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Female entrepreneurs value on-going support

Dec 13 2007

Ongoing support is required to encourage women to start and grow their own business, according to women's support association Prowess.

Female entrepreneurs particularly value 'an ongoing supportive relationship approach rather than one-off business support intervention'.

'They also welcome mentoring relationships and the chance to exchange ideas with someone with previous experience of setting up in business,' says Alice Kent, a researcher for Prowess.

Kent also claims that while women view starting a business as a viable career option, they are still under-represented in the SME sector, with men twice as likely to start a business as women.

The gender enterprise gap is more acute among those aged between 18 and 24 with women four times less likely to start a business than men, she states.

According to data from the Labour Force Survey 2003, a quarter of the UK's 3.2 million self-employed workers are women.

The figures also show that female entrepreneurs make up 6.8 per cent of the UK's working population.

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