Key Women's Enterprise Statistcs and Trends

Much research has been done into the growth and success of women's enterprise globally. Watch this space as more statistics and trend data will be available soon ..

Women’s Enterprise – the National Picture, June 2007
* Source: SBS Analytical Unit

GEM Report

SBS Reports

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- .

The Prowess website provides the following information:

Female Entrepreneurship: General Statistics and facts

The most entrepreneurial age group for females is 35 – 44 (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, London Business School, February 2006)

Women are half as likely to be involved in start-up activity as men. Independent start-up activity amongst women is 3.1% of the female adult population but is 6% amongst men, while the equivalent figures for job related start-ups are 1.3% and 2.6%. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM, Jan 2004)

6.7% of women and 15.8% of men are owners or managers of their own business. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM, Jan 2004)

27% of self-employed people in the UK are women (A Strategic Framework for Women’s Enterprise, Small Business Service, 2003)

12 – 14% of businesses are majority owned by women (A Strategic Framework for Women’s Enterprise, Small Business Service, 2003)

Female entrepreneurs account for 6.8% of the UK’s working population (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM, Jan 2004)

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:

If the UK could achieve the same levels of female entrepreneurship as the US, Britain would gain three quarters of a million more businesses. (Chancellor of the Exchequer 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

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. - Less likely to use no external advice than majority male-owned businesses. (Dr Stuart Fraser, Finance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, 2005)

Barriers to starting a business

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 mens. (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 higer 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)

Black and minority ethnic women

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)

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)

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 thier own business, 64% Vs 50%. (UCB Home Loans research, Nationwide, March 2006)

A total of 56% of 16-21 year-old 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-ups 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)

UK Women's Enterprise Task Force website developed and provided by Aurora, 2008