, it needs nurturing. Children can learn a lot by using their initiative in this way, not only about economics ... but about negotiation, expressing yourself and ways to find your own means to an end. The social elements of youth enterprise are just as important in personal development as the satisfaction from providing a service to someone, which can only be a win-win situation where positive connections are made."

Another Mum who feels her children are still too young for her to comment on their interests directly made a very interesting point:
"We should be encouraging kids into enterprise if that's what interests them. So many of us find the traditional career route doesn't fit/isn't satisfying but it's tough to change path when your education has been 'get good grades, go to uni, get a good career with a big company".

Another also agreed it was good to encourage children to be enterprising and she has got her 10 and 12 year old selling stuff for her on ebay. In fact I am thinking of employing them to do the same for me for a commission as I have neither the time nor the inclination to do it but have a house full of clutter!

The one father that I spoke to had this to say:
"I am determined for my children to be entrepreneurial. Even if they don't run their own businesses I am passionate about getting them to see the skills of problem solving, decision- making and the fun of running with your own money making ideas by being entrepreneurial. Both of my children are under 12 and have actually run with their own projects both in and out of school and are always intrigued by the way we work."

The overwhelming perspective of parents can be summed up in the following fantastic Jim Rohn quotation - the caveat being that all the parents that responded to my survey, all run their own businesses! Jim firmly believes in instilling an enterprising spirit within young people from an early age and I for one just wish that my parents had adopted his point of view. He says and I quote:
"I teach kids to have two bikes - one to ride and one to rent."

I can only conclude that the failure of the school system to embrace this need more fully comes from barriers which are cultural. In the UK as opposed to the US there is still almost an expectation that entrepreneurs will fail and rather than seeing someone with a failed business as a person who has learnt a great deal and is therefore worth investing in, the prevailing attitude is that they are a loser and should not be helped. This attitude is so unhelpful today when we need out of the box thinking to solve the major issues we face globally.

What better way to start challenging this perspective than to encourage young children to be enterprising.

Source: Kate Griffiths, www.the3rdi.co.uk

Global Maternity celebrates 'culture of pregnancy'

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Boyes left her career in HR after 13 years last June to go into business on her own, and launched Global Maternity in February this year. She hopes to expand the business into a worldwide supplier of quality clothing, and is keen to open up a shop outside of cyberspace in the future.

She said: “I’d like to see weekly sales and turnover go up, and to massively increase the range and scope of what I supply. The site should also become a source of information for pregnant mums around the world. I don’t just want to stock clothes. I want the site to be something that celebrates the culture of pregnancy around the world.

“My dream would be to open my own bricks-and-mortar base in Newcastle, because there isn’t a shop for maternity clothes in the city.”

Global Maternity stocks clothes from designers such as Noppies Maternity, Wonder Mummy and BooBoo, with items such as skinny jeans, shorts, dresses and swimsuits available for the expectant mother. Boyes initially wanted to set up an eBay shop, but went for her own website as her business would be more attractive to designers with whom she wished to work.

She said: “One of the main things the clothes do is to allow mothers to remain fashionable and not lose their identity when they feel like the back of a bus. It’s also very much about the price and quality of the clothes. The main clusters of sales have been from the south and Yorkshire, and then it’s places like Edinburgh and Glasgow.”

The Newburn-based business woman is also a mother to 13-year-old daughter Bethany, but said she has “never had a problem” in balancing work and home life. She said traits she learned in her previous job helped her to raise the maternity business, such as “organisational ability, clarity of thought and ability to give required levels of customer service”.

She said: “If someone can’t find something on the site, I will go away and research it for them. A lot of people have been quite pleasantly surprised that I don’t just try to match customer expectations, but exceed them. Before I worked in HR, I was a retail manager. I haven’t come into this blind.

“It’s going better than I expected but it’s still a long way off what I want it to be. I’ve got some sales but not enough for me to retire and have a villa in the South of France. It’s probably one of the most difficult things I’ve done, but I’m thoroughly enjoying the hard work.”

John Hill, The Journal

Women entrepreneur award helps Keyfund move forward

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

GREATER exposure to and support from the private sector has made 2010 a year of progress for Tyneside-based social enterprise Keyfund.

Chief executive Hannah Eyres, who won last year’s Best Social Enterprise

category in the North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, believes that success in the contest has really opened new doors for the organisation.

Newcastle-headquartered Keyfund, which has seven staff, provides services to help engage disadvantaged, vulnerable and deprived young people to help them fulfil their potential through youth led learning.

It operates across the North East, Cumbria, North Yorkshire, in London and is now rolling out its programme through a social licensing model.

Ms Eyres said: “I was encouraged to enter the awards by Kate Welch my previous chair at Keyfund. I look up to her a great deal. She won the awards a few years ago and I was keen to follow in her footsteps.

“Also, it felt like the right time to enter an award. We have gone through a huge amount of change, development and growth over the past five years and our replication model is really starting to take off.

“We felt we deserved some recognition and knew that we would benefit hugely from a launchpad like this.”

She credits the award with helping Keyfund to attract more attention - and vital funding - from the corporate sector.

“We’ve been trying to engage with the corporate sector for a while and this has really helped,” said Ms Eyres.

“Wipro have made a commitment to work with us, they are a multinational company and we are now discussing how we can work together.

“We have also started working with O2. We’ve been presented with their quality mark and are one of their delivery agents for their Think Big project.

“Closer to home we are starting to establish relations with [lawyers] Muckles. One of our board works for them and they are getting involved.”

Since Ms Eyres won the award, Keyfund has also established links with stockbrokers Brewin Dolphin and insurers Lycetts in Newcastle.

Vitally, it has also won money from the Frederick Milburn Fund to run a ‘Keyfund Blast’ - a programme to bring in more people to work with its groups of young people to develop their skills, confidence and self awareness.

Ms Eyres said: “It’s planting a Keyfund ‘bomb’ essentially, so in one week we’re training new facilitators to sit on Dragons’ Den-type panels, when all the young people on projects can come and present their ideas on one day.”

Ms Eyres added: “Winning the award has not only been a huge boost to me personally, but has really put Keyfund up there on the public stage. All our hard work, creativity and diligence is being recognised and valued at last.

“Just to be up there competing and working has been very exciting for us. We’ve been able to learn a lot and hopefully they will have learned from us too.”

It felt like the right time to enter an award. We have gone through a huge amount of change.

Source: Karen Dent, The Journal

Equal pay for women not likely till 2067, says research

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Working women who thought they might live to see Britain's pay gap finally close will have to hold out another 57 years, according to research published today.

Forty years after the Equal Pay Act was passed, the study shows that the gender pay gap remains stubborn and that male and female managers will not be paid the same until 2067.

Women have also been harder hit by the recession, with more female workers than men being made redundant in the past 12 months, the research by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) shows.

The findings will intensify calls from campaigners for the new government to do more to ensure equal pay in the UK, which has one of the biggest gender salary gaps in Europe.

"Girls born this year will face the probability of working for around 40 years in the shadow of unequal pay," said CMI's head of policy, Petra Wilton.

"The prospect of continued decades of pay inequality cannot be allowed to become reality. We want to see the government take greater steps to enforce pay equality by monitoring organisations more closely and naming and shaming those who fail to pay male and female staff fairly."

The group's survey shows that women's salaries increased by 2.8% over the past 12 months, compared with 2.3% for men. But with the average UK salary for a male manager currently £10,031 more than that of a female manager, women face a 57-year wait before their take-home pay is equal to that of their male colleagues, says the report, compiled with researchers XpertHR. Its findings, from more than 43,000 employees in 197 organisations, showed male pay still outstrips female pay by as much as 24% at senior level.

At junior level the gap also persists, with male junior executives receiving £1,065 more than female executives.

Despite four decades of equal pay legislation, Britain has one of the worst gender gaps in Europe. Women in the UK are paid 79% of male rates, while across the 27 countries of the European Union the figure is 82%, according to a report earlier this year from Eurobarometer.

Gender equality groups such as the Fawcett Society blame the UK's poor record on a culture of secrecy around pay. They point to examples such as Sweden, where more transparency has resulted in falling pay gaps. They want the coalition government to set a deadline for closing the gap, make laws more transparent, and force companies to audit their workforces for unfair gaps more regularly.

For women unhappy to sit out the 57-year wait, the CMI report highlighted some of the better-performing sectors and regions of the UK, as well as the worst.

Women in the Midlands fare the worst, taking home £10,434 less than men, while those in the north-east fare the best, where the gap is smallest at £8,955.

Different sectors also varied greatly and women hoping for equal pay were advised to think twice about jobs in IT or the pharmaceutical industry, where the gaps were the largest, at £17,736 and £14,018 respectively.

The report suggests that stark differences in pay are seeing some women leave the workplace. It notes a dramatic increase in resignations, particularly at director level, where 7.7% of female directors voluntarily left their posts in the last year, compared with just 3.6% of men.

Women were also more likely to be made redundant. Over the year, 4.5% of the female workforce lost their jobs compared with 3% of men.

CMI has launched an "ambitious women toolkit" with practical advice on asking for pay rises, how to challenge unequal pay, and tips on returning to work from maternity leave.

• This article was amended on 19 August 2010. The original headline said, "Equal pay for women not likely till 2057, says research", which has been corrected.

Source:Katie Allen, The Guardian

DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A HOMES FOR NORTHUMBERLAND BOARD MEMBER?

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Homes for Northumberland is inviting those who are passionate about social housing and keen to take on an interesting role to apply for the post of independent board member with the organisation.

The housing provider has Area Boards in Blyth and Alnwick as well as a Strategic Board, which are all made up of independent, council and tenant members to help manage local services. There are currently three vacancies for independent board members in Alnwick and one vacancy for an independent board member in Blyth.

Open to people of all ages, the position of independent board member plays an important role within the organisation. Homes for Northumberland is inviting those who have a real commitment and enthusiasm for making a real difference in Blyth and Alnwick to come forward.

Ray Boycott, managing director at Homes for Northumberland, said: “We are looking for independent board members who can bring particular skills and expertise to support our Area Boards, ranging from housing and construction to regeneration, community issues and equality and diversity.

“This is fantastic opportunity for local people to really get involved and drive forward the decisions that are made in their area at Board level. Candidates for these important roles would need to be committed and enthusiastic, with a genuine interest in making a difference to the Blyth and Alnwick communities and I would encourage anyone meeting this criteria to apply.”

All applications are welcome, particularly from women, younger people, those from ethnic communities and those with a disability who are currently underrepresented on the Boards.

For more information and an application pack please contact Jeanette Wilkinson at Homes for Northumberland on 01670 542215 or email jeanette.wilkinson01[email protected]">@hfn.uk.com.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 15 September 2010. Interviews for independent board members will take place the week commencing 4 October 2010.

Beauty businesses now beneath family roof

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

A MOTHER and daughter are proving they make a beautiful partnership, after bringing their businesses together under one roof.

Grace and Elegance Beauty Boutique, set up by Grace Sutherland, 24, joined forces with Curl Up and Dye, her mother Elaine’s Middlesbrough hair salon, this month, after seeing an opportunity to bring their two services together.

Grace moved from her old premises in Linthorpe, to her mother’s three- story salon in St Cuthbert’s Court where she now occupies the second floor.

Grace said: “Moving into my mother’s premises seemed to be a natural step for the business. The services that we offer complement each other well, so relocating was a sensible way to take my business forward.

Source: Iain Laing, The Journal

“Grace and Elegance Beauty Boutique got off to a great start separately, but I hope that, by joining forces with my mother’s business Curl Up and Dye, I will be able to grow my client base, and ultimately my business.”

The company was set up two years ago, when Grace was just 22 years old. She was supported through the start up process by Business Link adviser Lisa Gowler, who helped source funding through the North East England Investment Centre (NEEIC) to cover legal costs and staff training.

Source: Iain Laing, The Journal

Q&A: "We Must Move from a Masculine to a Feminine Economy"

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 17, 2010 (IPS) - It is necessary to move from a "masculine" economy based on competition and a win-lose mentality to a "feminine" win-win economy based on the concept of collaboration, says writer Rose Marie Muraro, one of the pioneers of Brazil's feminist movement.

Muraro, the author of 35 books, continues to actively fight for her causes at the age of 79, and has announced a new book to be published in 2011, containing proposals for an economy based on cooperation and solidarity, including bartering systems and the incorporation of a gender perspective in development.

Another 1,600 works have been published under her editorial guidance in the Vozes and La Rosa dos Tempos publishing houses.

She was born nearly blind and only gained good eyesight through surgery at the age of 66. However, the fact that she was technically blind did not keep her from studying physics and economics, having five children with her husband of 23 years, becoming a driving force in Brazil's feminist movement, or opposing Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship.

Nor did it stand in her way of becoming an advocate of liberation theology, the Catholic movement which calls for the Church to be more politically and social active on behalf of the poor, through Vozes, the Catholic publishing house that she co-directed with theologian Leonardo Boff.

Q: How do you explain the fact that although women now have more years of schooling than men, they continue to earn lower wages and are hit harder by unemployment and are more likely to work in the informal sector of the economy?

A: That is improving; women are now earning almost 90 percent of what men earn. A major hurdle is the low level of female representation in the national, state and municipal legislative bodies.

Women tend to vote more for men. Presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff has more support among men than among women, according to the opinion polls. A campaign aimed at winning over women voters is needed.

Q: Why don't women bring to bear the fact that they make up a majority of voters?

A: Because of the prejudice that they themselves hold: that women are inferior. A majority of women are still conservatives who defend the patriarchal system and see men as more experienced and fit to govern.

Furthermore, since it seems only "logical" that men stand a better chance of being elected, the parties assign them more resources. Women candidates are thus left with less campaign publicity and fewer funds in their campaigns.

But there has been a revolution since the introduction of the birth-control pill. Forty years ago only five percent of the members of Congress were women; today we have twice that proportion of female legislators.

Brazil still has one of the lowest levels, far from the 50 percent achieved by some northern European countries, but we are improving, thanks to the work by women's rights activists.

It is interesting that we have two good female candidates running for president in the October elections, although Dilma Rousseff is in a better position to win because she is backed by a great man, who reduced poverty in the country, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. (The other is former environment minister Marina Silva, the Green Party candidate.)

Q: Brazil has a quota that reserves 30 percent of the candidacies of each party for women. Has this helped boost women's participation?

A: Very little, because the parties have not respected the law, and there is a lack of self-esteem among women who, considering themselves to be inferior, do not put themselves forward as candidates. There is also the question of the women candidates who are the daughters, wives or sisters of well-known politicians, and who do triumph -- a kind of "distorted participation."

Q: Doesn't that contradict the superiority of women in terms of years of study and the fact that they form a majority in secondary and university education?

A: The thing is, education alone is not enough: what is needed is education with a specific gender perspective. No more distinguishing between "girl's" and "boy's" toys -- boys should be able to play with dolls and girls should play football; girls and boys should play the same sports.

We have to modify "machista" education, which is competitive, and make it collaborative.

Q: But teaching is in the hands of women, who dominate the area of education.

A: Physically, but not mentally. Women teachers must be trained in education with a gender focus. The textbooks have to be changed. The vocabulary is infused with machismo, grammar (in Portuguese) tends to be made up of more masculine (rather than gender-neutral or feminine) terms, and you can imagine what that does to people's minds.

It's an enormous task which will take generations because cultural changes run deeper and are thus slower to occur. But the changes are happening. Thirty years ago I was fighting on my own, shunned. Now society throws down the red carpet for me.

There have been advances, not victories, because that word arises from a masculine sense of competitiveness.

Q: You link gender equity with a radical change in the economy. Why?

A: Yes, because the economy is still masculine, which means domination and competition, the mathematics of win-lose, the maximisation of interests. Women's vision is the opposite of that: win-win, collaborative, the development of a solidarity economy, putting the individual, rather than profits, in first place.

Q: How can that feminine economy take shape in concrete terms?

A: In microcredit, for example, which is for the poor, and almost completely goes to women, who do not default on their loans. Or in experiences of a solidarity economy using a community currency. In Fortaleza (a large city in Brazil's impoverished Northeast), a "favela" (shantytown) was transformed into a proper middle-class neighbourhood by means of a community currency.

The economy of "care" (of children, the elderly and the ill) is completely female, and is undervalued in the market. Women make up 90 percent of caregivers, according to the United Nations. When women are in power, the very nature of money changes.

That's what I explain in the book "Reinventando o capital-dinheiro" (Reinventing Capital-Money), which is set to come out in the first half of 2011.

Q: You also wrote "Diálogo para o Futuro" (Dialogue for the Future), together with U.S. economist Hazel Henderson, where you propose replacing concepts and measurements like GDP.

