Seeing is Believing

We often promote networking and mentoring opportunities here at the Female Founders Forum so it is important that we regularly reflect upon this and make sure the evidence supports what we do. After all, sometimes well-intentioned interventions can be counterproductive.

It seems as though entrepreneurialism is something that needs to be inspired in some people. I’m sure there are some natural-born entrepreneurs who started bake-sales and lemonade stands as children, but these are few and far between. The children of entrepreneurs are more likely to start businesses but this does not seem to be for mostly genetic reasons. Children whose biological parents are entrepreneurs, but are adopted by non-entrepreneurs are half as likely to start a business as children whose biological parents are non-entrepreneurs, but are adopted by entrepreneurs.

This makes sense. Starting a business is daunting. There’s a lot to learn and if you don’t know anyone who has done it, you might not know quite how difficult it may be. People who work with or live in the same neighbourhoods as entrepreneurs are more likely to become entrepreneurs themselves.

The evidence that entrepreneurship has to be inspired is clear but what about female entrepreneurs?

It seems that the degree to which entrepreneurship is contagious depends on how similar one is to the entrepreneur inspiring them. If to start a business you need to see someone else make a success of it, it follows that that person should be relatable in some way.

Girls appear to be more susceptible to this effect than boys. Boys can see male entrepreneurs in the news all the time; Mark Zuckerberg, Sir Alan Sugar and Jeff Bezos are household names. They know that their gender will not hold them back. So if their aunt starts a business that may feel relatable to them. But, more often than not, the profiles of female entrepreneurs are not raised to the same degree as male entrepreneurs. In fact, four out of five teenage girls can’t name any female entrepreneurs. So if their uncle starts a business, that may not feel like something they can do too, but it instead may feel like something that men do.

This shows up in the adoption study I mentioned earlier. If you look at the ungendered data the simple story is that children adopted by entrepreneurs are more likely to pursue entrepreneurship. But if you dig deeper, girls are only more likely to become entrepreneurs if their adopted mother was one. If their adopted father was an entrepreneur this had no impact. Boys were more likely to become entrepreneurs regardless of which parent was an entrepreneur.

Similarly it is not as simple as “people who work with entrepreneurs are more likely to become entrepreneurs.” This effect is stronger the more similar people are to each other. This is true if they are the same gender, of similar ages, if they are both parents or both not parents, if they have the same educational background, or if they grew up in the same place.

This means there is a negative feedback loop, with there being fewer female entrepreneurs and therefore fewer opportunities to inspire women to become entrepreneurs.

Mentorship is one way to avoid this vicious circle. Students who were randomly assigned a mentor who was an entrepreneur were 9% more likely to start a business than those assigned a non-entrepreneur mentor.

We also need to do more to raise the profile of potential role-models who are entrepreneurs. We should celebrate female founders in the news, in films and television, and in schools. This means that everyone has a role to play in supporting female entrepreneurs. It cannot be driven by government policy alone.

This is just one of the topics we discuss in our upcoming thought-leadership report which will be launched at the House of Lords on 26 October.

We will be sending invitations out soon, so if you are interested in joining us, you can sign up to become a member of The Entrepreneurs Network. It’s free to join.

Female Founders Forum: Building a Team You Can Trust

On Wednesday we hosted a Female Founders Forum webinar on How to Build a Team You Can Trust. We discussed hiring, how to support your staff once you have them and how to create a positive and productive company culture.

Our panel included Vanessa Tierney, the founder of Abodoo and director of Yonderdesk.com; Karina Robinson, the co-director of The Inclusion Initiative at the LSE and the CEO of Robinson Hambro; and Louisa Chapple is the HR Director for Barclays Execution Services. These are their top tips.

1. Gather data. This is key for larger companies where you cannot speak to everyone. Barclays sends out a quarterly survey with the same questions in it, so they can track how their initiatives are impacting staff and work out what needs to be improved to enhance employee wellbeing.

2. Make sure you have a mission. Most people want to do something meaningful. If your company has a social purpose and a sense that it is making the world a better place, then staff will be more invested in what you do.

3. Overcome group-think. The most senior person should not be the first to speak in a meeting, because people will be apprehensive about disagreeing with them. Instead, when chairing a meeting, ask the most junior person what they think first.

4. Hire people with cognitive diversity. Good teams are more than the sum of their parts. People working together who think differently can create much better outcomes. One way of finding someone who thinks differently to the rest of your team is to hire people who used to work outside of your industry, but who have the right transferable skills.

5. Build an inclusive culture. This is not just because it is the right thing to do, but it is also helpful for your business so that you can understand your customers better.

6. Encourage people to speak up. People will assume that it is extraverts who will struggle the most with working from home, but Vanessa warned that you will not know if introverts are struggling because they may not speak up without being prompted.

