All over the world governments are recognising the importance of women's enterprise to global economic growth. Yet in almost every country women start far fewer businesses than men.

In the UK the Women's Business Development Agency has developed a unique programme to support businesses owned by women, particularly those with growth potential. We are sharing this knowledge with partners in Poland, Italy and Bulgaria so that business women in these countries can enjoy the opportunity to start and grow their businesses with the support of a programme designed by women for women.

We know that business women can face a set of barriers which are often very different from those experienced by men. These include problems in securing finance, such as not being taken seriously by bankers (who are often male!); low self-confidence; lack of knowledge and exclusion from business networks (which are largely run by men!).  This is all in addition to the restriction placed upon us by caring responsibilities and social attitudes.

Most agencies which support businesses either do not understand or will not recognise these barriers. Our Programme both faces up to these and helps women like you to overcome the many problems we face in starting and growing our businesses.

We do this by:

• Consulting women in each country about their experiences and what they actually want from business support.
• Adapting our programme in the light of what women tell us; translating our materials into the languages of countries involved in this project and training business support professionals in our ‘women-friendly’ methods.
• Running a pilot support programme in each country offering training and one-to-one business mentoring for women who wish to grow their businesses
• Developing a unique website offering online training, information and networking for women-owned businesses in all four countries including a virtual marketplace where women can trade with each other.
• Lobbying governments and other institutions on your behalf in order to improve services to women in business

The Programme we have described will, initially, run for two years. After this we intend to expand it to other European countries.

We would be delighted if you would be a part of this. Please leave your comments and suggestions on our site.

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