A: GDP counts as wealth fictitious money and resources that are lost, such as oil that is exported and is non-renewable. It should also factor in the costs of pollution, deforestation, or soil degradation.

The destruction of the human species is caused by human beings themselves, who are caught up in hyper-consumption and do not want to pay the costs of pollution. I have been warning for 40 years that humanity will be judged by the environment, which will destroy our species when it rebels.

Q: Does feminism also entail a different kind of science and technology?

A: Yes, women have another way of doing science, more collaborative, focusing on science for life, on distribution for all; they would never patent cells like Craig Venter did (the U.S. biologist who headed the human genome project).

Why? Because women carry the fetus, feed the baby, care for everyone. Other United Nations figures indicate that 80 percent of the activity in favour of the environment is carried out by women, as is 90 percent of the activity against war and 70 percent of the activity against poverty.

Source: ipsnews.net

New call centre to take on 150 new staff

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

A NORTH EAST businesswoman has launched a new call centre which expects to turnover £100,000 in its first year and take on 150 homeworkers by 2011.

Susan Lane has secured financial support from UK Steel Enterprise for her company Salcallcentre, that is training unemployed people to work from home at its Redcar HQ.

Inside three months, Salcallcentre’s four employees have answered thousands of calls for three online retailers and the firm is currently in negotiations for a major contract.

Ms. Lane said: “After successfully completing our training programme, all someone then needs to answer our calls is a computer, a headset and an internet connection in a quiet room.

“This brings our overheads down substantially and means we can compete for contracts with the off shore companies where so many call centre jobs have gone in the past few years.”

UK Steel Enterprise, the Corus subsidiary that supports businesses in steel areas, provided funding for the company to equip its training facility in Redcar.

Up to 20 people every month are passing through Salcallcentre’s free four-week training programme, working towards a brand new NVQ specially developed for the company.

Trainees are all previously unemployed and referred to the company by organisations such as Working Links, Routes to Employment and Job Centre Plus.

Source:www.nea2f.co.uk

Women Traders "Blocked" From the "Big Business"

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

She is referring to the routine harassment of women traders by border officials throughout the southern African region but her statement is also reflected in the nature of goods on display at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Women in Business Trade Fair in Windhoek from Aug 12-18.

A variety of crafts, inexpensive jewellery, kaftans and other African wear, cosmetics and hair products dominate the exhibition that is frightfully quiet.

Just days before the regional bloc throws its 30th birthday bash, the question that arises is how far women have come in the past three decades. Does the collection of goods at the fair sum up the position women have in regional trade?

"The aim is to move women away from ‘traditional women’s’ products, such as clothing or jewellery, into more mainstream business," comments Sirkka Ausiku, permanent secretary in Namibia’s ministry of gender equality and child welfare.

"One of the participants is SADC Women in Mining, which is an example of an organisation that does advocacy for women throughout that sector. In coming years we would love to see more regional groupings like that. Tourism would be a logical next one."

Zimbabwean Gugu Usumani, a member of SADC Women in Mining, believes that, "small businesses can easily expand into larger companies. This is not something that is just for men.

"In Zimbabwe, women miners are affected by government policies. It is, for instance, hard to take diamonds out of the country. They also face problems, such as acquiring machinery for drilling, cutting and polishing. Yet it is a good business for women, especially since most are from rural areas with little opportunities."

Usumani thinks the SADC trade fair and the women’s investment forum that preceded it will help businesswomen. "Women will get some great exposure here for their products."

Some 300 women from 14 SADC-states – Madagascar is still suspended – came to Windhoek to showcase their businesses and undergo training at the three-day women’s investment forum.

"It opened our eyes to many things," Rumsey says about the forum. "Women often lose out because they are not knowledgeable about regulations. For instance, they will unnecessarily pay duty on goods."

Women are keen on doing business, Rumsey told IPS, but there are many impediments to especially cross-border trade, a sector dominated by women.

"There are major non-tariff barriers that need to be removed. Border officials, who are simply trying to find fault where there is none, will harass women even if their papers are genuine. It has a lot to do with our cultural backgrounds."

Namibia’s deputy finance minister Calle Schlettwein acknowledged during his opening address at the women’s investment forum that the implementation of the SADC trade protocol needs to be gender sensitive for the protocol to benefit women.

Although women are slowly establishing and strengthening their presence in the formal sector in the region, "the majority of trading activities by women are still within the informal and small-scale sectors", he said.

"Hence, there is a need to look at the provisions of all our legal instruments to make sure that gender matters are mainstreamed. The ultimate objective must be equality in all trade opportunities between men and women," he added.

Mercy Timbe, who works with women beekeepers in Mzuzu in Malawi, regards the removal trade barriers as an important issue: "Why is it so difficult for me to get my commodities into a shop in Mauritius?" she asks.

She also suggests the compilation of a regional database or directory of women entrepreneurs that can be used for networking. "And there should be chambers of commerce that consist of women. The present structures are mostly dominated by men."

For Rumsey, governments in the region should step up to the challenge: "Only three countries sent representatives to the investment forum. From Zambia only traders attended. Where is our government official who sits in the meetings and hears about the challenges that businesswomen face in SADC?

"Where are the deliberate SADC policies that favour women in trade?"

Namibian gender equality and child welfare minister Doreen Sioka noted at the opening of the investment summit that, "it is a well-known fact that women form the backbone of many African economies and also play key roles in the economies of each SADC member states".

She emphasised the economic independence of women as being crucial "because it counteracts exploitation, feminisation of poverty, discrimination and disregard of their fundamental human rights".

But Sioka still felt it necessary to justify her support for women’s economic independence by saying, "women spend a higher percentage of their income on feeding and educating their children, which is aimed at the wellbeing of their families".

Source: Servaas van den Bosch

Build the Next Generation of Powerful Women

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

On September 20, 2010, Sarah Brown, Arianna Huffington and Donna Karan will host the first annual conference for New York’s most powerful women in politics, philanthropy, media, fashion and the arts. Women: Inspiration & Enterprise (W.I.E.) Symposium will be hosted by the White Ribbon Alliance and will feature powerful speakers, lively panels and informative lectures under the central theme: “Women Inspiring Women”. The WIE Symposium will be held to coincide with a United Nations review summit on the Millennium Development Goals also being held in New York.

They are calling for America’s next generation of powerful and inspiring young women to be part of this event and they need your help. They have reserved fifty seats for young women between the ages of 18-25.

Interested applications should complete a short questionnaire by August 20th. Selected applicants will be granted admission to the Symposium on September 20th, 2010 in New York City. However, applicants are required to cover any travel costs and expenses. Apply here:http://whiteribbonalliance.org/wie/ani.cfm

Dragons’ Den winner reveals £80k promise was in fact ‘a loan’

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

She was known as the dragon slayer. And when Sharon Wright, a single mother from Scunthorpe, stepped from the ‘lair’ with more money that she had asked for, it really was a coup.

Never in its five-year history had there been such a confident performance on the TV show for entrepreneurs, Dragons’ Den. The five hard-faced panellists, including Duncan Bannatyne, Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden, were moved to say her pitch was brilliant and it looked as though the £80,000 investment she was promised would propel Talpa Products, her fledgling business, into the commercial big time.

Yet what should have been a giant step for Sharon soon proved to be disastrous. Within months, she was on the verge of financial collapse – a state of affairs that she blames squarely on the BBC programme – followed by the spectre of a personal breakdown.

The expert help she was expecting from her slick new backers never came, she says. Nor did the £80,000 investment she was promised by the Dragons for a stake in the company: instead of giving her the money to buy into the company, they offered it as a loan.

Today, in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, the 40-year-old businesswoman tells how Dragons’ Den nearly ruined her. Her account will shake the confidence of the programme’s many fans and, in her opinion at least, casts doubt on the methods of James Caan, one of the show’s star panellists.

She says: ‘I was stunned. This is not what I had seen on TV. Viewers are given the impression that the money the Dragons provide is to buy equity in the business.

I didn’t receive the monies that I expected, I didn’t receive the support I needed and, more importantly, they were charging me for their services.

I felt hugely disappointed and disheartened.’ She adds: ‘I’d felt James had empathy for people. He had compassion. He was understanding. My opinion of him now has totally changed. In terms of the way he conducted business, I think he’s out for himself.

I just hope no one chooses him in the future.’ It seems that this is not the first time Caan has used loans to invest in Dragons’ Den hopefuls – though viewers and entrepreneurs are given the impression the Dragons are investing hard cash.

A spokesman confirmed Caan had previously invested using loan agreements. Sharon’s story began in 2006 with the visit of a telephone engineer to her new, three-storey terraced house in Scunthorpe.

She watched in surprise as the workman poked a cable through the double-skin wall using nothing more sophisticated than a metal coathanger, apparently with no idea of what lay in between. It was, she says, her ‘Eureka moment’. ‘I thought, “That’s not safe – you don’t know what’s inside that cavity”.

There could have been a mains cable inside the wall. I decided there must be a better way. And there was.’ For the next two years, Sharon worked 16-hour days developing an impressively simple device she calls a MagnaMole – a plastic rod that can take a cable through cavity walls without risk of electrocution.

It was an unlikely choice of product as Sharon is by no means an engineer. Indeed, she left school with just two O-levels and had devoted all her time since then to caring for her daughter, Molly, who is now 14.

Yet in 2008, the MagnaMole won the Diamond Award for Innovation at the British Invention Show and by 2009 she had sold 41,000 in the UK.

To make the business profitable, however, she needed investment and in February 2009 she applied to Dragons’ Den and was told she would be considered for an appearance. ‘I was really excited,’ she says.

‘I couldn’t wait. To go on that show is a great opportunity for anybody.’ Filming took place on April 22 last year at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. Sharon says: ‘To go on that programme, people are either emotionally desperate or financially desperate, or both.

I was both, because I’d worked really, really hard but I knew that I would never make a profit just selling in this country. This was a platform to go global.’ At 2pm, wearing a sharp black Austin Reed suit and 6in patent black stilettos, Sharon entered the ‘Den’.

She says: ‘I was so focused. I remember going in, I didn’t smile. ‘I looked at the cross on the floor and I thought I am not looking at them until I’m ready.’ Although she was not yet making a profit, her company was valued at £350,000 and had an annual turnover of £70,000 a year.

She intended to spend additional investment on staff, on a new website and on printing foreign language instructions to insert in global versions of the MagnaMole. At that point, she was surviving with one employee who worked just one day a week for the minimum wage.

During her pitch, Sharon asked for £50,000 in return for a 15 per cent share in her company. All five Dragons – Caan, Duncan Bannatyne, Deborah Meaden, Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones – were impressed.

When she had finished, Paphitis said: ‘This is the first time ever in the Den someone has come in and all five Dragons’ jaws have dropped to the floor.’

Put in the unexpected position of choosing between them, Sharon picked Bannatyne and Caan, who offered £80,000 for a 22.5 per cent share of her company.

It seemed an even better offer than she had hoped for. Moreover, she had a particularly high regard for her new investors. Caan has amassed an £85million fortune after opening a chain of boutiques in the late Eighties.

He has since moved into finance and recruitment. Bannatyne is the richest of the Dragons with an estimated fortune of £320million. The Scot’s main investments are in health clubs, hotels, property and transport.

A few weeks after the filming, Sharon was invited to meet the man she so admired at his Mayfair offices.

Having made the 200-mile journey from Scunthorpe, however, she was told that Caan was busy. Instead, she was taken down the road to a coffee shop to meet Peter Moule from a firm called Electro Expo.

Mr Moule, 56, had sold a stake in his company to Caan and Bannatyne in 2000. It would be money from Electro Expo that would support her fledgling business, she learned.

A few days later, she met Bannatyne at his offices in Darlington. This time, the Dragon had a more personal touch and introduced her to his staff. However, her initial misgivings were about to prove well founded. In June, she received two ‘pre-contracts’ from the Dragons pledging £40,000 each.

It was then that she was informed that the£80,000 investment was, in fact, a loan that she would have to pay back. At that point, Sharon considered pulling out of the deal, but not wishing to alarm her existing investors she decided to continue.

Ten weeks after filming, Sharon had still not seen a penny of the £80,000 loan, and her financial situation was becoming serious. Then, in July last year, all three met at a photoshoot in London.

Afterwards, when the Dragons told her they needed the contract signed, she felt she had to agree, even though she had no legal representation. ‘I was desperate for the money,’ she says. ‘When they were going through the contracts, it was all going over my head.’

Bannatyne, she says, had asked her whether she needed a lawyer, but she foolishly chose to press ahead. ‘I thought I didn’t need to be suspicious of my business partners,’ she adds.

‘I looked across the table at James and I remember saying, “Well, you’re not going to rip me off are you, because you’ve got a lot more money than me.” And I signed the contract.

It was only when things were going drastically wrong that alarm bells started ringing.’ The Dragons’ Den show was broadcast on July 22 and business boomed with the publicity.

The BBC website reported a record number of hits from people watching the re-run and Sharon found herself answering 7,000 emails. Soon afterwards, she had a meeting with Caan where he suggested she redesign her website using one of his contacts.

‘I finally thought I was getting the support I needed,’ she says, assuming his company would foot the bill. Instead she got an invoice from a West End company for a sum well outside her budget. After weeks, there was still no sign of the money.

She had employed more staff to cope with the extra business, yet she was unable to pay their wages. Nor could she pay her suppliers, and two of them stopped production.

Finally, in late August, the Dragons’ released a mere £4,000 from Electro Expo to help her pay costs. Over the following months she borrowed a further£22,500, making a total loan of £26,500.

It was around this time that Sharon employed a solicitor to examine the contract drawn up by Caan’s lawyers and finally realised the enormity of her mistake. In order to obtain their 22.5 per cent stake in the company, the Dragons bought a number of shares for a nominal fee of £1 per share.

In effect, they had bought nearly a quarter of Sharon’s company for£29 with the promise of loaning Talpa up to£80,000. There would be no additional money by way of investment and there was limited access to the interest-free loan which could be reduced at any point to whatever value the Dragons chose.

Also, the contract stipulated that the£80,000 loan had to be paid back ‘as soon as the cash-flow of the company permits’. Sharon was particularly disturbed to learn that, in signing the contract, she had agreed that the two Dragons could charge a fee for their support.

She claims that in a meeting that took place in August 2009, she was told that she would have to pay an estimated £3,000 a month for ’services’, including the use of a PR company recommended by Caan.

At the same meeting, she claims she was asked to reduce her salary from£50,000 to just£12,000. Indeed, it appeared she no longer had control of her own company.

Sharon’s solicitor, Dean Dunham, pointed out that one of the Dragons would be chairman of the company and would have the casting vote in all decisions. ‘I felt like a piece of raw meat, and that the vultures were all attacking me,’ she says.

‘I felt absolutely mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted.’ She had a history of eating disorders and now, with the additional stress, her health began to suffer. Her weight dropped to six-and-a-half stone.

‘I’m not blaming anybody for it. The anorexia and the bulimia – they are my illnesses. But the stress I went through last year reignited and promoted them. ‘I was at a point where I couldn’t cope with anything.

I’d put myself in this position because I wanted to build success for Molly’s future. I want her to have a good life.’ The fact that other entrepreneurs have had more positive experiences of Dragons’ Den has done little to lift her mood, she says.

‘Since Dragons’ Den, I’d lost my confidence as a person. I didn’t know who I was or what I was going to do, and it scared me.’ In November, Sharon decided she did not want to continue working with the Dragons.

Her lawyer organised a termination of the contract with the Dragons’ legal teams. She was back in control of the company but in January she went into hospital for three weeks to recover from a nervous breakdown. Her stay was a turning point.

After 40 years of being blonde, she dyed her hair brown and decided to write a book, Mother Of Invention, about her experiences with the Dragons. This, and the fact that Talpa paid back£22,000 of the£26,500 loan, might have been the end of a difficult story.

Yet, according to Sharon, it was not. She says she has received numerous calls, texts and emails from Caan and his employees, since the day she was discharged. ‘I’ve had emails and text messages,’ she says.

‘I’ve had them say to me, “Tell the story in a positive way and we’ll support you, help you promote it.” I’ve not responded.’ Nor is it the end for the Magna–Mole. Though crippled by the partial loss of her supply chain, Sharon’s business has begun a recovery and is now in profit.

She has secured contracts with B&Q and Maplins, as well as department stores Sears and Kmart in the US. Sharon has also secured a deal the Dragons couldn’t match. She sold ten per cent of her shares to a new investor for£100,000.

Of her new business partner, Sharon says: ‘He is the best partner I could have wished for. He just lets me get on with it and gives me the support and infrastructure I originally asked for.’

