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Celebration for female entrepreneurs

Almost three quarters of women believe that being an entrepreneur would be a desirable career, according to new research. The survey was published to mark the launch of the Girls! Make Your Markawards, a scheme aiming to celebrate the achievements of businesswomen in the UK.

Women were asked which business they would most like to run out of a collection of companies. The most popular choice, with 23%, was Tamara Mellon’s Jimmy Choo shoe empire. Only 3% desired to inherit Sir Alan Sugar’s Amstrad, as featured on BBC One programme ‘The Apprentice’. Even fewer wanted Victoria Beckham’s dVb company, which appealed to only 2% of women.

The survey was put to over 600 women by the Make Your Mark initiative and handbag.com. 74% of the respondents would have liked to have become entrepreneurs. Three quarters felt that their gender would give them the edge over their male counterparts.

The Girls! Make Your Mark awards will see a team of judges - including Ann Summers head Jacqueline Gold, television vocal coach Carrie Grant, and Natasha Aitken, editor of handbag.com - assess women in five categories. The awards will go to Entrepreneur of the Year, Entrepreneur with a Conscience and The Pioneer, with additional prizes for ‘Handbags and Gladrags’, plus handbag.com readers’ People’s Choice.

Pamela Hargreaves, Make Your Mark Head of Campaign for the North East, said: “By celebrating the successes and achievements of our businesswomen in the region we can inspire the next generation of women to have the confidence to start their own business.”

Nominations close for the awards on 21 July. For more information on Make Your Mark, please visit www.makeyourmark.org.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .