But what about the men?

We’re loud and proud when it comes to our ambition to support 6,000 women in the UK to start and grow their businesses.  We know it’s a bold ambition and we know it’s one which is and will continue to draw attention. 6,000 women building a community to learn, inspire and support each other to build their businesses should be attention grabbing.  It should make people sit up and take notice. Because it’s going to change things for the better. 

But for some it’s the use of one five-letter word in our rallying cry which draws their attention.

Women.  

On Monday we were invited to attend an event hosted by Barclays Eagle Lab and The Entrepreneurs Network during the Conservative Party Conference.  The event provided a platform for a panel of dynamic women to share their experiences and reflections on female entrepreneurship in the UK. Lou Cordwell OBE Founder & CEO - magneticNorth, who is also on our Advisory Board), Lisa Tse MBE (Founder & CEO - Sweet Mandarin Sauces), Gillian Keegan MP, Dr Caroline Johnson MP and Juliet Rogan (Head of High Growth & Entrepreneurs at Barclays) all joined the panel.  We’ll share with you our full reflections on the event in next week’s blog but what’s relevant for here, is that the first question which came from the floor during the event was “But what about men?”

On Wednesday we were delighted to be hosted by BBC Radio Nottingham's Mark Dennison (2 hours 15 if you’d like to listen!).  It was great to join Mark for our radio debut and we really enjoyed the conversation. Before-hand we asked ourselves “I wonder if ‘that’ question will come up”?  And it did … “so this is great for women, but what about the men”?!

So what about the men?  Why do we even need to say that WbD is for a particular group - why can’t it just be for all?  

Why has Work.by Design been designed for women?

Women are under-represented.

At every stage of the entrepreneurial journey, women are under-represented.  Research evidenced in the Alison Rose Review of Entrepreneurship in the UK showed that in start-up women are half as likely as men to launch an enterprise and only 5.8% of women in the UK run their own business (compared to 15% in Canada, almost 11% in the UK and over 9% in Australia and the Netherlands). 

In scale-up, men are five times as likely to scale up to ￡1m turnover than women; despite women being as successful as men in sustaining a business older than 3.5 years (73% of both sexes achieve this position).

And you would’ve had to have had your head in a deep hole to have missed the position on investment for female founders in the UK. Male entrepreneurs are 86% more likely to be VC funded and 56% more likely to secure angel investment.

These investment numbers are even more depressing for women of colour.  Since 2009, out of the $424.7bn in tech venture capital funding the amount given to black female founders is a shocking 0.0006%.  Where investment is made, the average is only $42k compared with the overall average of $1.3m.

To see the kind of increase in the number of female founders in the UK that the Government aspires to (600,000 more female founders by 2030) takes a change in approach. Radical change. We believe building a digital platform (an online space) for women who are considering entrepreneurship or who have made the leap is one of the changes that is needed. And the women who are in our community are telling us the same.

Women are good for business. Good for society.

So if you accept that women are under-represented in the world of entrepreneurship, the next question becomes - why does that matter?

It is widely accepted that a flourishing entrepreneurial landscape is good for economies.  Jobs, growth, innovation are all fuelled by a vibrant community of courageous (and rebellious) change makers who step out of the comfort of a more secure career path to build something new.  If we create an environment where more women are able to enter this landscape we create the potential for significant (and that’s an under-statement by the way) economic growth. ￡250bn in new revenue in the UK simply by tapping into latent female entrepreneurial talent.

The potential for business to have a positive societal and environmental impact is also true.  B-corp businesses are recognised as organisations (small and large) that balance purpose and profit.  They are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community and the environment.  A global movement of people using business as a force for good. From our own research we see a passion from female founders to create businesses that consider the world in which they exist.  To create businesses which are purpose driven in line with a set of values that recognises the world around them. Which leads us to ask - might an increase in female founders in the UK not only result in significant economic benefit but also an increase in positive societal and environmental impacts too?

And if all of that doesn’t leave you fired up to the argument that women are good for business, consider this.  A recent study from Boston Consulting Group which evaluated 350 companies that had been part of the MassChallenge programme revealed that “for every dollar of investment raised, female-run start-ups generated 78 cents in revenue whereas male-run starts up generated 31 cents.  Women outperformed their male counterparts despite raising less money”. We see this type of evidence time and again.