Caan said yesterday: ‘Unfortunately, within a few months of Sharon appearing [on Dragons' Den] she decided that due to the success and positive feedback from the show she would prefer to keep 100 per cent of her company, which Duncan and I fully supported.

Occasionally the investment opportunity isn’t as it appears on the show. I wish Sharon all the best.’ A spokesman for Bannatyne said: ‘Duncan’s pre-contract clearly shows he had no intention of making a loan, just an equity investment. That is backed up by his offer of a full 80k equity investment after Ms Wright became unhappy with James Caan’s altered terms.

‘James Caan might be able to shed light on his intentions in shifting the goalposts but Duncan has been consistent; I understand Ms Wright appreciated Duncan’s offer of full £80,000 equity but politely declined for her own reasons.’

Asked whether Bannatyne had ever signed a loan agreement in connection with a business that had been featured on the show, the spokesman said: ‘Never.’ Last night a BBC spokesman said that the Corporation had no involvement in the negotiations that took place between parties after shows were broadcast.

Source:www.fmwf.com

Hoping jewels will raise dementia awareness

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

JEWELLERY business owner Aimee Caitlin Davison is hoping to use her enterprise to raise awareness of the growing number of people experiencing dementia.

The 27-year-old’s grandfather John Davison is suffering from Alzheimer’s at the age of 79, and she hopes to use the exposure gained through her Stockton company Caitlin Starr to promote fundraising events in aid of the Alzheimer’s Society.

The former Northumbria University fashion marketing student sources jewellery and fashion items from around the world and occasionally designed by Davison herself.

She said: “As a child, my grandfather taught me how to paint and draw and he lit a spark, which led me to university and my career in fashion design. Since being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, we have seen his ability to paint some wonderful pictures completely destroyed. I hear of the same terrible stories from other families too often.

“Caitlin Starr is an exciting new company based in the North East and we have chosen to support Alzheimer’s Society with a donation from the proceeds of each sale of our jewellery, gift and fashion accessory ranges.

“Each sale will generate a donation to the charity. Alzheimer’s Society supporters can hold a party evening and retain one third of the value of each sale to pass on to Alzheimer’s Society either direct or via Caitlin Starr.”

Caitlin Starr’s website has been developed by Newcastle-based Pearsons Digital. Managing director Lilian Hughes said: “It is extremely rewarding to know that the website we have created will be used not only for commercial purposes but also to help those with dementia.”

Source:Iain Laing, The Journal

Workers prefer male managers - survey

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

FEMALE bosses need to be "authentic" in the workplace and develop a management style that suits their personality, a workplace expert says.

The advice comes after a survey found two-thirds of women preferred a male boss because they were perceived as more straight-talking.

Male managers were also perceived as much less likely to have a hidden agenda or get involved in office politics, the survey found.

About 3000 men and women in the UK were questioned for the research, and three-quarters of men agreed they'd rather work for a man than a woman.

A quarter of women accused female bosses of backstabbing and bringing their personal lives into the office.

And a third said women with power were loose cannons who often felt threatened by colleagues.

David Brown, of online recruitment firm UKJobs.net, which commissioned the research, said: "Incredibly, both men and women are in total agreement that men make better bosses - 63 per cent of women and 75 per cent of men.

The study found that the average worker has had two female and three male bosses.

A third have left a job because they didn't like their boss, and of these, the majority of women claimed they left because of a female manager.

But CareerOne editor Kate Southam said that the responses could be partially explained by the difficult job market in the UK, which has a jobless rate of 7.8 per cent compared with Australia's unemployment rate of 5.3 per cent.

"When people are under pressure at work, they tend to look for someone to blame or have a scapegoat," she said.

'Easier for men to follow the alpha male'

Ms Southam said female managers needed to be aware of their natural strengths and areas of improvement because they lack natural role-models at work.

"You need to be authentic, you need to manage in the way you would tend to behave," she said.

"You've built up your technical skills, which has led you into a position of management.

"But once you're there, you need to use your natural strengths.

"If you know you have a challenge area - perhaps you over-consult or are over-communicative - you should get some coaching."

Another problem for female managers is the lack of a "female alpha" role-model in many workplaces.

"Men tend to align themselves with whoever is the alpha male in the office," Ms Southam said.

"I've been told about offices where the senior male will start to bring his lunch to work, and all the other males in the office start doing the same thing.

"Or the alpha male will wear certain types of shirts, and all the other men start to copy.

"It's easier for men to know how to behave by aligning with the alpha male."

Source:www.news.com.au

Linking up women who mean business

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Dubai—Although the recession saw some companies struggling to survive, it also proved to be a business opportunity for others, as the founders of Heels & Deals are finding out. Claire Fenner and Georgie Hearson set up Heels & Deals in April 2009 as a networking organisation exclusively for businesswomen in the UAE.

Look around at their meetings and there isn’t a man in sight. And the ladies don’t talk hair and make-up — they mean serious business. The clients are of all ages and across industries. “In a way we’re grateful to the recession because we probably wouldn’t have done this had things gone really smoothly,” said Claire. “Not that people get complacent, but when things are good you ride that wave and don’t necessarily look hard for certain things.”

Before Heels & Deals, Claire owned a free news and listings magazine for parents in Dubai, while Georgie had a company specialising in fashionable environmentally-friendly bags. During the recession they were approached by other businesswomen looking for tips and recommendations. They quickly realised there was a niche market waiting to be filled.

“We spoke to a lot of women and they were not really doing any structured networking,” said Claire. “They just spoke to their friends who happened to have a business. And we thought here’s an opportunity to set something up.” So Heels & Deals “happened organically,”, and is a venue for businesswomen to share their “fears and frustrations,” Claire added.

While a number of networking organisations already operate in the country, the Heels & Deals founders claim theirs is the first for female entrepreneurs. In fact, many businessmen have asked about joining, but were turned down. Another “differentiation point” is there aren’t other networks globally that operate on-line and off-line as it does. The website allows members to meet online, upload flyers and promos, start discussions, and post articles with their Top 10 business tips.

The ranks of businesswomen have been on the rise despite the recession, according to Claire. She credits the trend to the availability of cheaper and better childcare, spouses earning more disposable income that allows them to take the risk of setting up a business, the need for a work-life balance, and the UAE being “an entrepreneurial place.”

“We are fortunate to be in such a forward-thinking environment, and there are still niches that are currently unexplored,” added Claire. With more businesswomen emerging on the scene, the networking firm now has 160 members and 1,300 women on its database.

The most common queries they field are on setting up a company and the trade licensing options. This is because there are many home-based, unlicensed businesses and their owners want to grow and get licensed. The pair do not claim to be experts in every field, which is why regular panels with specialists on fin-ance, IT, law and social media are hosted.

As entrepreneurs, mothers and wives, the owners of Heels & Deals say their lives often become a “juggling act.” But the bonus to being an entrepreneur is maintaining a work-life balance and having flexible hours, they said. While they cover their costs and make a profit, excess money is put back into the business to fund its growth. In time, the plan is to give Heels & Deals a regional footprint through a franchising or licensing model after strongly establishing it in the UAE.—Agencies

Facebook and other social media cost UK billions

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Employees who fritter time away on Facebook, Twitter and other social media Web sites are costing British businesses billions, new research suggests.

British employment website MyJobGroup.co.uk said it polled 1,000 British workers and found that nearly six percent, or 2 million, of Britain's 34 million-strong workforce spent over an hour per day on social media while at work, amounting to more than one eighth of their entire working day.

"Our results clearly show that UK workers are spending increased time whilst at work on social media networks, which, left unchecked, could have negative repercussions on the productivity of many companies across the country," Managing Director of Myjobgroup.co.uk Lee Fayer said in a statement with the results of the survey.

MyJobGroup.co.uk said that work time lost on Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks could potentially be costing Britain up to 14 billion pounds.

The research showed more than half of British workers (55 percent) confessed to accessing social media profiles at work, with many spending so much time friending, tweeting, adding photos and video, as well as updating their profiles, that companies' productivity was suffering as a result.

Despite the negative effects on the economy in the midst of a fragile recovery, many workers polled were in denial about the ill-effects of social media on their efficiency. Only 14 percent of respondents admitted to being less productive as a result of social media and 10 percent even claimed social media had made them more productive.

What's more, there was still widespread resistance to banning access to social networks at work, with over two thirds (68 percent) advocating some form of access during working hours. Only one third wanted sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube barred during work time, demonstrating the growing importance of social media to the daily routine and the widespread resistance to its access being limited.

"Whilst we're certainly not kill-joys, people spending over an hour per day in work time on the likes of Facebook and Twitter are seriously hampering companies' efforts to boost productivity, which is more important than ever given the fragile state of our economy," Fayer said.

"Companies would do well to monitor use of social networking sites during work hours and ensure that their employees are not abusing their freedom of access to these sites."

Source:Paul Casciato, Reuters

Spreading the Budget pain

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Should the government worry that its Budget cuts fall disproportionately on women?

The Fawcett Society thinks so. This weekend it filed papers calling for a judicial review of Chancellor Osborne's Budget, on the grounds that the Treasury did not formally examine the impact of the Budget by gender before the chancellor stood up in the Commons.

Yvette Cooper, the former Work and Pensions Secretary, asked the House of Commons library to do a rough and ready gender audit covering £8bn of new benefit cuts or tax increases announced by the chancellor for 2014-15.

It suggests that 72% of the tax increases or benefit cuts included in the study will take money away from women, versus 28% for men.

The disparity comes largely, but not entirely, from the fact that child benefit is usually paid to mothers, and they are more likely than men to be the direct recipient of housing benefit or tax credits, or to live on a public sector pension.

You can quibble with the precise numbers: the £8bn represents less than half of the nearly £20bn in tax and benefit changes announced by Mr Osborne. And then there's the spending cuts to come on top of that figure.

However, the basic facts are that men pay more tax than women, and they are much less likely to work in the public sector.

Given that the lion's share of deficit cuts are going to be achieved through spending cuts - including a public sector pay freeze and massive job cuts - it seems highly plausible that a more comprehensive audit would show that women were going to hit much harder than men.

Is this unfair? I suspect readers will have a variety of opinions on that question. But it does seem a little odd to look at the gender impact of deficit cuts in isolation - without also looking at the gender impact of the crisis itself.

Early on, some worried that women would bear the brunt of that too. But the reality was that women came through it better than men. For example: since the recession began in the spring of 2007, the broader measure of unemployment has risen by just over 800,000.

Almost exactly two thirds of that increase has been through men joining the dole queue, and one third women. When you look at redundancies, the disparity is even greater.

Unfortunately, we don't have timely data on male and female earnings - just a bunch of averages. But between April 2008 and April 2009 - the latest available - gross hourly median pay (excluding overtime) for male full-time workers rose by 3.8%, whereas the figure for female full-timers was 4.3%.

Women's pay is likely to have held up better after that as well, for the same reason that they are now likely to be hit relatively hard by cuts: namely, that a lot more of them work in the public sector.

According to the Office for National Statistics, there are nearly twice as many women working in the public sector as men - 65% versus 35%. In the private sector, the positions are reversed: about 60% of the private sector workforce is male, and around 40% female. (These figures date from before the recession but they won't have changed dramatically.)

As I've mentioned many times in the past, because the government maintained public spending through the recession, pay and employment in the private sector has been hit much harder than the public sector, though the latest figures do show the balance is shifting, with employment starting to fall in the public sector, and private sector earnings now edging up (though not as fast as inflation).

Before you ask, I'm not saying that women "deserve what's coming to them" now in the form of deficit cuts. But if you are looking at the gender impact of policies, it does seem important to look at who benefited from spending on the way up - as well as who loses on the way down.

If you do that, I suspect you would get a more nuanced picture of the "fairness" of Mr Osborne's deficit cuts. There will still be gender disparities - after a long period of rising public expenditure to fund public services, it's inevitable that spending cuts will have a greater impact on the part of the population that rely on those services most heavily, which tends to be women with children.

But surely the gender disparities you'd worry most about would be the ones caused by women's relatively higher chance of living in poverty. Most people are less worried about middle class mothers losing child benefit than they are about poor families having nowhere to live.

Put it another way: you might start off worrying about the gender impact of the Budget, but you pretty soon come back to the bigger debate about the distribution of cuts by income. That debate will run and run, especially in this summer of haggling with the Treasury over how and where to cut.

But here's a heretical thought: if you're worried about a large part of the population getting left out of this debate, don't only worry about the poor. And don't only worry about women. Worry, too about young people.

Why? Because, whatever else the chancellor may have done, he has not yet proved he can break the spell that the baby boomer generation has held over UK economic policy and public spending for so long. I'll be talking about a "generational audit" of his Budget in my next post.

Source:Stephanie Flanders, www.bbc.co.uk

Government pushes for equality in the workplace

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The government has pledged to make at least half of all new appointees to the boards of public companies to be women by the end parliament.

Business minister Edward Davey and Lynne Featherstone, minister for equalities, announced that Lord Davies of Abersoch will develop a business strategy to increase the number of women on the boards of listed companies in the UK.

Featherstone says: ‘We need to do more to identify and tear down the barriers that prevent women rising to the top in business, and I look forward to working with Lord Davies to make this happen.’

Research from Cranfield University highlights a lack of female directors in Britain’s top businesses, with women making up only 12.2 per cent of directors of the FTSE 100 companies in 2009. The FTSE 250 companies have an even lower proportion of female directors at 7.3 per cent, and nearly half of them do not have any women in the boardroom.

Lord Davies, who is the former chairman of Standard Chartered and a former government minister, has been asked to address the obstacles women face in becoming directors of listed company boards and what action the government and business should take to improve the position.

He comments: 'While it is essential that the boards of UK companies are meritocratic, the fact that there are only 131 female directors in FTSE 100 companies means that we cannot be using all the skills and talents that make our workforce so competitive. ’

The recommendations are to be made by the end of the year.

Source: smallbusiness.co.uk

Women shun politics

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Only 1 per cent of female entrepreneurs would consider standing as an MP, compared with 10 per cent of their male counterparts, according to research for the business price comparison service Make It Cheaper.

The findings perhaps help to explain why the new Parliament has only 142 women among its 650 MPs – including the Home Secretary, Theresa May – a rise of only 2.5 per cent on the previous one. Moreover, women account for fewer than 20 per cent of the ministerial posts in the coalition Government – well below the figures for Spain and Sweden, where they fill at least half of cabinet jobs, and Germany, France and the United States, where the figure is about a third, according to the Centre for Women and Democracy.

The survey suggests the results may be connected with the finding that twice as many female entrepreneurs as their male counterparts said that maintaining work/life balance was their biggest challenge. However, it was also found that a significant proportion of female business owners claimed to have no interest in politics, with similar numbers saying politicians did not have the power to instigate change and failed to understand the real issues faced by businesses.

Source:www.independent.co.uk/news/

Dyslexia and Success in Business

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Here’s something to make you think:

Research has found that 20% of entrepreneurs are dyslexic compared to just 4% of employed managers (who reflect the UK national incidence of dyslexia).

Do people with dyslexia have a special talent for business or do they simply have a narrow range of career options? Or is there something else that we don’t yet know about driving their choices?

Blue Sky Think and SES want to find out more because, whatever the explanation, this mismatch raises questions about how we prepare people for the world of work and how dyslexia impacts on those who choose to start businesses. It’s important because of the startling number of people affected by the issue.

We’re looking for entrepreneurs with dyslexia to participate in research which will shed light on why they are so prevalent in the business community. Those contributing to the research will have the opportunity to discover if their own experience mirrors that of others and perhaps learn a few strategies to take their own business forward.

If you’d like to get involved or are interested in knowing more about this exciting study please contact Jane Shaw on 0845 481 8148 or email [email protected]">[email protected].

Arts organisations cannot do without marketing and fundraising

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Mark Ravenhill advocates cutting arts budgets by slicing the administrators rather than the artists (Let's cut the arts budget, 26 July). He states that there has been a "massive growth" in marketing departments, as if these people who have worked hard to increase awareness of the arts were somehow part of the problem, not the solution. That is an odd position for an any artist to take. Career opportunities grow largely because of "backroom" work.

Ravenhill also states that fundraising – in which "glossy brochures are produced, lavishly catered events are held and bundles of complimentary tickets are given away" – hasn't worked in the last 20 years. This is quite simply false. Last year the private sector gave £655m to culture in the UK. Ravenhill's cynicism about the private sector is unwelcome. The potential growth from sponsors and donors is genuine. Yet Arts & Business can confirm that philanthropy cannot in the short term fill the gap made by cuts of 25% or more. On this Ravenhill is wrong – the cuts could be lethal.