7. Make sure quiet people are being offered opportunities. It is often the case that the people who are the loudest and the most proactive are given the tasks which lead to promotion. When giving out tasks, see if there is a more equitable way to distribute them to give more people a chance to prove themselves.

8. Offer people options. Companies like Google have announced that they want people to return to the office. Karina and Vanessa both believe that this offers a great opportunity to start ups. If you feel confident allowing your employees to work from home, then this could be a chance to hire someone from one of these big companies. You may not be able to offer them the same salary, but you can offer them more flexibility.

9. Support employee wellbeing. Barclays has a healthy habits campaign to make sure that their colleagues are taking care of themselves while working from home. They encourage them to exercise and spend quality time with their families.

10. Create ambassadors. If someone has a good experience working at your company, including a good experience leaving it, then you will have an ambassador for life.

11. Find a mentor. Karina says that the secret is not to ask someone “will you be my mentor” because they will say that they don’t have time. Instead, after choosing someone who you want to mentor you, ask them if they will meet you in five months and then ask them for another meeting five months after that. 

Female Founders Forum webinar - Trade: Accessing New Markets

How can female entrepreneurs break into international markets? Last Wednesday,the Female Founders Forum hosted a webinar on exporting. We had a very informative discussion, led by a panel of experts including Juliet Rogan, head of high growth and entrepreneurs at Barclays, and two entrepreneurs, Cécile Reinaud and Virginie Charles-Dear, the founders of Séraphine and toucanBox.

They had some helpful advice for the guests who tuned in. Here are their top tips.

Go for low hanging fruit

You should identify the markets which are going to be the easiest to enter. Séraphine makes maternity clothing, and founder Cécile Reinaud told us that they first targeted countries where the maternity fashion market was underdeveloped. She thinks you should only export to places where you know that you have some kind of competitive advantage over existing players. The costs for a foreign business will be higher so it would be difficult for a “me too” product to succeed.

Look at the regulation

toucanBox ships toys, which are tightly regulated. Their founder Virginie Charles-Dear explained that  you have a product which is highly regulated, it helps to export to places with similar rules so that each additional market does not add too many onerous approvals or slight adjustments to the product.

Network with entrepreneurs who are doing the same thing

Cécile said she gained the confidence to enter new markets by talking to other entrepreneurs who had gone before her. She found that they could tell her what the specific hurdles for that country and that sector were. She has also received advice about which software to use and where to find a good tax adviser, which proved very helpful.

Ask for help from professionals

Juliet Rogan advised female founders to actively seek advice. Female founders are more likely to seek advice from people within their network, whereas male entrepreneurs are more likely to ask for advice from professionals. Women should continue to seek out networks of other entrepreneurs, but it is worth female entrepreneurs making an extra effort to find professionals too; like lawyers, accountants, or even specialist trade advisers.

Reach out to UK Trade and Investment for support

The Gov.uk website offers a lot of resources to British entrepreneurs who are interested in exporting. Beyond information about how exporting to different countries works, they will also offer some grants to entrepreneurs. Cécile says they helped her to export to Japan and the UAE, and gave her grants to travel to the countries first.

Know and understand the market

Understanding consumers in new markets is vital. In the early days for toucanBox, Virginie stood outside schools and asked parents and pupils to test out her products. She believes that when you export you should make sure to hire people who know the local market because you can learn a lot of unexpected things.

Make a financial plan

Cécile cautions that there are some markets which are difficult to break into. She said that marketing costs in the US are very high, and that in her sector, maternity fashion, there was already a very competitive market. She said they only launched Séraphine in the US when they were financially secure enough to sustain a loss making business for several years.

Do not wait for everything to be ready

Virginie says that you should be wary of over-preparing. There is no point in waiting for the perfect moment to export because it doesn’t exist.

It was a fruitful conversation with a lot of actionable advice. If you would like to be invited to future Female Founders Forum events please sign up on our website.

Open for Business

The next few months promise to be an exciting time for businesses. Today, with lockdown easing, town centres are full of people hoping to revisit their old haunts. Queues have appeared up and down the country outside shops, hairdressers and beauty salons have run out of appointments, and if you haven't already booked you're going to struggle to find a spare table in a pub tonight. After a few months of being kept away, it seems that shoppers are keen to spend again. The past few weeks have seen a surge in hiring, as businesses (accurately) predicted this bounce back in demand.

Frances Bishop is the founder of a children's clothing shop, The Pud Store. Because of the pandemic, she had to restructure aspects of her business, and started trading online but she says that now things are open again, her customers are excited to “get back to some sort of normality – just to come and see the clothes."

As we identified in our Resilience and Recovery report, female-founded firms across the UK have been most impacted by lockdown. However, with retail and hospitality being disproportionately female-led sectors, and the UK's vaccine programme continuing to storm ahead, reopening presents significant opportunities for female entrepreneurs. We expect that they will be more than able to rise to the challenge.

