DEDICATED
TO SUPPORTING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
We will continue to be dedicated to promoting and supporting
women in business and will be working away, often behind the
scenes to raise the profiles of women entrepreneurs.
The 21st century offers women phenomenal opportunities
technology providing women the platform to elevate them
to new levels in the business world. For many doing business
outside of their home country can be a daunting prospect,
whilst the Internet is undoubtedly a welcome vehicle which
gives women the cost effective medium to enter new national
and global markets, there's much to be learnt before many
women can pick up the gauntlet and trade internationally.
Doing business internationally requires tolerance and understanding
of world heritage's awareness of multi-ethnic life-styles
different countries cultural values of social, religious,
economical, historical and political backgrounds.
Our web site provides an online country resource, business
to business network a place where women can find other women
in business when they need a service or product or when
they are seeking to forge new business partnerships.
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Award
Winner 2006
Founder, Jean Bartlett
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OVERVIEW
OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
There has been much interest in 'women entrepreneurs'
right across the globe, this hardly surprising with there
being a reported 1 million women owned companies in the
UK, with over 900,000 women self-employed, and of the 92
million working women within the European Community 20%
are reported to be engaged in entrepreneurial activity,
some 18 million women.
In Australia a third
of existing firms are owned and managed by women, in the
USA there are over
8 million women business owners. A third of all new enterprises
in the Netherlands and
Denmark are held and managed by women.
Out of the 11 million businesses in
Japan, women account for 2.56 million, and in
Canada 50% of new business are started by women.
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»The
Princess Royal, Princess Anne
meets the Bag Lady
founder (right)
& the BAWE Council
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The number of women-owned enterprises is now growing faster
than the economy at large in many countries around the world.
Women-owned firms comprising one quarter to one third of businesses
and are starting up in every industry sector.
In the international forum, there is a growing recognition
of the increasing power of women's entrepreneurship and, despite
a lack of complete information, it is generally thought that
between one quarter and one third of the world's formal sector
enterprises are owned and operated by women, that share is
even greater in the informal sector.
Although there are many women business owners around the world
already engaged in international trade, in Argentina 32% of
women business owners are reported to be involved in international
trade, in Brazil, 23% and, in Mexico a reported 22%. International
trade offering them new markets and new opportunities for
their businesses. However, studies have shown that women are
typically not picking up the 'gannet', in the USA where women
own 40% of U.S. export-ready companies, less than 2% of them
account for export sales.
For women owned enterprises to succeed internationally
women will have to overcome some traditional obstacles and
challenges and, some potential new ones.
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Lorraine
Barrett AM, Jean Bartlett Founder, Julie
Morgan MP
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MISSION
STATEMENT
To provide online resources which supports
the development and growth of women owned businesses world-wide.
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Patron
Glenys Kinnock MEP
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There are an estimated 3.7 million small businesses in the
UK and around 400,000 new businesses are started every year,
a third of all new businesses are set-up by women.
However, within their first year one in five UK small businesses
will fail, around half of all self-employed people earn less
than £10,000
a year, with little hope of forward planning.
In the UK women are still very much 'second-class citizens',
they lag behind men in terms of pay, promotion, benefits and
more. They are drastically under-represented in management,
and routinely invisible in the average boardroom.
Women have less access to business start-up
capital, less management experience, less access to information,
and are less welcome in the informal business networks that
often provide vital support to small firms.
Due to their inferior position in the
UK labour market women often lose out on funding as the
guarantees are beyond their scope, they are also often ostracised
from financial networks. This leads them to rely on personal
savings, which comprises between 80-99% of initial capitalisation
for women, while the figure for men is 30-59%. Relying on
this type of funding can have a negative impact on the performance
of women's businesses (Dr Eleanor Shaw of Strathclyde University)
.
Around the world women in business fair no better, in the
USA the majority of women are reported to use their credit
cards, personal savings, re-mortgaged their homes to raise
the necessary start-up capital.
MISSION
STATEMENT
The Bag Lady's aim is to provide access to relevant and
sector specific information to raise awareness of organisations
which offer funding, advice, support and training programme
initiatives for women start-ups.
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Guest
Speaker
at
The Bag Lady's
Launch Party
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WOMEN
AND TECHNOLOGY
Women now make up 50% of all Internet users and
control or influence over 80% of all purchase decisions,
women make up 63% of online shoppers who buy more than once
a week. However, in the UK fewer women than men regularly
use personal computers at home, women more than men fear
being left behind by technology.
There are an estimated 318 million online, with millions
of pages daily being published to the Internet. With Verisign
reporting that domain registration peaked to over 60 million
domain names, with more than 1.5 million domain names being
registered in October 2003, the highest number of registrations
for any single month in the history of the Internet, with
there now being a reported 50 million .COM domains registered
(2006). These increases speak to the growing global usage
of the Internet supported by services like multilingual
capabilities and, online sales that provide new opportunities
for Internet commerce and communications. With domains now
available in 350 languages it means that domains can now
be registered in all of the languages used by about 80%
of the world’s population.
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Guest
Speaker
at
The Bag Lady's Launch
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MISSION
STATEMENT
The Bag Lady actively seeks to
encourage the take up
by women in business of new technologies. To this end we have
dedicated areas and information support. In addition to packaging
web site hosting within our membership services, and, discounting
membership costs for women startups.
Our site shares helpful news and information with women entrepreneurs
around the world designed to keep businesswomen in touch with
key events, relevant research and, most importantly, each
other!
We provide news, events, and online resources that will involve,
inspire and inform you and others like you.
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Left
to right Guest Speakers
at
The Bag Lady Launch
Lorraine Barrett
AM, Dr.Elizabeth Muir, Mandy Haberman-
British Female Inventor of the Year, Julie
Morgan MP, Professor Teresa Rees
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