He does suggest some ideas of real value, calling for "a co-operative model … in which public arts organisations come together to promote their work and build new audiences" and a "new way of thinking". Yes, the sector must now more than ever be creative, open-minded and together as it faces its greatest challenge for generations.

Individual artists and administrators have written articles and waved placards, but unlike, say, doctors and the universities, they have not spoken effectively as one voice, let alone offered agreement on practical solutions. The cultural community is fragmented, and politicians are fond of the divide-and-rule strategy.

That is why Arts & Business set up the Culture Forum in association with the National Campaign for the Arts, which launched this week and will act as a unique, unified voice for the whole cultural community – responding to George Osborne's call for a debate on the impending cuts and how each part of society will tackle the crisis. Polly Toynbee this week praised the arts for "drawing people together" (Arts for everyone is cheap considering its rich returns, 28 July). Well, already hundreds of people are following, lobbying and observing the forum's discussions online.

In September the Culture Forum will feed back to the government its discussions on the impact of the cuts, the need to phase any cost savings to reduce the damage, the potential for mergers, and new ways of working and sharing. Ideas will be presented on potential new income and funding models, and ways to grow the private sector.

We must now all stop point-scoring, and people should resist the temptation to say "cut them, but not me". Artists are often solitary beings, but we should look to the choir, the ensemble of actors and the orchestra, not only as metaphors for group harmony, but as a way of working together with Arts Council England and all the other cultural agencies. Together we are stronger, and that means fighting by the side of the craftsman, singer, dancer, writer, actor, painter, philanthropist – and even the banker.

Source: Colin Tweedy, The Guardian

Lloyds Banking Group storms back into the black with £1.6bn profit

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Lloyds Banking Group stormed back into profit in the first six months of the year, reversing a £4bn loss with a £1.6bn profit. The news today prompted calls that the biggest bank on the high street should be broken up.

Created in the heat of the banking crisis in the autumn of 2008 after Labour tore up competition rules to allow Lloyds to rescue the ailing HBOS, the enlarged group produced profits that were double what analysts had forecast and reflected a 31% improvement in the margins it makes from its retail customers.

A halving in bad debt charges to £6.5bn from £13.4bn a year ago as well as £1bn of savings caused by the integration of the two banks also fuelled the better than expected profits. About 16,000 roles have gone and more job losses are expected.

The shares were the biggest gainers in the FTSE 100, closing at 74.49p. At this level the taxpayer is making a profit on its 41% stake, prompting chief executive Eric Daniels to say that UK Financial Investments now had "optionality" in deciding whether to dispose of the stake it controlled on behalf of the taxpayer.

Lloyds' return to profit demonstrated the improving fortunes of the bailed-out banks. Parts of nationalised Northern Rock returned to profit this week while Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to move into the black when it reports on Friday.

While the City was buoyed by the profits rise, customer groups were concerned. Dominic Lindley, policy adviser at consumer body Which?, said: "Lloyds Banking Group results are a good lesson of what happens when you give one bank a large dominant position in the market by supporting it, allowing massive consolidation and many of its smaller competitors to go out of business. Unsurprisingly, it dramatically increases its margins and profits at the expense of consumers."

He suggested that the four- to five-year period the European Union has given for Lloyds to sell off 600 branches should be shortened to help reduce its dominance.

In the midst of the political storm of whether banks are restricting lending to small businesses Lloyds insisted it was ahead of its government-imposed target to lend £44bn by the end of next March.

Daniels stressed that the bank was "open to any customer" and insisted "borrowing was actually cheaper than it was a few years ago". Even so, customers were repaying loans faster than it was able to grant them as its overall loans and advances to customers fell to £612bn from £627bn the same time last year. Daniels said: "Credit is available but the demand simply isn't there."

The bank defended the 31% increase in the net interest margin in is retail arm – which generated £2.4bn of profits up from £360m a year ago. Mortgage customers were coming off fixed-rate deals on to the standard variable rate – which was helping the bank's profits but also good for customers as their repayments were dropping.

Daniels insisted that Lloyds operated in a "fiercely" competitive market, pointing to Metro bank which opened one branch last week and Santander which bought 318 branches from RBS.

Daniels, who had been under fire for the HBOS deal which drove Lloyds deeply into the red as a result of bad property lending by HBOS, was endorsed by the bank's chairman, Sir Win Bischoff.

But the transaction has left Lloyds reliant on central banks for financing. Bruce Packard, banks analyst at Seymour Pierce, said: "Lloyds management is to be congratulated for reporting profit before tax well ahead of expectations.

"Yet, this is profit in an accounting sense, rather than an economic sense, given the £132bn of government support the group is still receiving and the billions of wholesale funding with maturity of less than one year."

The bank is banned by the EU from paying dividends until 2012. Daniels set a new target for income to increase by 6%-7% annually and achieve a 15% return on equity.

Source:Jill Treanor, The Guardian

Northern Rock: Where bad is good and good is bad

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Gary Hoffman, chief executive of both parts of the old Northern Rock, makes a fair point when he says the "bad bank" – the asset manager running down the bulk of the mortgage book – doesn't deserve its unflattering moniker. Some 90% of the loan book is performing perfectly well. An arrears rate of 5.64% is not great but nor is it disastrous given that the book includes the notorious 125% "Together" loans.

The moral of the tale is that Rock's downfall was not caused primarily by duff lending decisions but by the crazy reliance of wholesale financing. But we knew that already. The new point is that taxpayers can be reasonably confident that their cheap loan to the company (currently standing at £22.5bn) will be repaid in full, albeit over a decade.

But what about the "good bank", the bit that took £10bn of top-quality loans and was given a mission to go forth and write some more high-grade business?

Unfortunately, this nickname also looks wrong. Northern Rock plc currently looks like a small business facing great difficulties in growing. It has to pay up to hold on to its deposit base and has to retain substantial liquidity with the Bank of England. The pre-tax loss in the first half was £142m and more losses are expected to flow in the second half because Rock has too much cash sitting around earning next to nothing.

Hoffman sees opportunity there, as he is bound to. Introducing a wider range of financial products – ie, more than just savings and mortgages – is one route to take. But it seems very early to dream that an ambitious banking newcomer would wish to enrich the taxpayer by buying the Rock at a fat premium to book value.

There are only 76 branches and nobody really knows whether the Northern Rock name is still trusted by consumers. If you've got big ambitions in banking, you probably wouldn't choose to start from there.

Source: Niles Pratley, The Guardian

Half of employers welcome flexible working legislation

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Employers have welcomed government plans to bring in legislation requiring them to offer flexible working to all employees.

A Hays poll of more than 1000 employers and staff found that more than half (55%) of firms were in favour of the plans.

The survey showed that 70% expect an increase in requests for flexible working and nearly 40% are bracing themselves for the impact this might have on their budgets.

More employers (44%) in the private sector expect costs to increase if employees take up the offer of flexible working compared with those in the public sector (33%).

While employers offer flexible working primarily as a way of supporting their employees - just 18% report it is just to comply with existing legislation - only 29% feel offering this way of working is integral to the success of their business.

Yet, the majority (85%) of employees say they would be more likely to stay with their employer if flexible working options, such as working from home or job shares, were brought in.

Charles Logan, director at Hays said: "As pay freezes remain in place for many organisations, across both sectors, looking at how to retain your staff and keep them engaged is moving up the agenda.

"Offering simple flexible working options could make the different between keeping or losing staff at a critical time, when the best employees are needed to drive recovery."

Source: Helen Gilbert

Call to back creative countryside

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

HARNESSING the untapped creative potential of the countryside could generate more than £1bn a year, says a report.

But the rural creative industries will remain worth just half the amount unless the government helps artists access adequate funding, it warns.

The four-year study was prepared by the Rural Cultural Forum, which brings together artists, community groups and other rural stakeholders.

A national rural cultural strategy would benefit rural communities and help to regenerate the countryside, says the 35-page document.

It would also help Britain’s recovery from recession and double the contribution made by the arts to the national economy.

The full report, Creative Rural Communities - Proposal for a Rural Cultural Strategy, can be downloaded http://tinyurl.com/ (5.8Mb pdf).

“Creative rural communities currently contribute over £500 million a year to the national creative economy,” said forum chairman Michael Hart.

But they suffered from unfair access to Lottery funding and other investment initiatives aimed primarily at urban artists and communities.

There was no reason why rural artists should be excluded from National Arts Lottery and Arts Council regeneration initiatives, said Mr Hart.

"With fair access, Britain's creative rural communities have the potential to generate over £1 billion per year for the national creative economy.”

The forum is calling on the government to set up rural schemes similar to existing urban cultural programmes and SeaChange initiatives.

"All that we asking for is a level playing field and an equal opportunity in terms of accessing existing cultural regeneration funding,” said Mr Hart.

Doing so would help artists contribute to the economic recovery, promote stronger rural communities and help improve the environment.

Source: Ruralcity Media

WIN – SEEKS NEW BOARD DIRECTORS

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0100

WIN Ltd was incorporated in October 2008 as a not-for-profit company, following nine years as an award-winning project at Durham University. The new company’s mission is to support, connect and promote female entrepreneurs and women in business in the North East, and to advance support for women’s enterprise globally.

The strategic direction of WIN is provided by a Board of Directors, and the company is further supported by a wider advisory group to provide advice and support on specific or operational aspects.

The role of the Board is to provide strategic guidance to the new organisation and also to play an ambassadorial role to help build WIN’s profile in new and existing networks. We are now seeking 4 new board members to start in role from September 2010.

These are voluntary positions and you must be a member of WIN before you can be formally appointed. As a Board Director you will need to attend 6 board meetings per year and will be expected to contribute around 12 days per year in total in supporting and advancing WIN and our ethos.

This is an extremely exciting opportunity for individuals wishing to show their support for female entrepreneurs and women in business, and to secure a high profile role as part of a highly regarded and globally renowned organisation.

We welcome applications from individuals with a passion and enthusiasm for supporting women in business; with the desire to get involved and help to achieve the potential of the company; and with experience, knowledge and networks that can help to lead the organisation effectively.

Please email [email protected] no later than Monday 16th August 2010 to express your interest and receive an application form and skills matrix.

Please complete this and send back with CV and cover letter by Monday 23rd August. Interviews for shortlisted candidates will be held on Thurs 2nd September 2010 so please keep this date free.

British girls undergo horror of genital mutilation despite tough laws

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Female circumcision will be inflicted on up to 2,000 British schoolgirls during the summer holidays – leaving brutal physical and emotional scars. Yet there have been no prosecutions against the practice.

July, 25, 2010
Tracy McVeigh and Tara Sutton-The Observer

Like any 12-year-old, Jamelia was excited at the prospect of a plane journey and a long summer holiday in the sun. An avid reader, she had filled her suitcases with books and was reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when her mother came for her. "She said, 'You know it's going to be today?' I didn't know exactly what it would entail but I knew something was going to be cut. I was made to believe it was genuinely part of our religion."

She went on: "I came to the living room and there were loads of women. I later found out it was to hold me down, they bring lots of women to hold the girl down. I thought I was going to be brave so I didn't really need that. I just lay down and I remember looking at the ceiling and staring at the fan.
"I don't remember screaming, I remember the ridiculous amount of pain, I remember the blood everywhere, one of the maids, I actually saw her pick up the bit of flesh that they cut away 'cause she was mopping up the blood. There was blood everywhere."
Some 500 to 2,000 British schoolgirls will be genitally mutilated over the summer holidays. Some will be taken abroad, others will be "cut" or circumcised and sewn closed here in the UK by women already living here or who are flown in and brought to "cutting parties" for a few girls at a time in a cost-saving exercise.
Then the girls will return to their schools and try to get on with their lives, scarred mentally and physically by female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice that serves as a social and cultural bonding exercise and, among those who are stitched up, to ensure that chastity can be proved to a future husband.
Even girls who suffer less extreme forms of FGM are unlikely to be promiscuous. One study among Egyptian women found 50% of women who had undergone FGM "endured" rather than enjoyed sex.

Cleanliness, neatness of appearance and the increased sexual pleasure for the man are all motivations for the practice. But the desire to conform to tradition is the most powerful motive. The rite of passage, condemned by many Islamic scholars, predates both the Koran and the Bible and possibly even Judaism, appearing in the 2nd century BC.

Although unable to give consent, many girls are compliant when they have the prodecure carried out, believing they will be outcasts if they are not cut. The mothers believe they are doing the best for their daughters. Few have any idea of the lifetime of hurt it can involve or the medical implications.

Jamelia, now 20, who says her whole personality changed afterwards."I felt a lot older. It was odd because nobody says this is a secret, keep your mouth shut but that's the message you get loud and clear." She stopped the sports and swimming she used to love and became "strangely disconnected with her own body". Other girls have died, of shock or blood loss; some have picked up infections from dirty tools. Jamelia's mother paid extra for the woman to use a clean razor. It is thought that in the UK there are one or two doctors who can be bribed by the very rich to to carry out FGM using anaesthetic and sterilised instruments.

Comfort Momoh works at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London, in one of the 16 clinics up and down the country who deal with FGM and its health repercusssions. Women who have had much of their external genitalia sliced off and their vaginas stitched closed, but for a tiny hole, also come to be cut open in order to give birth.

There are four types of female circumcision identified by the World Health Organisation, ranging from partial to total removal of the external female genitalia. Some 140 million women worldwide have been subjected to FGM and an estimated further two million are at risk every year. Most live in 28 African countries while others are in Yemen, Kurdistan, the US, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Canada.

The UK Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985 makes it an offence to carry out FGM or to aid, abet or procure the service of another person. The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, makes it against the law for FGM to be performed anywhere in the world on UK permanent residents of any age and carries a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment. To date, no prosecutions have been made under UK legislation.
"Obviously in summer we get really anxious. All activists and professionals working around FGM get anxious because this is the time that families take their children back home. This is the time when all the professionals need to be really alert," said Momoh.

"There is no hard evidence in figures about what is happening in the UK because it's a hush-hush thing. It's only now that a few people are beginning to talk about it, which is good because change will only come from within and the numbers coming forward are rising. But there is a lot of family pressure. When I first started in 1997 we had two clinics in the country, now we have 16."
One woman told the Observer how a midwife examining her had raced retching and crying from the room. She had no idea she was "abnormal" before that happened. There is a clear need for women who have suffered FGM to be able to visit health professionals who understand what has happened to them. Momoh said that for those who wanted it, some surgical reversal work could sometimes be done on women with the most severe FGM procedure, Type III. For those with other types, counselling and support is all that can offered.

"Periods are agony – you get a lot of women who are determined to have reversals while they are having their period but then when the pain has stopped they lose their nerve again," said Leyla Hussein, 29, who has had to have years of counselling to cope with her own anger and distress at what was done to her as a child. It has helped her forgive her own mother's complicity in the mutilation she endured, though the older woman could not understand why Hussein would not have her own child, now aged seven, cut. But Hussein has vowed that she will be the last generation of women in her family to suffer.
"It was my husband who said on our honeymoon, 'We are not going to do this thing to any child of ours.' I was quite shocked, I hadn't questioned it. But I now realise a lot of men are not in favour of FGM, not when you tell them the woman is not going to enjoy herself."
Hussein is among a slowly but steadily growing band of women who have reacted against what happened to them with courage and a determination to stamp out FGM. Hussein has run support and discussion groups for affected women and for men, and formerly worked at the African Well Women's Centre in Leyton, east London.
"I can really relate to some of the women who are very angry, but how do you blame your mother, who loves you yet planned this for you? There is a lot of anger and resentment. Many women blame themselves and of course there are flashbacks to deal with. I had blackouts – anytime I had to have a smear test, I would pass out because lying in that position brought it back to me, but the nurse is used to me now and allows a little more time with the appointment."
"The new generation, born and raised here in Britain, they are used to expressing their views and it will be a lot harder to shut them up. Last month was the first ever march against FGM [in Bristol where 15 to 16 mothers protested] and that is a sign of something new."
Asha-Kin Duale is a community partnership adviser in Camden, London. She talks to schools and to families about safeguarding children. "Culture has positive and negative issues for every immigrant community. We value some traditions, and most are largely good.
"FGM is not confined to African countries. It has no basis in Christianity, it has no basis in Islam; none of Muhammad's daughters had it done. For some parents it is enough to let them know that and they will drop it completely. Everyone needs to understand that every child, no matter what the background or creed, is protected by this law in this land."
She said there needed to be an understanding of why FGM took place, although that was not the same as accepting that the practice had a cultural justification.

