As advocates of women in business, we are delighted that our half- year statistics to September 2019 show that 38% of our Start Up Loans and 50% of our SME loans were made to female-led businesses.
We have an increasing number of success stories. One of our recent clients, Charity Wilson from Penzance received a Start Up Loan from SWIG Finance for her EdTech company Mappix, and went on to win ‘Business of the Year’ at the Startup Awards in 2018.
This year, SWIG Finance have started working with Accelerating Women in Enterprise (AWE), a collaborative project on either side of the English Channel to increase their knowledge and personal skills to start and grow a successful business. The scheme, which operates across South West England, supports women through training workshops, face-to-face advice, mentoring and online training, all developed specifically for women.
If you are a female business owner or aspiring entrepreneur and think you need investment to help achieve your goals, why not get in touch with one of our friendly and professional businesses managers. Remember that we are here to help guide you through the loan process and give you the best chance for success.
Did you know?
Only 1 in 3 UK entrepreneurs is female: a gender gap equivalent to 1.1 million missing businesses. At the same time around one third of women say access to funding is the biggest barrier to starting a business, compared to 20% of men. A similar proportion cite funding as a barrier to scaling up an existing business. Up to £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as UK men. (Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship, HM Treasury 2019)
Recent studies however show that South West England has the highest number of female-led businesses, with almost 2 in 5 (39%) SME’s being run by a woman.
To find out more about how we can help you achieve your business goals, call our team on 01872 223 883, or visit https://www.swigfinance.co.uk/funds-available/.