Webinars & Programmes
Join us for our webinar on Wednesday.

Speakers: Juliet Rogan, Head of High Growth and Entrepreneurs at Barclays; Cécile Reinaud, Founder of Seraphine; and Virginie Charles-Dear, Founder of ToucanBox
Join us for our webinar on Wednesday
Free
10am to 11.30am
14 April 2021

Female Founders Forum – Trade: Accessing New  Markets
 

Juliet Rogan is Head of the High Growth & Entrepreneurs team at Barclays. She leads a national team of High Growth Relationship Directors focused on supporting companies to scale up.

Cecile Reinaud is the founder of Seraphine, an international maternity and fashion label. She grew Seraphine from nothing to a £50m company which she sold in 2020. She supports the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and wants to use her experience to help many other women found and scale their businesses.

Virginie Charles-Dear is the founder of ToucanBox. It provides a subscription service which delivers a monthly package of activities for children and toddlers. They ship over 150 000 boxes every month, to people in the UK, Europe, and the US.

Female Founder Highlights
Here’s a quick round-up of the news:

• Announced on International Women’s Day, the government is giving £50,000 grants to 40 female innovators. The grants have been given to women who have started businesses with extra social benefits. Recipient companies include an app to help victims of domestic abuse access emergency services and an ocean plastic recycling company.

• Congratulations are due to another Female Founders Forum member Tugce Bulut. She, and the rest of her team at StreetBees have raised another £5m.

• Further congratulations are in order for Faye Holland, another member of the Female Founders Forum whose company cofinitive has been named the best PR and Communications agency in East Anglia.

• Huckletree runs regular "VC office hours" for female founders. Last year an entrepreneur raised £400K from one of these meetings, so it is well worth your while. This quarter they are partnering with SeedCamp. You can apply for a 30 minute slot here. 

Government Support

• HMRC has launched a series of live webinars covering customs arrangements on shipping goods between the EU and the United Kingdom. If you’re still getting to grips with the new arrangements you can sign up to a webinar here.

• Even though the end of the pandemic is in sight, you may still be eligible for business support from the government. Here is a quick test to find out what financial support you can receive.

• If you are going to be reopening physical locations soon, here is some advice on how to make your workplace more COVID-secure. The information is broken down for different businesses, with advice tailored to labs, retail, and even other people’s homes.

• The government has updated their new post-Brexit visa system and our adviser Zenia Chopra details how the different types of visa work.

• One of the most exciting announcements in the budget was the super-deduction, which will allow businesses to deduct 130% of investments from their taxable income. Our Research Director has written about all of the changes to corporation tax in a policy update here, and also about the super deduction in more detail here.

• Help to Grow is a new scheme from the government for SMEs, which, as the name suggests, is aimed at helping businesses grow. There are two streams, one for improving management and one for improving digital tools. The management programme is a 12-week programme delivered by business schools, which at a 90% subsidy, only costs £750. The digital programme delivers free software advice to participating businesses, as well as vouchers for technology which can help boost your business’s productivity. You can learn more about them here.

Barclays Support and Opportunities

Barclays Women in Business Hub
Barclays is dedicated to levelling the playing field for female-led businesses so that more female founders start up and run businesses across the UK. We are a founding signatory of the HM Treasury Investing in Women Code, a commitment from the financial services industry which was launched in 2019 to improve female entrepreneurs’ access to tools, resources and finance. You can read more about Barclays’ three-year commitments to provide ongoing and meaningful support for female entrepreneurs plus helpful tools, guides, checklists and the wider support that is available for female-led businesses on the Barclays Women in Business hub here.

Barclays Money Management Hub
With many customers facing turbulent times, and so many coming to the end of loan repayment holidays, Barclays has created a dedicated Money Management Hub to help businesses keep their finances healthy. It’s continually evolving with lots of useful tips to help businesses budget and plan cashflow, as well as articles and guidance to help consider challenges businesses may be facing. 

Barclays Marketplace
If you need to find new partners to help your business with payment services, pensions, insurance and funding for growth, visit Barclays Marketplace whose featured partners have a track record of delivering quality services in their field.

Eagle Labs Virtual Events
Barclays’ programme of virtual events covers a range of topics from cashflow management to building resilience to help entrepreneurs and start-ups navigate these uncertain times. Forthcoming events include a session on thinking differently about social media marketing and an event to demystify AI, machine learning, and machine intelligence. All events are free to attend and open to anyone. For more information visit the Eagle Lab event page.

Barclays COVID-19 Support Hub
The Barclays COVID-19 Support Hub provides the latest information, tools, and guidance to support businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays’ products, webinars, Facebook Live events, and more information on how to access government schemes.

