Analysis of Financing Issues for Female Entrepreneurs in the UK

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the financing issues and challenges encountered by female entrepreneurs in the UK. It delves into the strategic development obstacles, primarily focusing on the difficulties in securing funding and investment, and highlights the gender bias that exists in the financial sector. The report critically examines the initiatives and government policies designed to support female entrepreneurs, evaluating their effectiveness in addressing these challenges. It explores the limitations of current policies, particularly in fostering entrepreneurial intent and providing adequate financial support. The report concludes with recommendations for improving the financing landscape, including the establishment of dedicated government funds, the promotion of women-led investment cooperatives, and increased awareness campaigns to address the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs in the UK, ultimately aiming for greater gender parity in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Running head: FINANCING ISSUES FOR FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS IN THE UK
FINANCING ISSUES FOR FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS IN THE UK
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1FINANCING ISSUES FOR FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS IN THE UK
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Strategic development issues faced by female entrepreneurs..........................................................2
Critical analysis of the initiatives and government policies in supporting female entrepreneurs...3
Evaluation of the effectiveness of the policies................................................................................4
Suggestions and recommendations..................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

2FINANCING ISSUES FOR FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS IN THE UK
Introduction
Female entrepreneurs have made their presence felt in the global corporate environment
from a very long time. There have been many great success stories for business start-ups owned
by female entrepreneurs over the year. However, there still remain some major challenges in
regards to the development of the female entrepreneurs. The study takes into account the
prevalent challenges that female entrepreneurs face in the UK. Female entrepreneurs in the UK
face some important challenges in regards to the funding and financing aspects concerning their
businesses. As a result of the major financial and other challenges, only one in five entrepreneurs
in the UK are women, presently. Investment has become a major challenge towards the growth
of female entrepreneurs in the country. Investors are still more inclined towards funding
businesses led by male leaders in hope for better returns. The study analyzes the strategic
developmental issues for female entrepreneurs and evaluates the effectiveness of the
governmental policies that are in place to help female entrepreneurs.
Strategic development issues faced by female entrepreneurs
There are various issues that affects the business development of female entrepreneurs in
the UK. Most of the challenges are related to raising finances (Laukhuf and Malone 2015).
However, the challenges are not limited to finances alone and cover many areas of business
establishment and development. Approximately 250 billion pounds have been lost due to the
various barriers that are present concerning the foundation of successful businesses by female
entrepreneurs (Female entrepreneurs are battling Britain's £250bn gender bias problem 2019).
One of the major requirements for strategic development of businesses is investment. Startups in
the country are funded through various mediums in the UK and the rest of Europe. As mentioned
previously startups are mainly funded through investors. These investors tend to be the larger
well established companies operating across the UK (Carter and Shaw 2015). There are
significant issues that new women entrepreneurs are facing across the UK in pitching for
investment for their respective startups. Some of the major issues arise from the face that mainly
the important investment firs wants to invest in people they can be more acquainted with. This
means that investment firms mostly seek to fund entrepreneurships that are part of the
universities, regions or business classes from where their owners or leaderships belong.

3FINANCING ISSUES FOR FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS IN THE UK
Similarly, venture capital firms that have more gender diversity can be willing to invest
in startups of women entrepreneurs. However, despite their significant growth over the last few
years, they are limited in number and scope. Women entrepreneurs often pitch realistic numbers
prompting lesser investment from the part of the investors (Hodges et al. 2015). Hence, it can be
easily said that women entrepreneurs have limited number of investors that are likely to be
interested in funding their businesses. However, this is not the only major challenge. Women
entrepreneurs are likely to face stiff challenge from the businesses run by their male
counterparts. At the same time earning respect in male dominated industries can become an
arduous task for women leaders. Building reputation becomes more difficult in real time. It is
important to note that various real issues are faced despite the ideal of enhancing the leadership
roles for women in society and business (Wonglimpiyarat 2015). Another major issue is building
a support network. Networks in the UK business sectors are still built in places that have lesser
accesses for women leading towards severe challenges for women in business networking
functions.
Critical analysis of the initiatives and government policies in supporting female
entrepreneurs
The UK government is focused towards increasing the number of female entrepreneurs in
the country in view of the various challenges that are faced currently by the women
entrepreneurs in the country. The idea is to increase the number of women entrepreneurs in the
country by 600,000. The government is currently focusing on developing better transparency in
the process of investment. In accordance of the same the banks and other major financial
institutions are required to provide details of their investment through a gender split information
table (Wilson 2016). At the same time there is greater emphasis on providing more
entrepreneurial education to the students in schools and colleges. In regards to the same the main
focus would be on educating the girls more about entrepreneurship. The government has been
successful in bringing the gender pay gap to a record low. All the major government policies and
regulations in favor of female entrepreneur empowerment are focused towards attaining the
greater objective of increasing the number of women entrepreneurs by 50% till the year 2030
(Landmark review sparks action to boost number of female entrepreneurs 2019). Some of the
other major actions that are being taken by the government include improving the online advises