So why does it matter that women are under-represented?  Because more female founded business are good for the economy, good for society and good for our planet. And if through conscious design (more on that below) we can inspire more women to make the leap and build businesses then that's a whole lot of extra good in the world. Good that we want to see. Good that we're prepared to take some 'what about the men' flack for because what if our approach works? What if creating a space for women to confidently build their businesses results in the type of good we've described above?

Different Experiences.  Different Mindsets.

It’s a given that there are differences in the eco-system to which we enter (of course there are - we are a new group entering a space that has largely been designed by and for itself. Not necessarily by ill-intent but simply that a lack of diversity within that group has resulted in a celebration of everything that looks like itself*). But we also enter that eco-system with different experiences and different mindsets:

• Men are eight times more likely than women to be motivated by financial gain to start businesses.  That doesn’t mean women don’t understand the commercial drivers for business or aren't motivated by them - it just means it’s one of a mix of motivators
• 75% of female founders work from home - that means there is a very real risk of loneliness and isolation.  These are challenging emotions when you’re stepping out from the norm to build a business. These need to be recognised when providing business support
• In the UK, women are more likely than men to take on care responsibilities.  That means the number of hours available to work on creating a business and when those hours are available can be different.  It means business support needs to be provided flexibly (knowing that flexibly doesn’t mean 'for people who have less ambition'!)
• Women are less likely than men to display overconfidence when evaluating the track record of their business.  Two thirds of male entrepreneurs surveyed (62%) were more likely than women (42%) to state that their business is prospering, despite the fact that the women-led businesses studied report high profits in comparison.  That means we need to inquire about successes and the path trodden differently
• Women are less likely to have an entrepreneur in their network, are more likely to underestimate the reach of their network and yet more highly value the network they do have.   This means we need to more effectively share the stories of female founders and create opportunities for connection
• Traditionally feminine traits (empathy, flexibility, collaboration, kindness) are no longer seen as weakness but as an important differentiator to business success.  Let’s celebrate them and call them out rather than feel that they are misplaced in a ‘dog eat dog Apprentice’ type view of entrepreneurship.

We could go on.

People have different experiences.  Different mindsets. Not better, not worse.  Just different. But different experiences, different mindsets create different needs. And you can't design effective solutions to problems (the problem being the missing entrepreneurs from our economy) without a deep understanding of needs.

Designing through the eyes of your customers

So that sets out an argument.  But ultimately (for us) why women?  We all know that great businesses are built on a deep understanding of your customers needs.  For us, we are building a business upon something which we have experience. We don’t have to simply imagine what our customers experience might be or ask for someone to run us a Focus Group - we’ve lived it.  We are living it. And this gives us a very real advantage. We are so passionate about this path we are building in front of us because we’ve experienced the alternative. We've spoken to hundreds of women who have experienced the same. And it makes being an entrepreneur so much bloody harder. And we don’t think it should be that way.  

Righting an uneven playing field requires Conscious Design.

Being an entrepreneur is a rollercoaster ride whether you’re male, female, non-binary.  Old, young. Able-bodied or have a disability. White or of colour. Across each of these groups - in fact across any group with which you identify - there will be shared experiences and the opportunity for shared learning.  And we celebrate this. And we want to be a part of it. And we do ourselves a disservice if we believe that within this rich, beautiful diversity there are not a range of different and unique needs.  

To be inclusive we have to recognise these different needs. And celebrate them.

To be inclusive we have to create spaces where those different needs can be surfaced, understood and supported.  We could do that by changing what currently exists or we could do that by creating something new. What we’re finding (through research and testing) is that by holding a space that is uniquely for women there is greater opportunity to show up “without the armour”, without needing to have all of the answers in place, without having to justify that you’re working on your business as a side hustle whilst also holding down a demanding Corporate role or whilst having a new born baby.  There is real opportunity to ‘see one to be one’ - to build your network with other women with whom you can share deep learning.  

To be inclusive we have to recognise that different needs require different solutions.  We have to consciously and deliberately design for this. Which means disrupting how things are currently done.

We hope that through the lessons we learn we are able to connect with other people whose needs are not seen as ‘mainstream’ (recognising the privilege we do have as white female founders of a business in the UK).  To bring all of our learning together to create change for all. 

We are not anti-men.  We do not seek to raise the profile of and provide support for female founders at the detriment of men (or anyone else for that matter).  Because what would be the point in that?  

We are however going to work bloody hard to consciously design a new way of working.  

Because it is only with conscious design that we level an uneven playing field.

For more on the work we're doing - visit us here.