"FGM has a social function and until this is understood by social services and other bodies they will never stop it. It is a power negotiation mechanism, that women use to ensure respect from men. It prevents rape of daughters and is a social tool to allow women to regain some power in patriarchal societies. With girls living in the UK there is no need to gain the power – it has to be understood that girls can be good girls without FGM."
For Jason Morgan, a detective constable in the Met's FGM unit, Project Azure, the solution lies with those girls themselves: "Empowering youth, giving them the information, is the way forward. They are coming from predominantly caring and loving families, who genuinely believe this is the right thing to do. Many are under a great deal of pressure from the extended families.
"Sometimes it might be as simple as delivering the message of what the legal position is; sometimes we even give them an official letter, a document that they can show to the extended family that states quite firmly what will happen if the procedure goes ahead. The focus has to be on prevention."

Project Azure made 38 interventions in 2008, 59 in 2009 and 25 so far this year. For Morgan those statistics are just as important as getting a conviction. "We know it happens here although we have no official statistics, but we have seen very successful partnerships and we don't want to alienate communities through heavy-handed tactics.

"While a prosecution would send out a very clear message to practising communities, really it is very difficult and you would be relying on medical evidence, and in turn that would all hinge or whether the child consents to an examination."
But Naana Otoo-Oyortey is not so content with the softly-softly approach: "We have anecdotal evidence that it is being done here. So someone is not doing their job: it's an indication that the government has been failing to protect children. The commitment is hollow."
Head of the leading anti-FGM charity Forward UK, Otoo-Oyortey said people value the FGM tradition as something which holds a community together and gives it structure. "It's seen as a party, a cutting party because it's a celebration – people expect it as a way of welcoming a girl. A lot of women will mention to us that there have been no prosecutions here so why do we worry about the law? At the end of the day who will know?

"And we cannot just blame the women as the men are silently supporting it by paying for it. The new government's lack of a position on FGM is very worrying. We don't know what they will do, but we do know that the summer holidays are here again and we will be left to pick up the pieces in a few weeks' time."
And for those who will be "cut" this summer, the effects will be lifelong. Miriam was six when she had her cutting party at her home in Somalia, two years before war arrived to force her family out.
When she was 12, doctors were horrified to find that what they thought was a cyst in her body was actually several years of period blood that had been blocked from leaving her body. Unable to have children, she now lives and works in England and worries about other girls. "I'd seen so many people circumcised, all my neighbours, so I knew one day it was going to happen to me. We knew what was happening," Miriam said.
"The little girls who were born in Europe have no clue. They will be traumatised a lot more. The only thing they know is that they are going away – that's what they say, 'We're going on a holiday'.
"Then her life and her head are going to be messed up. It's amazing how many people are in mental health care because of their culture. Don't get me wrong, I have religion and culture and I love where I'm from and I love what I stand for. But culture should not be about torture.
"Why would anyone want to go and cut up a seven- or eight-year-old child? People need to wake up — you are hurting your child, you are hurting your daughter, you're not going to have a grandchild, so wake up."

Source FGC Blogger, fgcdailynews.blogspot.com

Mary Portas, queen of shops, looking for opinionated women

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Retail guru and television presenter Mary Portas is about to start filming a new Channel 4 TV series and wants to speak to you. The series will follow Mary’s quest to fill the gap in the fashion market for fabulous, forty-plus women. Mary believes that women like her, those strident, confident forty-plus women have dropped off the fashion and retail industry’s radar. Mary wants to put them back at the centre of the retail industry and give them the same fabulous shopping experience of women half their age.

Are you stylish and over forty but fed up of what’s on offer on the high street?

When you shop for fashion is it not as much fun as it used to be?

As part of the television series Mary is looking for a group of opinionated women to act as her focus group, advising her on anything from where to buy the best fitting dress to road testing whole fashion collections.

If you’re interested in being involved please email [email protected]">[email protected] with your name, contact details and why you’d like to be part of the show.

A List of Awards Created to Highlight Successful Women Entrepreneurs

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

For all female entrepreneurs & professionals… Do you want to be rewarded for your entrepreneurial and business achievements? We have tried to list all the current 2010 competitions and awards for the most successful working and entrepreneurial women. So apply, nominate and become the next role models and inspirations for women entering business.

Here are all the award opportunities aligned for the rest of 2010:

Nominations: before Friday July 23, 2010 on http://www.workingmums.co.uk/topemployerawards/submitentry/

For more information: http://www.workingmums.co.uk/topemployerawards/

The Mumpreneur Conference and Awards 2010

Deadline: before Friday July 30th, 2010 on http://www.themumpreneurconference.co.uk/nominations.html

Event: Saturday September 18th, 2010 at Heart of England Conference Centre, Meriden Road, Fillongley, Near Meriden, Warwickshire, CV7 8DX

Previous winners include Natalie Hickey, Founder of Precious Parcels; Alison Rothwell, Founder of Arabella Miller Ltd; Jane Baker, a Partylite consultant; Louise Prunty, Founder of Caledonian Therapy Academy Ltd; Claire Willis, Founder of SnugBaby and Antonia Chitty as the Inspirational Business Mum

For more information: www.themumpreneurconference.co.uk

NatWest Everywomen Awards

Nominations: Before Friday July 30th, 2010 on http://www.everywoman.com/everywomanAwards/TheNatWesteverywomanAwards/HowToEnter1/

Event: Wednesday December 1st, 2010 at The Dorchester, Park Lane, London

Past winners include Jan Ward from Corrotherm International Ltd; Hilary Devey from Pall-Ex; Emma Harrison from A4e and Rachel Lowe from RTL Games Ltd.

For more information: http://www.everywoman.com/everywomanAwards/TheNatWesteverywomanAwards/

Remote Workers Awards

Nominations: before Saturday July 31st, 2010 on http://www.remoteworkerawards.com/pages.aspx?Work+at+Home=Enter+&p=337

Event: at the Grand Connaught Rooms, London

Past winners include Dean Rhodes-Brandon from yourlocalcinema.com; Marieke from UKOLN; Karen Reyburn from the European division of a global organisation RAN ONE Europe; Derek Pattenson, Founder of Small Office Solutions; Jane Hopkins, Founder of mumsclub.co.uk; Amanda Farren, Founder of Ella Announcements; Debbie Bird, editor of babyworld.co.uk and Wendy Shand, Founder of Tots to Travel

For more information: http://www.remoteworkerawards.com/

Red Awards

Nominations: before Wednesday August 18th, 2010 on http://www.redmagazine.co.uk/redAwards2010/

Event: tbc

Past winners include Gillian Tett, Assistant editor of the Financial Times; Founder of Totseat; Natalie Massenet, Founder of net-a-porter.com; Carrie Longton & Justine Roberts, Founder of Mumsnet and Kate Grussing, Founder of Sapphire Partners.

For more information: http://www.redmagazine.co.uk/redAwards2010/

Women of the year

Nominations: on http://www.womenoftheyear.co.uk/nominating-council.htm

Event: Monday October 11th, 2010 at The Intercontinental Hotel, Park Lane, London

Past winners include serial inventor Emily Cummins; Shy Keenan and Sara Payne who are fighting against paedophiles; Sister Frances Dominica, a nun and pioneer to the hospice movement and Camila Batmanghelidjh, Founder and director of Kids Company.

For more information: http://www.womenoftheyear.co.uk/nominating-council.htm

Startups Awards

Nominations: before Friday September 3rd, 2010 on http://www.startupsawards.co.uk/how-to-enter.html

Event: December 2010

Previous winners include Three Sixty Entertainment, Wonga, Shiply.com, JAO Tec, Natasha Courtenay-Smith of Talk to the Press (for Women in Business Awards), JAO Tech, Pathology Group, Truecall, Goodwill Solutions CIC, Mobility Buy, Get Set Schools, Andrew Atalla from Atom 42 and Franz Hutcheson from Go Sustainable.

For more information: http://www.startupsawards.co.uk/

Women of the Future awards

Nominations: Before Friday September 3rd, 2010 on http://womenofthefuture.co.uk

Event: Tuesday November 9th, 2010 at the London Marriott Grosvenor Square

Past winners include fashion designer Jasmine Al Fayed, for her Jasmine di Milo range; Eloise Tooke, managing director of TV company Power; the first soloist Ballerina for the Royal Ballet Lauren Cuthbertson, and ethical entrepreneur Kresse Wesling.

For more information: http://womenofthefuture.co.uk/

The Good Web Guide Award

Nominations: before Sunday September 19th, 2010 on http://www.thegoodwebguide.co.uk/website-of-the-year

Event: Tuesday November 16th, 2010 at The Royal Institution in London

The Good Web Guide Award 2009 was awarded to Simonseeks.com

For more information http://www.thegoodwebguide.co.uk/

Shell Springboard Award

Nominations: before Friday November 5th, 2010 on http://www.shellspringboard.org/applications/apply-now

Event: 2011

Previous winners include HiMag Solutions Ltd, Shiply.com, Trendform Ltd, Pulse Tidal Ltd, Cryomation Ltd, Aeristech Ltd, The Hardstaff Group, Cress Energy Storage Systems and Global Energy Systems and Technology.

For more information: http://www.shellspringboard.org/

Women into the network Awards (Us of course)

Nominations: on http://www.womenintothenetwork.co.uk/awards/

Event: November 19th, 2010

Previous winners include Christine Pearece from Restoration & Beyond; Rebecca Howard from Cynergy; Alison Taylor from Food Local Food Ltd; Emma Louise Graham from Busy Bears Children Day Nursery; Hannah Eyres from Keyfund Federation and Joanne Wishart from Wishart.

For more information: http://www.womenintothenetwork.co.uk/

It is now your turn to enter an award or nominate one of your peers who deserves to be recognised for her successful career.

Source: thenextwomen.com

Make It Cheaper: Right Honourable Turn Off for Female Entrepreneurs

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

‘Dave’s Babes’, ‘Cameron’s Cuties’ and ‘Sam Cam’ might have dominated the pre-election headlines but it didn’t do a lot to increase the actual number of female MPs. Only 142 of our 650 MPs are women, representing an increase of just 2.5% in the number of women at Westminster. Britain lags behind other Western democracies in terms of the Cabinet's gender balance. Fewer than 20% of Cameron's ministers are women. But women make up 53% of Spain's cabinet, 50% of Sweden's, 38% of Germany's, 33% of France's and 31% of America's, according to the Centre for Women and Democracy.

Make It Cheaper, the business price comparison service, wanted to identify how connected female small business owners were to politics and the results are alarming if not completely surprising. The survey shows that only 1% of women would ever consider standing as an MP, compared to 10% of men who would be willing to do so. This could however have something to do with the fact that double the number of women than men named maintaining a good work/life balance as their biggest challenge (15% women, 7% men). However, an astonishing 45% of the women asked claimed that they had no interest in politics (this compared to only 14% of men asked the same question).

Jonathan Elliott, managing director, Make It Cheaper, said: “Given the experience that these women could bring to the table at Westminster, we’re missing out. If some of the skills you need to run a business were used in Government, I am sure we’d see a healthier economy and a tighter run ship.”

Vicky Booth, spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats’ Campaign for Gender Balance, said, “As Make It Cheaper’s research indicates, far more men apply to become Parliamentary candidates than women. We really need more talented women with a range of professional skills and backgrounds to come forward - including small business owners. The Campaign for Gender Balance provides support to potential women candidates, including advice, mentoring, training and practical help, so please do get in touch if you are interested in finding out more.”

Commenting on the results, Seema Sharma, successful female entrepreneur and philanthropist – and star of Channel 4’s Slumdog Secret Millionaire – said that running her own business was part of a personal choice to be able to work from home, which could explain why some women do not consider entering politics if they have young children; “I made a conscious decision to go into an industry which allowed me to retain my work life balance from the outset - I can run my business from my PC and be there for my children at the same time. I would only consider politics when my daughters are older, simply because I don't think I could do justice to a role in politics and their upbringing simultaneously.”

The survey showed further apathy in terms of politicians understanding and influencing their working lives as small business owners:

• 44% said that politicians didn’t have the power to instigate change and even if they did they didn’t understand the real issues faced by local businesses
• Almost a quarter (24%) claimed that nothing politicians said ever impacted them

Despite the fact that women are underepresented in parliament there was a clear difference in what men and women found to be the biggest challenges in running a small business. While men were more frustrated with dealing with unhelpful banks (10% men, 2% women) and central government red tape (12% men and 2% women), women were far more concerned with attracting and retaining customers (38% of women compared to 28% of men).

The research was conducted by independent research company Redshift amongst 500 business owners in the UK.

Source: mynewsdesk.com

What happened when 400 alpha women got together

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

There's been much excitement around these parts about the TEDGlobal 2010 conference last week. And deservedly so: it's a world-class event. But let's not forget our other favourite gathering of talent and ideas. Let's hear it for Digital Life Design, the DLD conference run by the Burda media empire in Munich.

Each January, the DLD Conference brings together 800 "thought leaders, creators, entrepreneurs and investors" to discuss digital innovation, science and culture, and generally to network frantically. It's chaired by Hubert Burda, owner of Hubert Burda Media, and the Israeli tech investor Yossi Vardi, and manages to attract a consistently impressive roster of A-list speakers -- from Craig Venter and Rem Koolhaas to Marissa Mayer and Mark Zuckerberg. There's a real buzz about the place, and much more of a hardcore business focus than many other events I attend, such as Picnic and PINC.

This year, the DLD team -- led by managing directors Steffi Czerny and Dr Marcel Reichart (pictured above) -- have extended the brand in an interesting direction. After some concerns about gender imbalance were expressed on stage during this January's conference -- one delegate tweeted that of 154 speakers, only 18 were women -- they decide to redresss the balance. So a few weeks ago, in Munich's Deutsche Museum, they hosted a second DLD conference of 2010 -- this one dedicated to "setting the genda for The Female Decade".

DLDwomen -- to give it its full title -- was conceived to celebrate women (and a few men) deemed to be role models for women’s leadership. These were people "who have managed challenges, started (social) entreprises and who have accomplished success in digital media, social networks and e-commerce". Over two days, 50 international speakers addressed 500 mostly female participants who are leaders in fields such as marketing, business, health, design, media and culture. This (male) British magazine editor was rather excited to be among them.

There were certainly some prominent success stories on stage: Zaha Hadid was there, in conversation with Wired's friend Hans Ulrich Obrist of the Serpentine Gallery (though Ms Hadid's brusque on-stage treatment of her partner Patrick Schuhmacher raised some eyebrows); the writers Susie Orbach and Catherine Millet were engaging speakers, as was the racing driver Susie Stoddart. And there were boys too: Paulo Coelho was on stage to declare that "in the end, the feminine energy drives men and defines our life".

Much of the conference took the format of panel discussions. One, on "the future of media from a female perspective" featured talents such as Annelies Van Den Belt of SUP, Sarah Öhrvall of Bonnier, and Katharina Borchert of Spiegel Online; another, "Women on a mission", included Juliana Rotich of Ushahidi, Mitchell Baker of the Mozilla Foundation, and Joana Breidenbach of Betterplace.org. You can watch video highlights on DLDwomen's website.

Panel discussions aren't necessarily the most effective format for prompting fresh insights: the TED format of 18-minute intense one-person talks is far more persuasive. Still, my notebook soon filled with sweet observations and statistics:

- Of 180-plus counties in the world, just 10 are run by women;

- 90 per cent of all ads that involve a person show a woman;

- Women in the US make 80 per cent of all consumer decisions and buy 60 per cent of cars

- 63 per cent of all internet purchases are made by women;

- 57 per cent of Facebook users are women, and women post 55% more than men;

- 84 per cent of virtual-games players are men.

Oh, and in 18th-century England, a man could divorce his wife if she'd used cosmetics to enhance her appearance.

(And no, I deliberately switched off my male obsession with cold, hard data for the duration of the conference, so I can't provide an original and independently verifiable source for these facts. Sorry, guys.)

Did the premise of a DLD-fuelled "Female Decade" stack up? Not really; this was less about constructing a coherent intellectual rationale to boost women's economic power than it was about creating a constructive space for them to network, share ideas and outdress each other (as a minority man in the audience, I soon understood that the power-dressing was largely for the benefit of other women rather than the fifty or so men present). Now that TED is planning to launch its own TEDWomen conference in Washington DC this December, its organisers may wish to reflect carefully about what, specifically, a gender-focused event is intended to achieve.

Still, ideology aside, there were some fun moments on stage. Chairwoman Maria Furtwängler-Burda -- an accomplished actress, scientist and wife of Hubert Burda -- noted on stage that her husband's own board lacked a single woman. We heard from the stage the mandatory reminder that "Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did -- but on high heels and backwards". And Catherine Hakim, of the London School of Economics, gave a detailed exposition of the emerging economic concept of "erotic capital" -- which we non-academics in our ignorance used to call simply flirting in order to get ahead.

No, let's not be flippant. Let's look at a few key messages to take away.