Building Business Resilience

In this year’s Female Founders Forum report, Resilience and Recovery, we combined discussions with female founders and original data analysis, to identify the reasons why female entrepreneurs have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This report was created in partnership with Barclays, who have launched a major new commitment to support 100,000 women to start up and run their own businesses over the next three years. You can read the two page summary or full report here. In this week's newsletter, we cover highlights from our recent Attracting & Retaining Talent webinar and provide updated guidance on government support schemes and opportunities. 

Female Founders Forum 2020 Digital Events

In our next session on Thursday 5 November 2020 from 10am – 11:30am, we will be discussing Building Personal & Operational Business Resilience. You can still sign up for the event here.

We will be joined by Anna Sofat, multi-award winning financial planner and founder of Addidi Wealth. We will also hear from Tamara Lohan, who co-founded the boutique hotel travel specialist company Mr & Mrs Smith. As we mentioned in the last Newsletter, we will be running a series of events over the coming months: 

• Cementing Your Story webinar - 10am - 11.30am, Tuesday 4 December 2020 - sign up here

Female Founder Highlights

Here is a quick round-up of this week’s news highlights, featuring some of our inspiring Members:

• This year’s Female Founders Forum report - Resilience and Recovery has been featured in Sifted, City AM, The Telegraph, Startacus, Startups Magazine, The Scotsman, Verdict and Angel News - just to name a few. Go read the report now. 

• You can also read more about why Barclays is pledging to support 100,000 women start up and run their own businesses over the next three years here. Also, find out more about CMe Media, which is just one of the inspiring founders we profiled in the Resilience and Recovery report and who Barclays has supported throughout the pandemic.

• In our latest blog, we covered highlights from our webinar on Attracting & Retaining Talent with expert panel: Eugenia Migliori, Principal Policy Adviser at the Confederation of British Industry, Aimee Bateman, founder and CEO of Careercake.com and Tugce Bulut, founder and CEO of Streetbees. In this session we explored how to build an open and inclusive workplace for growth. Read the blog here. 

Government Support

Kickstart Scheme - funding to create new job placements
The government has published new guidance for organisations who want to be a Kickstart gateway and help other employers apply for the Kickstart Scheme.
If you are an employer looking to create jobs for young people:

• Apply for funding here if you are looking to create 30 or more job placements 

• Apply for funding here if you are looking to create 29 or less job placements 

Updated Guidance: Deferring your Self Assessment Payment
You had the option to defer your second payment on account if you were: registered in the UK for Self Assessment and finding it difficult to make that payment by 31 July 2020 due to the impact of coronavirus. The government has published updated guidance on what you need to do if, after 31 July 2020, you chose to defer your second payment on account for the 2019 to 2020 tax year.

New Guidance: Test & Trace Support Payment Scheme 
If you have been contacted by the NHS Test and Trace and told to self-isolate on or after 28 September 2020 you could be eligible for a £500 Test and Trace Support Payment. This guidance sets out who can claim support and explains how to apply.

Barclays Support and Opportunities

Launch of Barclays’ second ‘Investing in Women Code’ commitment 
To help female-led businesses continue to recover from the pandemic and tackle the gender funding gap, Barclays has announced a major new commitment to help 100,000 women start up and run their businesses over the next three years. The second in a series of three-year commitments will see Barclays target local events and mentoring via Barclays’ UK-wide network of Eagle Labs and Rise hubs, increasing training and tools for Barclays’ coverage teams, as well as dedicated regional champions across the UK. You can read more about the launch of this second commitment here.

Barclays Money Management Hub
With many customers facing turbulent times, and so many coming to the end of loan repayment holidays, Barclays have created a dedicated Money Management Hub to help businesses keep their finances healthy. It’s continually evolving with lots of useful tips to help businesses budget and plan cashflow, as well as articles and guidance to help consider challenges businesses may be facing. 

Eagle Labs Virtual Events
Barclays’ programme of virtual events covers a range of topics from cashflow management to building resilience to help entrepreneurs and start-ups navigate these uncertain times. Forthcoming events include a session on thinking differently about social media marketing and an event to demystify AI, machine learning, and machine intelligence. All events are free to attend and open to anyone. For more information visit the Eagle Lab event page.

Barclays Coronavirus Support Hub
The Barclays COVID-19 Support Hub provides the latest information, tools, and guidance to support businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays’ products, webinars, Facebook Live events, and more information on how to access government schemes. You can also download Barclays’ coronavirus checklist to support your business resilience planning throughout this period. There is also an updated FAQ section on this hub.

Attracting & Retaining Talent Webinar

The Female Founders Forum is hosting a series of webinars to bring leading business owners and parliamentarians together to discuss key policy issues pertinent to female founders in order to to support them through COVID-19 and beyond. 

 In our latest session on Attracting & Retaining Talent, we explored how to build an open and inclusive workplace culture for growth.

In this session, we heard from Eugenia Migliori, Principal Policy Adviser at the Confederation of British Industry, alongside incredible female founders including Aimee Bateman, founder and CEO of Careercake.com and Tugce Bulut, founder and CEO of Streetbees. We were also joined by Juliet Rogan, head of Barclays HG&E team.

