News / Female Entrepreneurs
How does Bristol rate as a place for women in business?
Bristol has been named the best city in the UK for female entrepreneurs in a recent report.
The research by Yorkshire Bank, part of CYBG plc, revealed that 39 per cent of businesses run by women reported growth in the past 12 months, higher than anywhere else in the country.
Yet only 23 per cent said they find it easy to access funding to expand their companies, putting Bristol well behind other British cities surveyed.
The study of 2,000 businesses across ten core cities goes on to report that female entrepreneurs are less optimistic about growth in general than their male counterparts, with 34 per cent of women planning to grow their business in 2019, compared to 42 per cent of men.
It is the barriers women face in accessing finance that are the crux of the problem, according to female entrepreneurs and industry experts in Bristol.
Dr Zara Nanu says male and female entrepreneurs get treated differently by potential investors
“There is a lot of research emerging about women in business, and a large percentage of that is talking about women’s lack of confidence,” says Dr Zara Nanu, founder and CEO of Gapsquare.
“Even the most recent Alison Rose review focusses mostly on that despite the fact that many women who participated in the inquiry specifically spoke about lack of funding for women and structural inequalities and barriers for women in business.”
Gapsquare employs data technology to analyse companies’ workforces, report on gender pay gaps and helps firms to optimise talent and create diverse, equitable workplaces.
Referring to findings by researcher and TED talker Dana Zanze, Zara says an analysis of the funding landscape shows that while men and women pitch their businesses the same to investors, they are asked different questions.
Men are asked positive reinforcement questions and women defensive questions, something Zara has found to be true from her own experiences of seeking funding.
She adds: “Bristol as a city is a bit more inclusive and open to collaboration and I think this is why it’s such a good place for women in business compared to the rest of the country. Places like Engine Shed and SETsquared work hard to increase inclusivity and diversity and support women in business, where usual organisations raise barriers.
“I think Bristol can do more, specifically around procurement in the public sector and set targets for procuring from local businesses led by women and ethnic minorities in the city.”
The report by Yorkshire Bank found that, overall, a lack of access to finance fuels a trend in which women-led businesses are more likely to focus on local opportunities, with 60 per cent of female-run companies operating on a local or regional scale, compared to 54 per cent of male-run firms.
The findings also reveal that 70 per cent of female entrepreneurs would recommend Bristol as a location to other business owners.
But there remains inequity in access to opportunities in the city.
A report by Black South West Network (BSWN) identified a lack of accessibility to funding and, more broadly, an unequal access to financial services and business support as the main barriers for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) entrepreneurs in Bristol.
Sado Jirde, the director of BSWN, and her team set up a new business network to address the lack of inclusion among existing networks
“Of the 23 per cent of female Bristol leaders that find it easy to access funding, what percentage are BAME?” questions a BAME female entrepreneur, who prefers not to be named.
“From my experience, access to funding is all about who you know in Bristol. There are many conversations and closed-door meetings which happen with investors, the awareness of how to get access to these seem to be solely based on knowing the ‘right’ people (white men) not quality.”
The study by BSWN also highlighted the exclusionary nature of networking opportunities in the city, something the organisation is addressing with the creation of a business network launched to aid effective networking among BAME entrepreneurs.
This, BSWN reports, has been consistently diverse in terms of gender and age, with the majority of the entrepreneurs being black females across all network meetings.
Read more: Levelling the playing field in Bristol
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