First, about the psychology of "self-discrimination" among many working women. Dalia Marin, professor of economics at the University of Munich, made an eloquent argument that "women shy away from competition with men, research says, as their perception is they won't be as good as men". Dunya Bouhacene, co-founder of Women Equity for Growth, a private-equity investment house focusing on women-led SMEs, cited a French study of SMEs from 2007 which suggests that women running businesses use 35 per cent less capital to produce 12 per cent more revenue.

But for me, the most thoughtful and practically relevant advice came from the London-based investor (and new mother) Sonali De Rycker of Accel (number 21 in the Wired 100). In a discussion on how women can build up confidence in themselves while combining personal and family life with business life, she urged women entrepreneurs to heed five genuinely useful pieces of advice that she'd learned from successful companies she'd encountered:

1 - Choose to do something where you have credibility and deep-domain experience.

2 - Be a magnet for great people: you need to attract talent.

3 - Understand the microeconomics of your business.

4 - The EQ matters more than the IQ. In other words, women can play their relatively greater insight and intuition to their advantage, by demonstrating their emotional intelligence. "If I look at the men who've failed leading fast-growth companies, it's because they weren’t listening," she said. "We back companies for ten years. So listen."

5 - Succeeding in business is not about passion or ambition. "It's having the killer instinct, the complete determination to win. Women don't have this naturally. How do you demonstrate this in a pitch? I don't know, but when I see it I know."

For those starting a business, De Rycker said, "entrepreneurship is a very lonely place. And women don't like to be lonely. You take a lot of knocks, hear a lot of negative thoughts about your idea, your ability -- it can get you down.

"But if you're a born entrepreneur, you know it."

Source: David Rowan, 21 July 2010, wired.co.uk

Prowess Facts & Figures

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Here you can find key statistics regarding women and entrepreneurship. This is an ongoing resource which will be continuously updated. The reports referred to here are available in our online research library, where you can find hundreds of reports categorised by theme and region. This resource is open to everyone.

Prowess Statistics

Each year Prowess members:

Help over 100,000 women looking to start or grow businesses every year. They help 10,000 of them get a business off the ground, contributing an additional £1.5 billion to the UK economy in additional revenue
Support the launch of 25,000 new businesses each year, 39% of which are women-owned
Provide business networking events and opportunities to 40,000 people each year, 83% of whom are women
Provide business development training and support to 70,000 businesses, 35% of which are women-owned
Directly support 18,000 people into jobs, or further training, 42% of whom are women
Provide over 5,000 business loans, 32% to women - delivered by 14 members
Issue 4,500 grants, 27% to women - delivered by 16 members

The majority of Prowess members who deliver business support services do so as part of a mainstream service; 26% deliver services targeted specifically at women.

The majority of Prowess members providing business support services define themselves as independent and not-for-profit (69%). The others are split nearly evenly between the public (17%) and private sectors (14%).

Half of Prowess members provide services on a local or sub-regional level, with 40% delivering region-wide. 10% deliver on a multi-regional or national level.

Recent figures from year 1 to year 2 of data collected from 11 of the Prowess Flagship members show that there was a 205% increase in enquiries from women with 6,623 actual enquiries. (The Regional State of Women’s Enterprise in England, Prowess 2005).

Female Entrepreneurship: General Statistics and facts

There are approximately 1,013,000 self-employed women (7.6% of women in employment) and 2,706,000 self-employed men (17.4% of men in employment) in the UK. (Women's Business Ownership, Professor Sara Carter, 2006)
In the UK, women-owned businesses comprise approximately 16% of the business stock and women comprise approximately 27% of the self-employed population. (Women's Business Ownership, Professor Sara Carter, 2006)
Total Early Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rates for women in the UK are 3.9% of the total working age female population. This compares with 6.2% of the total (male and female) population. The female entrepreneurial activity rate is only half that of male entrepreneurial activity. (Women's Business Ownership, Professor Sara Carter, 2006)
Men are now twice as likely to be entrepreneurially active as women but in 2001 were two and a half times more likely to be entrepreneurially active. (Stairways to growth, Supporting the ascent of Women's Enterprise in the UK, GEM/Prowess 2006)
The most entrepreneurial age group for females is 35 – 44 (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, London Business School, February 2006)
There are 602,000 female owned businesses in the UK representing just 14% of all businesses (Annual Small Business Survey February 2008)
In the USA the Women's Business Act 1988 put in place long-term infrastucture to support women's enterprise development. Since then women's business ownership has increased significantly.

The economic case for encouraging more women to start their own business:

The growth in women’s enterprise in the USA has been aided by Federal recognition of its importance and a sustained commitment to its development over a thirty year period. Although there have been remarkable policy developments in the UK over the past five years, it will take sustained commitment to ensure an equivalent level of development in women’s enterprise within the UK. (Women's Business Ownership, Professor Sara Carter, 2006)
Women in the USA are twice as likely to be entrepreneurially active as women in the UK. The entrepreneurial rates for men are roughly the same in the UK as the US, any significant increase in business formation will only come from encouraging more women into business (State of Women's Enterprise in the UK, Dr. Rebecca Harding, Nov 2007)

If the UK could achieve the same levels of female entrepreneurship as the US, Britain would gain three quarters of a million more businesses. (Gordon Brown, Advancing Enterprise Conference, 04.02.05)
There are roughly 620,000 majority women owned businesses in the UK generating around £130 billion turnover. (Rt Hon Jacqui Smith, Minister for Women and Equality speaking at 2nd Prowess conference)
If women started businesses at the same rate as men, we would have 150,000 extra start-ups each year. (Rt Hon Jacqui Smith, Minister for Women and Equality speaking at 2nd Prowess conference)
Women starting up in business will tend to provide a more immediate contribution to the economy: Around one in five women come into self-employment from unemployment compared with around one in fifteen for men. (SBS Promoting Female Entrepreneurship, March 2005)
A pound invested in developing women’s enterprise provides a greater return on investment than a pound invested in developing male owned enterprise. (Chief Executive of the Small Business Service, Martin Wyn Griffith, Speaking at the National Dialogue for Entrepreneurship, Washington DC, March 2005)

Motivations for starting a business:

54% of women start a business so they can choose what hours they work, compared to only 35% of men. (Women & Men Business Owners in the United Kingdom)
21% of women state family commitments as a reason for becoming self-employed compared to only 2% of men (A Strategic Framework for Women’s Enterprise, Small Business Service, 2003)

Attitudes:

A third of the female population would start a business if it wasn’t for the fear of failure (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2003)
In 2003 there was an increase of 27% in the number of women who felt they had the skills to start a business. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
Around 8% of women have an interest in starting and enterprise, compared with 13% of men. (SBS Promoting Female Entrepreneurship, March 2005)
There are no significant differences between men and women in terms of their attitudes towards entrepreneurship as a career choice or as a high status activity. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
Over a half of women choose to start their business on a part-time basis

Business Support

The choice of targeted female-focussed business support is important to women. The National Council of Graduate Enterprise (NCGE) reports that 98% of women chose to participate in their Women’s Flying Start Programme because it was women-only. Similarly 98% of women involved in the pioneering Enterprising Women initiative said women specific support was either important or very important to them. (Enterprising Women Evaluation and Research Report 2007).
Women who have undergone some form of enterprise training are twice as likely to be engaged in entrepreneurial activity (GEM UK 2005).
70% of women-owned businesses seek advice at the start-up phase compared with 64% of all businesses (SBS Promoting Female Entrepreneurship, March 2005).
23% of the Business Link Operators’ clients are women (Estimation based on Aggregated Business Link Customer Satisfaction Return, Dec 04).
Relatively high proportions of both mentors (48%) and clients (38%) of the Business Volunteer Mentoring Scheme are women.
Women's enterprise initiatives complement and add value to mainstream business support services located nearby - they serve different markets (Analyzing the Economic impact of the Women's Business Center Programme, National Women's Business Council 2004, USA).
Majority female owned businesses are more likely to use an accountant than majority male-owned businesses and less likely to use no external advice than majority male-owned businesses (Dr Stuart Fraser, Finance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, 2005).
Targeted Women’s enterprise initiatives complement and add value to mainstream business support services located nearby. The West Midlands Regional Women’s Enterprise Unit (RWEU) found that 58% of their clients in 2007 had not previously used ‘mainstream’ business support. A 2008 analysis found this figure had risen to 90% (Impact Assessment –Year 2 Regional Women’s Enterprise Unit (RWEU) West Midlands, Mar 08).

Access to finance

There is unequivocal evidence that women-owned businesses start with lower levels of overall capitalization, lower ratios of debt finance, and are much less likely to use private equity or venture capital. The level of start-up capitalization used by women-owned businesses is, on average, only one third of that used by male-owned businesses (Women's Business Ownership, Professor Sara Carter, 2006).
Recent evidence from the UK Survey of SME Finances reported that women were charged more than men on term loans (2.9% vs. 1.9%). No other study has found such a large difference in loan terms, and this result needs further research and explanation (Women's Business Ownership, Professor Sara Carter, 2006).
Fear of debt is the single largest barrier to entrepreneurship for both men and women, although women are significantly more fearful than men. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM, Jan 2004)
Women in the UK are twice as likely to live in poverty as men and they have more to risk by coming off benefits. On average, benefits and tax credits comprise one fifth of women's income and less than one tenth of men's (Fawcett Society 2005).

Caring Responsibilities:

80% of women compared with 17% of men are responsible for looking after the children or arranging childcare facilities. (The barriers start to fall – Barclays 2000)
A full time nursery place for a child under two typically costs over £7000 per year. (Childcare Costs Survey, Daycare Trust, Jan 2005)
The costs of care can be higher for business owners who have no option but to work flexibly and travel to develop their business. But unlike other essential business costs, caring is not tax deductable.
There is a severe shortage of registered childcare places - there are only enough childcare places for 25% of children aged under 8. (Daycare Trust, Jan 2005)

Global context:

Around 30% of all US businesses are majority female owned. The number of women-owned businesses continues to grow at twice the rate of all US firms, and they are increasing in economic clout.
Between 1991 and 1996 the number of self-employed women in Canada grew by 44% (compared to 20% for men).
In 2004, the average level of female total entrepreneurial activity (TEA) rate across the 34 GEM countries varied from 39.1% in Peru to 1.2% in Japan. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2004 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship)

Social Enterprise:

For the UK as a whole, women are more likely than men to be involved with a socially orientated start-up 5.8% of women compared to 4.9% of men. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Focus on Social Entrepreneurs, GEM 2004)
In four of the UK regions women are more likely than men to be setting up a socially orientated venture or activity – the East Midlands, London, the North East and the South East. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM 2004)
Women are more likely than men to think that social, ethical and environmental considerations in business are important. (59% compared with 48%) (A Survey of Social Enterprise Across the UK, DTi, 2005)
The gender gap for social entrepreneurship activity is far narrower than for mainstream enterprise activity (Stairways to growth: supporting the ascent of women owned businesses in the UK, Prowess/GEM 2006)

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women

Women of mixed ethnicity are over two and a half times more entrepreneurial than white women (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2006).
BAME female entrepreneurship is clustered in areas of multiple deprivation, suggesting that ‘employment substitution’ is taking place with low-paid work being sub-contracted and women having to act on their own account (State of Women's Enterprise in the UK, Dr. Rebecca Harding, 2007)
The predominant source of start-up finance for many ethnic groups is friends and family. The figures are 'other Asian' 53.4%, Pakistani 93%, Black African 52.6% and Black Other 52.9%. The predominant source of finance for White people is bank overdraft (29.3%) as it is for Black Caribbean people (38.8%) (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM, Jan 2004).
For black people there is almost no entrepreneurial gender gap (black female entrepreneurial activity is 97% of black male entrepreneurial activity) (State of Women's Enterprise in the UK, Dr. Rebecca Harding, 2007).
Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) for white females is 3.6% and is two and a half times higher amongst women from mixed backgrounds (10.2%), for Bangladeshi women it is (10.9%), Other Asians (10.3%) and Black Caribbeans (10.5%). The most entrepreneurial female grouping is that of 'other Black' at (29.9%) of all women. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM, Jan 2004).
Black women are most likely to feel that ethnicity has strong impact on business (80%), compared to Chinese women (46%) and Asian women (46%). (Ethnic Minority Business Conference 2005)
25% of ethnic minority owned businesses report a lack of self-confidence with finance, which is above the average level (16%). (Dr Stuart Fraser, Finance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, 2005)
A survey of over 300 BAME women leaders found that over three quarters felt the leadership style of white women is more positively perceived in the workplace and 80% felt that the communication style of white women is more positively regarded. (Different Women, Different Places, The Diversity Practice Ltd, 2007)

The nature of women owned businesses

Women are nearly three times as likely to collaborate with research institutions (universities in particular) than male businesses (11.4% compared with 3.8%) (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
Female entrepreneurs are more likely to a product of service unfamiliar to the market, to have fewer competitors, and they are more likely to be using technology in their products or services than their male counterparts. In addition they are more likely than male businesses to be offering a product or service to the market that has been developed in the last year. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
Women do not tend to collaborate with competitors as much as men do. 23.5% of male owner-managed businesses collaborate with other enterprises compared with 18.7% of female-owned businesses. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
48% of female entrepreneurs own businesses in the service sector, compared with 36% of male entrepreneurs (A Strategic Framework for Women’s Enterprise, Small Business Service, 2003)

Regional Breakdown:

Female entrepreneurship has increased in the regions and nations where a strong emphasis has been placed on increasing levels of female participation (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2004 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship)
The South East region currently has 165,000 female entrepreneurs. If women matched the number of male business start-ups in the region, that would create 25,000 additional firms for the South East. (South East England Directory of Business Support for Women 2005)
Female entrepreneurial activity has increased in particular English regions compared to male activity. This is especially the case in the East Midlands (48%), East of England (58%), the North East (58%) and the South West (70%). However, decreases can be seen in London and the West Midlands. (The Regional State of Women’s Enterprise in England, Prowess 2005)
The South West has the highest level of female entrepreneurship at 5.6% of the adult female population and the West Midlands has the lowest at 2.5% (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM 2004)

Young Entrepreneurs:

Amongst younger age groups, 18 to 24 and 25 to 34, female entrepreneurship is still half of male entrepreneurship, but the picture amongst students is more promising with a TEA female rate of 2.6% compared to male TEA rate of 1.6% (The Enterprise Report 2005: Making Ideas Happen; Enterprise Insight, 2005).
51% of female students (14-19 age group) say they want to be entrepreneurs, just 4% fewer than males. In 2004, the divide was 20%, with 55% of men interested, compared with only 35% of women. (Student attitudes to business, businessdynamics, 2005).
It is amongst the 18-24 age group that individuals are most likely to think that entrepreneurship is a good career choice and that it has a high status in society (84% compared to the 75% in the next age group) (The Enterprise Report 2005: Making Ideas Happen; Enterprise Insight, 2005).
Every week around 550 businesses are launched by young entrepreneurs under 25, which represent 7% of all start-ups in England and Wales (The Enterprise Report 2005: Making Ideas Happen; Enterprise Insight, 2005).
Entrepreneurial activity amongst people with no formal education is very high in the 18-24 year old age group (14.2%). Indeed for the 18-24 year old age group, entrepreneurial activity is twice as high in this category as it is for any other qualification level. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM, Jan 2004)
Role models continue to be overwhelmingly male, but for the first time female personalities like JK Rowling and Charlotte Church have been mentioned as inspirations in business. 73% of the students surveyed offered a business related role model, with family members mentioned most often. (Student attitudes to business, businessdynamics, 2005)
Young men are more likely than women to want to run their own business, 64% vs 50%. (UCB Home Loans research, Nationwide, March 2006)
A total of 56% of 16-21 year-olds would like to become self-employed when they are older. (UCB Home Loans, Nationwide, March 2006)
Young people living in the South West and London felt most strongly that they would like to be self-employed (65% and 64%), with those in the North East and East Midlands feeling least strongly (42% and 48%).

