Women opting to be their own boss

Women are voting with their feet and setting up their own businesses to get more flexibility between work and family life, according to a survey of female entrepreneurs commissioned by Minister for Women and Equality Harriet Harman.

The biggest motivation for going it alone – 70% of those polled – was to be able to work more flexibly, with three quarters (75%) saying work family life balance is better when you run your own business, rather than being an employee.

Women entrepreneurs are overwhelmingly positive about the benefits of being self-employed, with nine in ten (86%) happy to set up their own business all over again.

Additional findings from the survey include:

• More than three quarters (78%) gained greater independence from setting up their own business, two thirds (66%) increased confidence, and 60% said it gave them greater self-worth.
• Other reasons for women started their own business are to be their own boss (65%), to be able to work from home (61%), to get more job satisfaction (53%), to achieve a better work-life balance (52%).
• The proportion of manual/unskilled (C2DE) female entrepreneurs is increasing – 55% set up their business in the past five years, compared with 47% of professional/skilled women (ABC1), indicating that starting up a new business is not just for those with degrees.
• Female entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom is increasing. There are now more than one million self-employed women – a 17 percent rise since 2000. But the gap between female and male entrepreneurship remains stubbornly wide. Despite women making up half of the UK population, they only constitute 27% of the self-employed.

The Government recently announced an Enterprise Strategy, with measures to increase the number of women's entrepreneurs, including a £12.5million Women's Investment Fund with the aim of private sector to match the funding to develop women-led businesses. Other measures include a pilot of US-model Women's Business Centres and the establishment of a national mentoring network, both of which will provide women entrepreneurs will support and advice.