We’ve picked out some of the most thought-provoking insights from the session. You can view this on our YouTube channel. 

 Highlights & Insights from our Speakers

Tugce Bulut opened with some insights on Streetbees hiring strategy. She mentioned that  almost half of Streetbees hiring comes from employee referrals. Hence, their people strategy has been integral to supporting the company’s growth.

“I strongly believe that your hiring strategy starts with your people strategy. Your employees are the best possible advocates you can have for your company to be able to attract the best talent”

She also gave our female founders some tips on retaining top talent, including to listen to your team, highlight your company’s benefits and give your employees space to bring in their expertise: 

“When you hire someone, you are bringing them in to build their dream, on your dream”

Aimee Bateman spoke about the importance of finding out what motivates the person you are looking to hire. Are they extrinsically or intrinsically motivated? 

“I would be wary of the people who are motivated by the stuff. They will always be looking over your shoulder for the next pay rise or the next startup that could potentially offer them more and be focused on their goals and helping them to win when they leave you”

When it comes to employing people, Aimee stressed it is important to attract people who love your customers and the problem your business is trying to solve rather than just falling in love with the founder:

“Make sure that they love your business, not just you”

She also touched on some of the difficulties she has experienced with existing staff:

“As founders, it is our responsibility to recognise who thrives and who doesn’t and be brave enough to have those conversations with them… having the wrong people in the wrong positions, in the wrong play, is one of the largest reasons why startups fail”

Eugenia Migliori spoke about the disproportionate impact that the Covid-19 has had on women. She reflected on the importance of retaining top talent and the importance of flexible working arrangements to keep employees engaged during the pandemic:

“It will be important for businesses to think about how they retain talent and motivate talent during the pandemic”

Questions & Recommendations

During the Q&A session, we touched on a range of key issues. 

One attendee asked our expert panel whether they recruited for cultural fit or cultural add?

Tugce Bulut said that it is incredibly important to Streetbees to recruit people who fit their culture but also stressed the importance of hiring staff with diverse perspectives:

“There are certain values we adhere to that are not open to negotiation. Those are the values that make Streetbees successful… whereas there are lots of cultural components that get richer by adding more people to the team”

Juliet Rogan stressed that it is important for companies to have teams that reflect their diverse customer base.

Aimee Bateman agreed with Tugce and Juliet and touched briefly on the importance of also being aware of your own unconscious biases when hiring staff:

“The only thing that you have to have the same is that core value. Everything else needs to be different. There is not enough conservations happening around unconscious bias and I hope that changes”

Another attendee asked our speakers how they deal with imposter syndrome?

Aimee said that she followed someone's advice on dealing with imposter syndrome which was to give the imposter a name in order to stop overthinking:

“When you feel that moment, say thank you for caring and looking after me but I have got this. That is how I deal with it. Get out of my head and think of it as it’s own person”

Tugce said that is important to distance yourself from people who make you feel like a failure and stressed that failure is an important part of the journey to success:

“If anyone can do it so can you and if you can’t do it, you can still give it a shot”

Another attendee asked the panel about some of the challenges that they have faced with retaining talent while they scale

Tugce stressed the importance of trusting your employees and spoke about Streetbees KPI driven culture and how they constantly look to other companies to learn how to continue motivating their staff: 

“In a startup, you are so motivated by your mission and so busy that you sometimes forget about ensuring that you create a motivational environment”

Aimee spoke about Careercake.com’s journey and the importance of introducing processes for employees along the way:

“I wanted to learn from people who have taken it from the kitchen table and exited and learnt from that process to tell me about what kind of processes I should put in place”

Juliet spoke about how she has enjoyed seeing how cultures develop within the startups that her team at Barclays deal with and how she has tried to emulate this within her own team:

“I think that is one of the major advantages that startups have have over large companies is that ability to drive culture through everything they are doing”

Eugenia spoke about some of the work that CBI do, including producing resources to help entrepreneurs attract & retain talent and stressed the important role that government plays in supporting this:

“The government has an important role to play in supporting businesses to scale up their activities”

Aimee touched on the importance of editing your people strategy to your business stage to ensure that you have the right people to support your business in its journey:

“When you come out of startup to scale up mode, you have to up your game and not everyone will want to do that”

We will be continuing the conversation on removing the barriers that female founders face starting and scaling their businesses in our upcoming webinars. You can find out more about the event schedule and sign up for the events here.

Attracting & Retaining Top Talent

In a post COVID-19 world, it will be extremely important to attract and retain the best talent. In this weeks blog, we cover our upcoming event on building an open workplace for growth, alongside highlights from our members and updated guidance on the government’s support schemes. 