Finance:

Both male and female businesses require on average around £20,000 in start-up money. Female entrepreneurs will, on average, put in £10,106 of their own money at this stage, while men will put in around £13,500. This leaves an initial start-up funding gap for male owned businesses of £6,500 and a gap of £9,894 for female-owned businesses. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
27% of women compared with 17% of men will obtain this money from their close family. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
The majority of start-up finance comes from banking sources (43% for women and 46% for men) but there is no statistically significant difference between male and female usage of bank finance. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
Female Business Angels will invest a median amount of £20,000 into start-up businesses compared with £17,142 by male Business Angels. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
Majority female-owned businesses pay significantly higher margins on term loans than male-owned businesses (2.9 versus 1.9 percentage points over base). (Dr Stuart Fraser, Finance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, 2005)
33% of female compared to 20% of male businesses had used government programmes to fund their business start-up. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
Self-employed women who work full time have a mean total weekly income of £412 compared to men’s of £598 which means there is a pay gap of 31%. (Facts About Women & Men In Great Britain, Equal Opportunities Commission 2005)

Source: prowess.org.uk/facts.htm

Women's Media in the EuroMed

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The Women's Media in the Euromed project involves The Foundation for Women Entrepreneurs from Malta and four other partners, namely: IRIS Provincia di Pescara from Italy, the Moroccan Association Aini Bennai and Aini Bennai Editions and the Lebanese SAFADI Foundation. They already have experience in training (IRIS Provincia di Pescara, GRAIF, FWE and the associate Italian Development Cooperation Office – Lebanon) and in empowering women (SAFADI Foundation, Aini Bennai, GRAIF, FWE). Moreover, partner Aini Bennai and associate EUROPAITALIA are media actors who are aware of the crucial role of Media in today’s society.

The project aims to foster gender equality in the Euro-Mediterranean region through media tools. Specifically, the project wants to reduce the gender digital division in the Euromed region, support the involvement of young women employed in the media sector and encourage the exchange of good practices in the Euromed.

Following a call for applications, 20 intermediate beneficiaries (women coming from Italy, France, Malta, Lebanon and Morocco; aged less than 35 years old) will be selected and trained in audiovisual and visual production. Training will be held in two countries: the first module, theory and techniques, will be held in Marseille, France, while the second module, on-the-job training, will be held in Malta. During the training phase, students will develop audiovisual and visual products related to gender issues. These products will then be shown in a number of selected film festivals and photography exhibitions in order to increase public awareness as to the urgency of destroying gender stereotypes in society. Through the immense power of culture and media, Women's Media in the Euromed will have a great influence on the Euro-Mediterranean society. Partners believe that communication has to sensitise public opinion on the strategic role of women in society, thus this project will strengthen the role of women in communication and help foster their role in society, particularly in the Euro-Mediterranean area.

Before the training phase, two studies will be conducted on gender issues and the media in the region. The research attempts to address the need for more gender-based indicators and better analyses in the field.

The partner IRIS Provincia di Pescara has taken advantage of the fact that Pescara has a number of associates and collaborators in the region, following its hosting the 2009 Mediterranean Games, who can be contacted for sustainability and visibility purposes. Similarly, since Marseille will be the City of Culture in 2013, it can be considered as the ideal location to advertise the audiovisual and visual products from the training scheme and the project outcomes at the end of the project period.

Malta has been a cultural hub in the middle of the Mediterranean throughout its history. Thanks to an open society and several investments we now have considerable experience in creating quality audiovisual productions. Such a project continues to build the human capital on our islands, especially from a female perspective.

Exhibition Opportunities at the Prowess Conference 2010

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Align yourself with Prowess - The UK association of organisations and individuals who support women to start and grow businesses

The Annual International Prowess Conference is back for it's 7th year, featuring unique exhibition opportunities.

Last year's conference in Blackpool was a huge success, with attendees enjoying a highly interactive and inspirational two days. The recession has resulted in tough times for everyone, but we’re still striving on and our theme of ‘New Beginnings’ is both apt, and relevant at this time of great uncertainly and change.

Taking place on Thursday 16 September at the Belfry in Nottingham, the event offers the chance to reach over 150 delegates, drawn by our considerable networking opportunities and high profile speakers.

There are various marketing opportunities available at the 2010 Annual International Prowess Conference, click here to see the details.

Exhibitor stand - prominently placed in the conference venue, ensuring maximum exposure to all delegates for the duration of the conference.

Standard exhibitor rate - £300 + VAT

Prowess member rate - £250 + VAT

This price includes:

· 6ft x 2ft 6in table with space at the side for a pop-up stand if required and 1 chair (display panels not included)
· 1 free place at the conference
· Exhibitor’s entry in the delegate list (100 words maximum) which will be included in the delegate pack

Delegate Pack insert - promotional literature within the conference materials brings your product or service to the attention of every delegate.

One flyer in each delegate pack (flyers are subject to approval by Prowess)

Non-Prowess member - £100 + VAT

Prowess member organisations - £75 + VAT

Getting involved in this year’s Prowess Conference is a unique chance to enhance your profile on a national platform.

· Unique networking opportunities
· Direct your messaging to over 150 key contacts at the event
· Demonstrate your commitment to the women’s enterprise support sector

We hope to see you in Nottingham in September!

The Prowess Team

Q&A Women in Business

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Maxine Benson, co-founder of everywoman, talks about the main issues facing female start-ups – and how challenges can be overcome.

Are women likely to be less confident about starting a business?

Many women start a business after taking a career break, perhaps to have children, often in industries in which they haven’t worked previously. Therefore, they don’t have established contacts in that sector, and that's certainly something that can affect self-confidence. Joining industry networks can help.

How can childcare responsibilities be balanced effectively with the demands of running a business?

Women still have the lion’s share of domestic responsibilities – and no one should underestimate the demands of running a business. Be realistic about what help you will need with childcare and explore your options, so you can invest enough time in the business, especially in the early days. This should be as much of a priority as deciding what PC you are going to buy or what name you choose. You might be able to share your childcare responsibilities with someone else in the same situation. Try to build a strong personal network you can call on in an emergency. Also, there will be many times when you will need to make a business call or go to a meeting, for example, without being faced with any domestic distractions.

I feel slightly daunted by networking events…

You shouldn’t be worried. It’s a lot easier to walk into a room ful of strangers when people are like you and have similar experiences. Initial conversation between women, however senior, will usually be about their interests, things going on in their lives, stories about their kids, etc. Then the conversation will move towards business. However, don’t limit yourself to women-only networks. Join networking groups related to your industry and other networks, because you never know what opportunities might arise.

What should women business owners do if they encounter prejudice?

There’s no reason for anyone not to do business with you or to be rude to you because of your gender. Remember, you don’t have to deal with people just because there is business available. If a client shows you prejudice, decide how much their custom is worth and walk away if necessary. The best thing about being your own boss is – to an extent – you can choose who you do business with.

Do women find it more difficult to borrow money?

There isn’t any particular type of business – female owned or not – that finds it more difficult to borrow money or attract funding, unless it's a sector that’s been particularly badly affected by the recent economic downturn. The decision will be made on the strength of your proposition, your business plan and the lender’s confidence in your ability to lead and grow your business. However, our research shows that, on average, men are far more likely to feel confident about loans and attracting investment. Do some research and speak to your bank. Some new companies might be able to attract business angel investment.

Is there any funding that is targeted specifically at women?

The Aspire Fund, which was launched when the government pledged to invest £12.5m in female-led businesses, providing it’s match-funded by private investors, such as venture capitalists and business angels. But most women tend to prefer organic business growth, rather than going down the investment route.

Are there any typically female traits that are beneficial in business?

Effective communication, organisational skills and multi-tasking are known as typically female traits and they can be highly advantageous. Women tend to be very good at negotiating and fostering longer-term business relationships, too. Such qualities are essential – they can also help you pull through during difficult times.

Source: startupdonut.co.uk

Women can do the maths – so why are there none on the MPC?

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

For the first time since it was granted independence, the Bank of England's monetary policy committee is an all-male affair following this week's appointment of Martin Weale to replace Kate Barker. Leading contenders to replace Sir Alan Budd in the three-man Office for Budget Responsiblility are also mostly men. So why have the two most important economic bodies in the land become an all-boys club?

Treasury sources suggest just 4 of the 38 applicants for the vacant MPC post were female, but those few who have made it to the top of the profession argue the shortage of experienced women economists has nothing to do with a lack of basic skills.

"They can do the maths. In fact girls have been doing better at maths in recent times. It's for other reasons they don't go into economics and the macroeconomics practised by the MPC in particular," said Diane Coyle, a former Treasury economist who now runs an independent economics consultancy.

She said some women spurned macro economics in favour of more rewarding areas measuring more tangible results from individual industries.

But more importantly, says Coyle, the crucial period for advancement is the same time women have children. "The point you need to be writing heavyweight discussion papers is the point women are taking time off," she said.

The lure of public service bodies that provide long maternity leave and consultancy practices that offer flexible hours also takes women away from the male-dominated macro arena.

Karen Mumford, an economics professor at York University who studies Labour markets, said the MPC gender balance was reflected across the profession. She said the Government Economic Service and quangos such as the pay review bodies are staffed by professors who are overwhelmingly male.

A recent survey of universities for the Royal Economic Society found that the situation had improved since 1996 when women made up about 15% of lecturers and 5% of the professors. By 2008 women could claim 30% lecturers' posts and 10% of professorships. However, the general situation was little changed.

Former MPC member DeAnne Julius said the problem faced by the committee was not so much a lack of women as a dangerous like-mindedness among the members who share the same backgrounds and experience. She said women can bring a different perspective that can prevent "group-think".

Source: Phillip Inman, The Guardian, Saturday 10 July 2010

Working 5 to 9: How to start a successful business in your spare time

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Emma Jones is founder of online community Enterprise Nation, a well-respected resource for anyone running a home business. She is therefore expert at combining the domestic and the entrepreneurial. Here, she provides advice for anyone who likes the idea of starting a home business but who doesn't know where to begin.

The range of ideas in the section on "50 businesses you can start in your spare time" is inspirational, but there are also lots of little tips and ideas scattered throughout the book. Jones's approach means only the most dedicated will want to slog through all 50 ideas in sequence, but dipping in and out is interesting enough.

The back section is a gold mine of valuable advice and help. As anyone who has met Jones will confirm, she has an irrepressibly upbeat attitude to life and business, and is full of enthusiasm for those she helps. This attribute comes across in the book, which, in essence, is a business start-up toolkit. Whether you want to be a five-to-niner or a full-time entrepreneur, there is something here for you.

July/August 2010: Director Magazine

Stop Violence Against Women: Success for victims of violence with no recourse to

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Amnesty International welcomes the announcement made by the Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality, Theresa May MP, to further extend the pilot scheme of offering assistance to women with insecure immigration status who are victims of violence in the UK.

The scheme, which provides up to 40 days’ funding and access a refuge and specialised support to victims of violence who have no recourse to public funds, has served as a lifeline to the most vulnerable women in the UK and was expected to end in March 2010.

The coalition Conservative-Liberal Democrat government initially agreed to extend the trial until September but at a Women’s Aid Conference on Friday 16 July, the Home Secretary went further and said that the Government will “commit to funding the scheme until the end of this financial year [March 2011] and to finding a long-term solution to ensure women are protected after that.”

Such a decision has been heralded as another major campaigning success by organisations in the women and human rights sector, including Amnesty International and Southall Black Sisters. The challenge now is to ensure that the Government stands behind its commitment.

Amnesty International UK Director, Kate Allen said:

“We are very pleased that the coalition government has agreed to continue this vital, life-saving scheme.

“The provision of adequate assistance and protection for one of the UK’s most vulnerable groups of women should have always been a pre-requisite for any UK Government. It’s something which Amnesty and other women’s rights organisations has been vigorously campaigning for, so we’re delighted at this recent announcement.

“We now urge the government to stand behind its commitment and to ensure that its long-term solution is one which provides the highest level of protection not only for the limited group covered by the existing pilot but for all women who have no recourse to public funds.”

Women in the UK who are on spousal visas, international student visas and temporary work permits have no recourse to public funds and so prior to the scheme were not able to access specialist services or secure a place in a refuge if they needed it. This left hundreds of women destitute or trapped in a cycle of violence. The pilot scheme so far only applies to spouses but has already provided vital access to safety and security that they wouldn't otherwise have had.

Theresa May went on to express that this scheme was “too important not to do.”

Kate Allen continued:

“For too long women's groups have had to campaign and lobby for what is in fact already a human rights obligation and all the while women's lives were at risk. This has been a long-time coming.”

Looking for Northern Stars

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

These special Awards are not about being the biggest, the most profitable or even the best in the region, they are about celebrating the achievements, talent and passion of those who have really made a difference.

Is that you or someone you know? To find out more about the twelve awards open for entry, visit the competition website www.newcastleenterpriseawards.co.uk

Remember, shy bairns get nowt, so don’t be shy and make sure you enter the first ever Newcastle Enterprise Awards!

Closing date for entries: Saturday 14th August 2010

Winners announced: Friday 8th October 2010

The Awards

Enterprise/Business Supporters Awards (individual)
Shining Light for Youth Development | Shining Light for Inspiring Education| Shining Light for Enterprising Excellence | Shining Light for Enterprise | Shining Light for Doorstep Development

Lord Mayor's Award (individual, group, business or organisation)
Lord Mayor's Enterprise Award

SEARCH BEGINS FOR UK’S YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The coveted Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, which celebrates the achievements of the UK’s leading young entrepreneurs, is now open for entries.

The Award offers up-and-coming business owners aged 16-30 the opportunity for national recognition, as well as a substantial financial boost of £10,000 for their business. Shell LiveWIRE is one Britain’s longest running youth entrepreneur awards and was established in 1982 as a Shell Social Investment Programme. Previous winners and finalists include successful entrepreneurs Robert Matthams from Shiply.com and Jamie Murray-Wells from Glasses Direct.

Innocent Smoothies won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Greater London Final in 2000 – the company’s first ever business award. Innocent has since grown from 4 staff to over 200, and now has a turnover of £128m.

Recent polling by Shell LiveWIRE of its online business community suggests entrepreneurism continues to thrive in the UK in spite of the challenging external environment. Two thirds (66%) of those polled expect their business to grow this year and one third (32%) plan to hire new staff. Additionally, a quarter (25%) of business owners say the recession has actually inspired them to refocus their business vision and challenged them to identify new areas of growth.[1]

The 2009 winner of the Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Robert Matthams, founded Shiply.com, a transport website matching people moving goods with delivery companies already making similar journeys. Since winning the award, Shiply.com has grown by 200%, expanding its customer base to over 14,000 transport companies and 120,000 consumers. This has helped save more than 10 million unnecessary road miles.

James Smith, Chairman of Shell UK, said: ‘Entrepreneurial spirit is vital to getting our economy going again. The Shell LiveWIRE award can provide a very timely boost to Britain’s entrepreneurs.’

Shell LiveWIRE also supports young entrepreneurs with its Grand Ideas Awards. Every month, up to five aspiring entrepreneurs are awarded a Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Award of £1,000 to fund an innovative project to help get their business idea off the ground. The enterprise scheme also hosts a business networking community at www.shell-livewire.org with 100,000 members, enabling the best business brains from every corner of the nation to share ideas, insights and inspiration with fellow entrepreneurs who understand the challenges they are facing.

The deadline for applications to the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award is 5pm on the 6th September 2010. To qualify for entry, applicants must be aged 16-30 and have been trading not less than three months and not more than 18 months on 6th September 2010. To find out more or to enter the Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, visit www.shell-livewire.org

New EU law gives self-employed workers maternity and pension benefits

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Self-employed workers and their partners will now enjoy the right to maternity leave under new EU legislation. The Directive on self-employed workers and assisting spouses repeals and replaces an earlier law and improves the social protection rights of millions of women in the labour market, boosting female entrepreneurship.

"This new law makes real improvements to the rights of self-employed workers and their partners, in particular women," said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship and Vice-President of the European Commission. "It will help them to better balance work and family life and encourage more women to become entrepreneurs – which is good for the economy too.
The legislation, agreed with the European Parliament on 18 May and endorsed this month by EU Member States, considerably improves the protection of female self-employed workers and assisting spouses in case of maternity or motherhood. It will provide equivalent access to maternity leave as for employees, but on a voluntary basis. At EU level, this is the first time a maternity allowance has been granted to self-employed workers.

The new rules will also serve to promote entrepreneurship in general and among women in particular. There is currently a major gender gap in this area – only 30% of entrepreneurs in Europe are women.
Around 11% of self-employed workers in Europe rely on the help of spouses and partners who work on an informal basis in small family businesses, such as a farm or a local doctor's practice. These ‘assisting spouses’ are often completely dependent on their self-employed partner and so are at high risk of poverty in the event of divorce, their partner’s death or bankruptcy. This new directive gives ‘assisting spouses’ the right to social security coverage, such as pensions, on the same basis as self-employed workers.

Source: Prowess 30/12/2010

Germany plans mandatory female quotas in top management

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Germany is planning to introduce compulsory quotas for women in senior management as business has not performed on voluntary pledges to promote women, officials in Hamburg have said. A committee from ministries in four of the 16 states will draw up a plan that will apply to public companies listed on the stock exchanges, said Beate Merk, justice minister for the state of Bavaria.

'What we are focussing on is that women should no longer be seriously under-represented at leadership level in business,' she said.