4FINANCING ISSUES FOR FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS IN THE UK
that are given to women investors, supporting industry led women focused investment funds and
backing more mentors for local businesses run by women. At the same time industry led task
forces that focus on providing more funds to women led businesses are being enhanced through
government support. The government has so far taken some positive steps towards ensuring
greater participation of women in business ventures.
The efforts that have been made from the end of the government have been effective in
the establishment of a better environment for women entrepreneurs to thrive. However, there are
still major steps that need to be taken. More funding can ensure greater participation of women.
In this case apart from providing support to the industry led initiatives, the government has not
provided any major effort in the establishment of independent funds to help women. If the
government policies are analyzed, it can be seen that the greater emphasis has been on providing
outwards support to the female entrepreneurs. While this can be very important in terms of
developing entrepreneurial intent among independent women, this does not address the problem
for women who decide against going for their own startups due to the extra challenges faced by
women.
Evaluation of the effectiveness of the policies
The policies are effective in providing external support to the women entrepreneurs. The
policies at the same time can be much beneficial for the development of effective
entrepreneurships by strong independent women. However, it can be said that the policies do not
provide further support to women that have entrepreneurial intent but fail to start their own
businesses in view of the struggle that they would need to undertake. The policies does not go
further to create better entrepreneurial intent among the women. However, it can be said that the
support system that is established can help in the development of better and more effective
support for women entrepreneurs. Local business mentors can help in the development of local
women entrepreneurships (Carter and Shaw 2015). However, there is a need to develop better
engagement with the local populations to develop more entrepreneurial intent among the young
women. The policies are effective in terms of developing a strong sense of independence among
the women. However, there is no strong effort towards building grass root level entrepreneurial
intent. In this case the government relies much on the independent bodies that are engaged in the
development of women entrepreneurs. The government is more inclined towards providing

5FINANCING ISSUES FOR FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS IN THE UK
outwards support. However, there is limited effort being made towards developing a safer and
feasible environment for women to start their businesses. The government policies are effective
in terms of development of female entrepreneurship. However, the process may be much slower
ultimately running the risk of untimely achievement of the 2030 goal.
Suggestions and recommendations
Considering the major limitations that need to be addressed it is important that more real-
time based approaches are taken towards developing entrepreneurial intent among women. Apart
from the support that are provided to the industry led or local business led initiatives, it becomes
important that separate government funds are created to tackle the challenges related to the
funding of businesses of new women entrepreneurs. There should be more emphasis provided
towards the development of women led investment cooperatives. This would ensure that there
are ample women investors to support the startups that are made by other women. At the same
time it becomes important that women only guilds are given more preference in various
industries. In regards to the same there needs to be more emphasis on the industries that are
traditionally male-dominated. There should be more awareness spread among the general public
and business communities concerning the challenges that are faced by women entrepreneurs in
developing their businesses. It is important to understand that women entrepreneurs can change
the face of entrepreneurship in the country. Greater gender parity in entrepreneurship can be
more beneficial for commerce in the UK.
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be stated that women entrepreneurs still face various issues as they
try to develop their startup businesses. Some of the major challenges are related to getting the
right funding and investment. At the same time the issues for women entrepreneurs are
aggravated in case of traditionally male dominated industries. It is important that the efforts are
being made by the UK government to bring down the gender bias that exists in the UK corporate
sectors. However, it is more important that the government starts making entrepreneurships more
feasible for women at the same time.

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