Female Founders Forum 2020 Digital Events

In our next session tomorrow, Thursday 8 October 2020 from 10am - 11:30am, we will be discussing Attracting & Retaining Talent. You can still sign up for the event here.
 
We will be joined by Tugce Bulut, founder of technology company Streetbees which was recently named one of the Top 10 UK Startups. We will also hear from Aimee Bateman founder of Careercake with 15+ years of experience working in talent attraction and development as well as Eugenia Migliori, Principal Policy Adviser on Employment at the Confederation of British Industry.
 
As we mentioned in the last Newsletter, we will be running a series of events over the coming months:
 

• Building Personal & Operational Business Resilience webinar: 10 am - 11.30 am, Thursday 5 November 2020 - sign up here

• Cementing Your Story webinar - 10 am - 11.30 am, Tuesday 4 December 2020 - sign up here

Female Founder Highlights

Here is a quick round-up of this week’s news highlights, featuring some of our inspiring Members:

• Tania Boler, founder of Elvie and member of the Female Founders Forum was featured in Vogue speaking about her revolutionary FemTech products. She spoke in the article about how the lack of studies conducted into women’s health and resulting lack of adequate products created with them in mind spurred her into action. Read the full article here

• The Social Element, founded by our member Tamara Littleton, wrote a piece on what marketers should know when getting started with social media. The article discusses some key things marketers should consider when choosing which platforms to post content on and how effective engagement can lead to long term success. Read the blog post here

• In order to support the hospitality sector during Covid-19, Criton, founded by our member Julie Grieve is offering hoteliers a guest app completely free of charge until 2021 and with no commitment. With their own branded app, hoteliers can reduce touchpoints and put guests' safety first. Find out more here

Government Support

Job Support Scheme
The government has announced a new Job Support Scheme which will be introduced from 1 November to protect viable jobs in businesses who are facing lower demand over winter months due to COVID-19. Under this scheme, which will run for 6 months, the government will continue to pay towards the wages of employees who are working fewer hours due to decreased demand. 

In order to support viable jobs, employees must be working at least 33% of their usual hours. The grant will be calculated based on the usual salary of the employee and capped at  £697.92 per month. The scheme will be open to businesses all around the UK, even if they have not previously claimed under the furlough scheme. Read more about the scheme here.

Self-employment income support scheme
The government will continue supporting millions of self-employed individuals through extending the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). An initial taxable grant will be provided to those currently eligible under the SEISS and who are continuing to actively trade but face decreased demand due to COVID-19.

There will be an initial lump sum payment made covering 3 months' worth of profits from the period of November to January next year. This is worth 20% of average monthly profits, up to a total of £1,875. An additional second grant, which may be adjusted to respond to changing circumstances, will be available for self-employed individuals to cover the period from February 2021 to the end of April. Read more about the extension of the SEISS here. 

Tax cuts and deferrals
The temporary 15% VAT cut for the tourism and hospitality sectors will be extended until the end of March next year. In addition to this, businesses who have deferred their VAT bills will be given more breathing space through a New Payment Scheme, which gives businesses the option to pay back the VAT in smaller instatements. 

Barclays Support and Opportunities

Barclays' first 'Investing in Women Code' commitment 
Barclays is taking action to close the entrepreneurship gender gap, through a series of measures designed to boost the resources and financial support available to female founders. The first in a series of three-year commitments, launched last month, will see the next generation of female founders supported through the bank’s LifeSkills programme, helping them turn their plans into action.  Hannah Bernard, Head of Barclays Business Banking, explains how the bank is backing women in business. You can read more about the first commitment here.

Eagle Labs Virtual Events
Barclays’ programme of virtual events covers a range of topics from cashflow management to building resilience to help entrepreneurs and start-ups navigate these uncertain times. Forthcoming events include a session on thinking differently about social media marketing and an event to demystify AI, machine learning, and machine intelligence. All events are free to attend and open to anyone. For more information visit the Eagle Lab event page.

Barclays Coronavirus Support Hub
The Barclays COVID-19 Support Hub provides the latest information, tools, and guidance to support businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays’ products, webinars, Facebook Live events, and more information on how to access government schemes. You can also download Barclays’ coronavirus checklist to support your business resilience planning throughout this period. There is also an updated FAQ section on this hub.

We want to inspire female entrepreneurs across the UK. Do you know any inspiring female entrepreneurs?

If so, please connect them directly to me at jess@tenentrepeneurs.org.

Supporting Unrepresented Founders

The UK is full of talented entrepreneurs who can help solve some of the world’s biggest challenges. In this Female Founders Forum blog, we cover new research from The Entrepreneurs Network which makes the case for expanding access to entrepreneurship education, alongside highlights from our Members and provide updated guidance on the government’s support schemes.

