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UK downturn sees sharp rise in female entrepreneurs

A new study has revealed that there has been a 10% increase in the number of female entrepreneurs in the UK since 2008.

According to small business telecom specialists XLN Business Services, the increase in the percentage of women who have started up their own business or taken over the running of existing enterprises has jumped from 20.13% to 30.22% despite being in the middle of one of the worst economic downturns in history.

London based XLN supplies business phone lines and broadband to over 130,000 customers in the UK. Their study looked at the gender of many of their small business telephone and card processing customers across the UK.

One reason for this boom, suggested by XLN, is that the rise in redundancies and the difficulty of getting a job during the recession might be motivating women to start up their own business in the industry in which they want to work.

Starting up a business allows for more flexibility in working conditions and allows women to put together their own schedule which they might not be able to do if they were working for someone else.

Another reason which has been suggested by XLN, is the types of businesses female entrepreneurs set up. They say that as a large percentage of UK homes now have access to the internet, the areas of businesses which women tend to set up such as accountancy, web design and mobile hairdressing have little or no start-up costs when compared to enterprises set up by males.

The boost could also be down to the level of support and advice which has been made available to those who want to start their own business. Business Secretary Vince Cable has previously stated that three quarters of the Government advisers for SMEs are women.

Ten years ago, the North West of England was the least active region in the UK for new and existing female entrepreneurs but XLN has now revealed that female business owners in the North West have increased from 13% in 2009 to 18% in 2012.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Francesca Dent .