A recent study by the German Economic Research Institute found fewer than 1 per cent of German chief executives, chief financial officers and other comparable executive board members at Germany's top 100 companies were women.

Source: Prowess

Britain’s trailblazing women honoured at First Women Awards

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The winners of the 2010 First Women Awards, held in association with Lloyds Banking Group and supported by the CBI and Real Business, have been announced. Dame Mary Perkins, co-founder of Specsavers opticians, received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, with judges praising her "business acumen, ability to juggle family and professional commitments and her focus on giving to charitable organisations".

Dame Mary Perkins set up her first chain of opticians in the West Country in the seventies before selling it for £2m and moving to Guernsey. There, on a table-tennis table in her spare bedroom, she developed a visionary business idea – taking advantage of market deregulation, which allowed the optometry profession to advertise products and services for the first time. She grew her business using a partnership approach, whereby each store is a joint venture between the company and the individual optician – to great commercial success. Today, her 1,503 worldwide stores employ 126,000 members of staff and turn over an annual £1.36bn.

First Women Awards patron Sarah Brown told the audience she hopes to see a "rise in the still shamefully number of women on UK boards". She told the story of her Scottish grandmother who completed a degree before becoming a teacher: "She had to give that all up the minute she got married. Ladies, it doesn't have to be like that anymore." Judges included Chrissie Rucker, founder of the White Company, Gaynor Coley, managing director of The Eden Project and Margaret Heffernan, entrepreneur and writer.

The ceremony was attended by more than 450 guests including Home Secretary The Rt Hon Theresa May MP, Minister of State for Security Baroness Neville-Jones, Helen Alexander of the CBI, Fru Hazlitt, soon-to-be ITV’s managing director of commercial and online, and royal biographer Penny Junor.

Follow link to see full shortlist: http://fwa.realbusiness.co.uk/home/2010_shortlist_and_winners

Source: Prowess

bizpond: open for business

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

bizpond is a brand new website to help small businesses, freelancers and consultants in the North East. It’s a quick and easy way for you to find things that you need, and share what you do with a growing community of business users.

The website www.bizpond.co.uk is really easy to use. There are just two notice boards: one to post things that you’re looking for and one to post offers about what you do. Right now, there are posts by businesses looking for office space, PR support, social media specialists, cardboard re-cyclers, web designers - to name but a few. There are also loads of posts about specialist products and services on offer in the region – iphone developers, online shop creators, affordable meeting spaces, business events, marketing professionals, calibration services, photographers and lots more. Every post added to the site gets circulated through bizpond’s social media networks, reaching thousands of businesses - which means you don’t have to get involved in tweeting and facebooking unless you really want to!

The community is growing fast, and we hope that bizpond will soon be the place where you really can find anything you need for your business. It’s completely free to use and takes ten seconds to register, and the more people that join in the bigger and better it’s going to be for everyone. So why no give it a go – visit www.bizpond.co.uk and get fishing!

One million small businesses dissatisfied with their high street bank, says FSB

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Research shows that over a quarter of small businesses have been dissatisfied with the support offered by their high street bank in the last 12 months.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) latest monthly survey shows that a quarter of all respondents are dissatisfied with the support offered by their high street bank over the last 12 months. This comes on the same day as the Future of Banking Commission report into the banking sector.

Throughout the duration of the recession small firms have faced difficulties in accessing finance and credit, and an FSB-ICM survey of more than 1,300 members showed that 25 per cent of firms are not happy with the support offered during that period – equivalent to 1.2 million small businesses.

The results show that the level of dissatisfaction rises as the number of business managers in charge of the account over the previous two years increases.

Dissatisfaction ratings for those who have had one (13%) or two (27%) business managers is quite low but the rating increases significantly when you get to those firms which have three or more, with three at 52 per cent, four at 53 per cent and five at 70 per cent dissatisfaction.

Despite 26 per cent of firms saying that having a good working relationship with their bank manager is one of the most important factors in their choice of high street bank, almost half (46%) of respondents' bank managers are not based locally.

Other factors important in the choice of bank for small firms are convenient location of the branch (33%), holding a personal account with them (30%) and having the most competitive business account package (30%) – which 21 per cent of respondents note as the single most important factor.

The FSB is calling for the establishment of a Post Bank utilising the Post Office network. This will provide a local and trusted option for the UKs small businesses as well as providing more competition into the banking sector.

John Walker, National Chairman, Federation of Small Businesses, said:

"As we move into recovery it is imperative that the banks start to engage with their customers again. Businesses need to have a good relationship with their bank manager and as many aren't based locally this can prove difficult.

"On average, the firms surveyed had held their account at the same bank for 14.7 years. When they first started banking there, the manager would have known their name and the business and would have been the one to make a decision about the account, not a centrally based computer as happens now.

"The future health of the economy depends on restoring trust between small firms and the banking system, as turning ideas and innovation into business growth requires a reliable financial partner. Businesses also need to have a right to appeal decisions the high street banks make which they deem unfair.

"The UK must develop alternative forms of finance for small businesses, which will bring greater competition to the banking sector. The FSB believes that this would be best achieved through establishing a Post Bank – utilising the Post Office network. This will provide a local and trusted bank that will allow small firms to grow."

Source: FSB News Release

Tribute to Michelle Rowntree

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Michelle Rowntree, 33, wife, step-mum, daughter, sister, niece, aunty, friend, colleague and businesswoman. Michelle was many things to many people. Above all she was inspirational in the true sense of the word.

Michelle, after a long and valiant fight against cancer – which lasted more than 13 years – passed away on Thursday 17th June 2010. Some of the business community may not have known she had cancer. She didn’t like to tell people about it. She was so proud of being a great colleague and businesswoman that she didn’t want it to define who she was. In fact she didn’t allow it to.

WIN wanted to include something about Michelle in this month’s EZINE because she has been an incredibly inspirational and successful business woman in the north east for over a decade.

Michelle worked in PR and Marketing since graduating and was a success from the word ‘go’. She worked hard and through a heady mix of determination, commitment, talent and sheer ambition she worked her way up the ranks of the companies she worked for. She quickly became one of the region’s shining lights for the industry.

In the last few years she successfully set up her own agency, ‘Rowntree Gordo’ with her husband, Juan Gordo. In many of the businesses she worked in she mentored the younger staff; partly out of her love of helping people and seeing staff grow but also because they wanted to have even just a small portion of the marketing ‘know-how’ that Michelle so naturally had.

Michelle helped to win many industry awards for her brilliant marketing campaigns, which she was very proud of. More recently she was ecstatic when one of her own members of staff at Rowntree Gordo won the top young communicators prize at the CIPR PRide awards. She was absolutely delighted with that one.

She would probably be hugely embarrassed at this dedication to her. She didn’t like this sort of attention. She just liked to get on with the job in hand without any fuss surrounding her. Michelle always said she liked to live every day to the max, without any barriers or hurdles. Why not after all? In her own words:

Life is not about counting how many months or years or decades we have in front of us. Like the rest of the world, I have no idea. It’s about how we live them.

I don’t believe anything is set in stone for us, in the same way that I don’t believe in tarot cards or fortune tellers. I believe in me and the difference I can make.

Michelle loved butterflies, which is particularly poignant as she was a fervent supporter of the Butterfly Thyroid Cancer Trust, which helps people with thyroid cancer and is represented by the butterfly logo.

The north east has lost one of its bright lights, one of its butterflies. We’ve lost a talent and a truly brilliant woman.

She will be missed by many and always loved by lots.

You can read Michelle's story in full by visiting http://www.butterfly.org.uk/mstory.htm

and you can also donate to Michelle's chosen charity, Butterfly Thyroid Cancer Trust by visiting this site too.

Fidgets Makes Regional Final

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Fidgets, the salon for kids in Whitley Bay (www.thesalonforkids.co.uk) has made the final three in the region for the Barclays, take one small step award and we now need your help to win £50,000 to grow the business. Its all down to the public vote so please can you ask as many people as possible to vote online and by text. Entries open from today until the 5 th July.

This award would be a massive boost to a new business, which could create more jobs and see more branches of Fidgets across the North East and further, Thank you for your support!

Vote now! and pass on to others to give us the best chance of winning!!

https://www.takeonesmallstep.co.uk/Entry/View/3117

and Text

FIDGET TO 87222

Change your life

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Red Pressures e-learning courses are available for download today. These self help learning tools will enable you or your loved ones to start to move themselves forward today.

Space on Tap is coming soon!

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Tell us what kind of space you need and have a chance of winning £50 of amazon vouchers, or about the most inspiring space or workplace you've experienced in North East England and have the chance to win a free copy of the fantastic new book I Wish I Worked There! that provides a unique look inside the world's most inspiring and innovative places to work (think Innocent Drinks, Nike, Virgin, Google, Lego). Follow us on Twitter on spaceontap so we can keep you in touch with progress.

Life Changing

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Life Coach, Yvonne would like to let you know that she has a number of limited spaces to engage customers to have her as their life coach. Check out the website as there are a number of e-learning tools available to enable you to achieve your personal goals and life balance.

New course helps women have their own Personal Space

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Absolutely Green offers creative personal and professional development and has developed a three day residential programme aimed at busy women who want to take time out to relax, refresh and revive. Business partners Sharon McKee and Susan Bartlett developed the course after recognising the pressure women are under today, which can make it difficult for them to have a balanced life and find time for themselves. They surveyed a range of women aged between 30 and 50 asking about the kind of things they would like to do if they took time out for themselves. The result is Personal Spaces, a unique three day residential course which offers a combination of life coaching, complementary therapies, physical activities and relaxation sessions. Sharon McKee said, "There is a lot of research which shows how busy women's lives are these days and how little time they spend looking after themselves. Our own research showed that women really want a course which combines a number of activities. Personal Spaces offers things like walking, yoga, personal coaching, aromatherapy massage, and relaxation sessions, all in fantastic surroundings with good food, fine wine and like minded company".Susan Bartlett said, "We believe that everyone can have a balanced happy life and we take a holistic approach to personal development. This means looking at and looking after mind, body and soul. Women taking part in Personal Spaces will enjoy a unique combination of activities which give them a range of benefits. It's an ideal getaway for busy women who want to take some time out to relax, recharge their batteries, learn some new skills, and have fun!." On International Women's Day Sharon and Susan gave a taster of Personal Spaces to women who are usually busy taking care of others. They worked with staff at Sit n b Fit, a Sunderland based charity which provides exercise and support to older and less mobile people. Sit n b Fit, founded four years ago by Director Lynn Summerside, benefited from Channel 4's Secret Millionaire programme last year. Staff and volunteers relaxed with an Absolutely Green taster combining complementary therapies, coaching activities and a relaxation session. The next Personal Spaces take place in May (10th-12th and 14th-16th) at Stonetrail, near Kirkby Stephen. For more information or to book go to www.absolutelygreen.co.uk or email [email protected]

Do you have any spare space?

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

If any WIN members (or their customers or suppliers) have spare space in their offices, and are interested in generating a financial return it on a low hassle, low risk basis, please let me know - a new business launching shortly may be interested - anywhere in the North East region. Please drop me an email for more info [email protected]

New Website

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Our new website goes live in February 2010. We look forward to supporting you all to make positive life changes during 2010 and onwards.

Davenport's Chocolates

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

We have worked closely with Davenport's Chocolates to re-develop their website into an online shopping experience. www.davenportschocolates.co.uk

Research Study ‘Bright Lights, Big City?

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

This research explores the changes in a range of commercial and non-commercial lesbian and gay spaces in the North East. We want to know how both new, ‘up and coming’ and ‘old’ ongoing social spaces are experienced, perhaps changing throughout time and across location ... Are these spaces, venues, locations accessible? Required? Desired? Do you have other ideas of what scene space is, or might look like?

If you have thoughts on these topics - and are interested in being interviewed - please get in touch with Yvette: [email protected]%3cmailto:[email protected]">[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>

DARE TO ENTER THE DRAGONS' DEN?

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Entrepreneurs from across the country once again have a chance to make their business dreams come true by appearing on Dragons’ Den. If you’re genuinely seeking investment for your business idea or invention, we’d like to hear from you.

Last series saw some of the most diverse range of inventions and business ideas receive offers of investment from the multi-millionaire investors. All the Dragons were won over by entrepreneur Sharon Wright and the simplicity of her cable wiring device; Rupert Sweet-Escott went into business with James Caan who was impressed with his unique range of aviation designs and prototypes; and Carol Savage chose to accept Deborah Meaden's offer of a cash injection into her tasty new food networking website. In fact, when the Den finally closed for business an incredible 15 entrepreneurs had managed to convince the fearsome financiers, they were worthy of their cash.

2009 saw Londoner Jason Roberts ask for a £150,000 investment in his innovative range of mobile phone and laptop protection products. After some tense negotiations, Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis joined forces to secure a stake in the company. Post investment, Jason says that he gets up to 5000 visits to his website every day, and the current range is available in eight nationwide chains. Agreements are in place with the major phone and computer manufacturers, and he’s now planning to launch a range of own-branded cases, across the globe.

Previous success stories in the Den include Brixton based Levi Roots who secured an investment of £50,000 for his secret recipe, Reggae Reggae Sauce. Just 4 weeks after his appearance on the programme his Dragon investors helped him launch his sauce in a major supermarket all over the country. Now Levi has increased his product range to 8 sauces, produced a Caribbean cook book, and won Best New Product at the World Food Awards 2009, even going on to present his own successful BBC Television series - 'Caribbean Food Made Easy’. Having also successfully licensed his sauce to one of the world’s largest frozen food manufacturers and to an international fast food chain, Levi says that thanks to the Dragons he has a business empire that is now valued in the millions.

Of course, not everyone secures investment in the Den, but that doesn't stop the most tenacious of entrepreneurs from achieving success. After a gruelling time in front of the Dragons in 2008, inventor Natalie Ellis failed to convince them to back her Road Refresher. But one year on, her product became the fastest selling dog bowl on Amazon USA. Natalie says her company now has a million pound turnover and that her range is currently stocked in 32 countries. Likewise Shaun Pulfrey wanted the Dragons to invest £80,000 in his rework of the hairbrush – the Tangle Teezer. Unsuccessful in his bid he claims he is now stocked nationwide in high street stores and top hair salons, with sales approaching 400,000 units.

The rules are simple: entrepreneurs ask for a cash investment in return for equity in their business. However, they must get at least the amount they ask for or they will walk away with nothing. The Dragons are prepared to listen to a pitch for any kind of business but they must be convinced that it will make money.

As demonstrated by the investments in the last seven series, ideas, businesses and products that meet some or all of the following criteria stand a good chance of securing the Dragons’ interest:

A Unique Selling Point: a product that serves a need like nothing else.
Scalability: something that can be up scaled to make real money.
Route to Market: the clear way the product can be sold and marketed.
Mutually Beneficial Arrangement: just what will the Dragons get out of it?
Exit Strategy: a plan of how the entrepreneur/Dragon will exit and make money.

The BBC is currently searching for Britain’s best entrepreneurs and will be auditioning throughout the coming months. We want to hear from anyone who thinks they’ve got what it takes to enter the Dragons’ Den.

If you would like an application form please send an e-mail to [email protected]">[email protected] or visit www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden

ENTREPRENEURS, INVENTORS, DESIGNERS - BRITAIN’S HIGH STREET WANTS YOU!

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

In a groundbreaking new series, some of Britain’s biggest and best loved high street stores are clearing some shelf space for YOU – the great British public – to sell YOUR products.

Whatever your product, this could be your unique chance to break into the big time. Under the watchful eye of retail expert Theo Paphitis of Dragon’s Den, the most influential buyers in retail want to meet Britain’s undiscovered design talent AND will stock the best of what they see.

Whether you have created a range of garden tools, a fabulous food product, a ‘must have’ accessory or anything else worth selling, this is your chance. If you believe your ORIGINAL product could be successful, but has yet to find its market, apply now.

Email address: [email protected]">[email protected]

Or telephone: 0207 874 6617

Low cost accountancy has arrived

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

We are now taking on new clients for our accounting services. You can decide how much or how little we do for you, prices start from as low as £20 per month plus £20 sign up fee and we can do your accounts, payroll, tax and credit control. Just simply sign up via email until our website is ready and we can turn your accounting around. By receiving your figures monthly, you can react quicker and know exactly where you are. Please email [email protected] for further details.

WIN TV sub-committee

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

If you feel you could offer WIN and its Tees Valley members (and non-members) drive and passion with inspiring, innovating ideas to make WIN incredibly active in the Tees Valley. We need to celebrate past awards winners and our Tees Valley shortlists in the 2009 Awards this month. Please get in touch with me if you think you have what it takes.