Female Founder Highlights

Here is a quick wrap up of this week’s news highlights, featuring some of our inspiring Members:

• Google for Startups is welcoming two new cohorts of Black and Women founders across Europe and Israel who are driving change in their industries. The Founders will have access to the best of Google’s people, products and connections. This is a great initiative, supported by our Member and head of Google for Startups UK, Marta Krupinska. You can read more about the programme here. 

• In our latest blog, we covered all of the highlights and insights from our Access to Finance session with expert speakers, Julia Elliott Brown, Alexandra Daly, Juliet Rogan and Baroness Kramer. You can read more about the session here. 

• New research from The Entrepreneurs Network has revealed that there is an untapped opportunity to promote economic growth and reduce unemployment by expanding access to entrepreneurship education to secondary school students. Earlier interventions can help girls to develop traits that are key to entrepreneurial success later in life, such as creativity, persistence, and communication. You can read the full report here. 

Government Support

Chancellor announces new package of support for businesses
The Chancellor has announced a new Job Support Scheme, starting in November to replace the previous 'Furlough Scheme'. The Government will top up the wages workers covering up to two thirds of their hours for the next six months, with the Government contribution capped at £697.92 per month. There will also be an extension of self-employed grants on similar terms as the Job Support Scheme.

The 15% VAT rate cut to the tourism and hospitality sector has been extended until 31 March 2021 and firms who deferred their VAT bill will no longer need to pay the lump sum in March. They will have the option of splitting it into smaller, interest fee payments over the course of 11 months.

The application deadline for all coronavirus loan schemes has been extended to the 30th November. Firms will also be offered greater flexibility to repay the Bounce Back Loans.

Lastly, the CBILS Government guarantee will be extended up to ten years, and a new replacement loan guarantee programme will be announced in January.  For more, read TEN's policy update.

New Guidance: Venues required to record contact information
Venues and premises across the UK will need to record contact details of their customers, visitors and staff according to new guidance from the Department of Health and Social Care. Details must be stored for 21 days and shared with NHS Test and Trace, if requested, and fixed penalties will apply for businesses that don’t comply. You can read the new guidance here. 

New Guidance: COVID-19 testing guidance for employers
The government has published new guidance to help employers who want to introduce their own internal testing programmes, outside of the NHS Test and Trace service. This guidance will help employers to ensure that their testing programmes are reliable and effective. You can read the new guidance here.

Barclays Support and Opportunities

Female Founders Forum 2020 Digital Events
 
In our next session on Thursday 8 October, 2020 from 10 am - 11:30 am, Tugce Bulut, founder of Streetbees and Member of the Female Founders Form will be joining our expert panel to discuss Attracting & Retaining Talent. You can sign up for the event here.
 
As we mentioned in the last Newsletter, we will be running a series of events over the coming months:

• Building Personal & Operational Business Resilience webinar - 10 am - 11:30 am, Thursday 5 November 2020 - sign up here

• Cementing Your Story webinar - 10 am - 11:30 am, Tuesday 4 December 2020 - sign up here

 
In each webinar, we will be joined by an eminent high growth Female Founders Forum member, an expert speaker, and hear insights from Juliet Rogan, Head of Barclays HG&E team. 

If you are interested in attending a specific webinar, please contact jess@tenentrepreneurs.org and we will add you to the invitation list.

Launch of Barclays’ first ‘Investing in Women Code’ commitment 
Barclays is taking action to close the entrepreneurship gender gap, through a series of measures designed to boost the resources and financial support available to female founders. The first in a series of three-year commitments, launched on 26 August, will see the next generation of female founders supported through the bank’s LifeSkills programme, helping them turn their plans into action.  Hannah Bernard, Head of Barclays Business Banking, explains how the bank is backing women in business. You can read more about the launch of this first commitment here.

Eagle Labs Virtual Events
Barclays’ programme of virtual events covers a range of topics from cashflow management to building resilience to help entrepreneurs and start-ups navigate these uncertain times. Forthcoming events include a session on thinking differently about social media marketing and an event to demystify AI, machine learning, and machine intelligence. All events are free to attend and open to anyone. For more information visit the Eagle Lab event page.

Barclays Coronavirus Support Hub
The Barclays COVID-19 Support Hub provides the latest information, tools, and guidance to support businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays’ products, webinars, Facebook Live events, and more information on how to access government schemes. You can also download Barclays’ coronavirus checklist to support your business resilience planning throughout this period. There is also an updated FAQ section on this hub.

We want to inspire female entrepreneurs across the UK. Do you know any inspiring female entrepreneurs?

If so, please connect them directly to me at jess@tenentrepeneurs.org.

Access to Finance

The Female Founders Forum is hosting a series of webinars to bring leading business owners and parliamentarians together to discuss key policy issues pertinent to female founders in order to to support them through COVID-19 and beyond. 

In our latest session on Access to Finance, we explored how policymakers and business leaders can come together to address the barriers that female founders face accessing finance.

In this session, we heard from the Liberal Democrat’s Treasury Spokesperson Rt Hon Baroness Kramer, alongside incredible female founders including Julia Elliott Brown, founder and CEO of Enter the Area, and Alexandra Daly, founder, and CEO of independent placement agency, AA Advisors. We were also joined by Juliet Rogan, head of Barclays HG&E team.

We’ve picked out some of the most thought-provoking insights from the session. You can view this on our YouTube channel.

Highlights & Insights from our Speakers

Juliet Rogan spoke about Untapped Unicorns and how this research spurred The Entrepreneurs Network and Barclays into action to address the funding issue:

“If people don’t look and sound like the people that are investing in them, how can we ever get to a place where there is diversity in the funding landscape”

Alexandra Daly opened with statistics from the Allison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship and spoke about the huge opportunity that this research identified for the UK economy:

“Up to £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as men. Only 1 in 3 UK entrepreneurs are female and female-led businesses are only 44% the size of male-led businesses on average”

She also stressed the importance of bringing business leaders and policymakers together to drive change and unlock access to funding: 

“As the economy continues to open up and we turn our attention to rebuilding post lockdown, we want to make sure that female entrepreneurs have all the opportunities to fill their potential and also contribute to the wider economy”

Julia Elliott Brown shared personal insights on the challenges she faced raising finance as a female founder and some of the lessons learned along the way. She stressed two important points:

“[It’s all about] getting women out there in the first place to raise investment and then really looking at the system to how, once they do go out there, we make it work”

She put forward some recommendations to address the funding issue including: investing in skills and support, showcasing role models, and implementing diversity tracking and setting targets. 

Baroness Kramer touched on the challenges female founders have faced during COVID-19 accessing government funding. She suggested that COVID-19 is an opportunity for a call to action to modernise the labour market, for the benefit of women:

“It seems to me that we suddenly made a very rapid shift in the direction of a world in which so many women founded businesses are in touch with where the workforce wants to be in contrast to many of the traditional players”

She insisted that women should come together to campaign and put pressure on the government to ensure that government schemes adequately support female founders. 

Questions & Recommendations 

During the Q&A session, we touched on a range of key issues. 

One attendee asked the speakers how female founders within their networks had been affected by COVID-19.

Juliet Rogan spoke about how she has been inspired by the resilience and tenacity of female founders during the pandemic. She mentioned a story about an inspiring female founder who purchased a van to hand-deliver her products during lockdown:

“I thought that it was a demonstrable story about how female founders specifically have been resilient and got stuff done. That is one of the key things I have seen [during COVID-19]”

Julia Elliott Brown said that she didn’t have many success stories to share about female founders who had successfully raised money during COVID-19:

“The only women I have seen raising are the women who have already raised a significant amount of money”

In response, Alexandra Daly stressed that this is a hard time but also shed light on the opportunities coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic:

“When you have a major downturn like this, the companies of tomorrow of tomorrow are made today”

Another attendee spoke about her challenges accessing funding and asked what more could be done to connect female founders with mentors.

Alexandra Daly spoke about the mentor network that she is helping to launch. She stressed that it is vital to match female founders with mentors who understand their industry:

“It has to be accurate, it has to be strategic and it also has to be value orientated”

Julia Elliott Brown mentioned the resources that are out there to support female founders through the fundraising journey, including Enter the Arena.

Baroness Kramer touched on the lack of support provided by the government to help female founders find a mentor and suggested that a better structure could be implemented to bridge the mentoring gap:

“I think we have a communication gap in the UK. I think there are people that are very willing to help who have no idea how to find someone they can help”

One attendee asked what resources are available to help female founders successfully scale their businesses from the start?

Alexandra Daly recommended that female founders seek out angel groups for tailored support:

“[Female Founders] need investors who assist them not just by giving them money, but by giving them advice”

In response Julia Elliott Brown cautioned that it may be difficult to obtain angel investment at the early startup stage:

“The more you can network the better. It is brilliant if you can get in with investment groups. I would just have a word of caution that it is really difficult to obtain angel investment from professional networks when you are at this early stage”

Another attendee asked the speakers for some insights on what they see to be the role of government in alleviating the barriers female founders face accessing finance.

Baroness Kramer took a robust approach and said that is incredibly important for government to follow through with its diversity initiatives to support female founders in their efforts to access finance, especially during COVID-19:

“I feel that is a dire necessity if we are going to have a UK economy that thrives”

Juliet Rogan highlighted the Investing in Women Code as one of the great government initiatives to track investment in female founded enterprises:

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure. One of the key things about the Investing in Women Code is really around tracking and looking at where investment is going”

Baroness Kramer posed a question to the speakers. She asked whether it was women that lacked the confidence to seek investment or whether they felt it isn’t worth putting the energy in because the system is so biased that they will end up being rejected?

“My assumption of [women] has always been that they have smashed into glass ceilings. I just wonder if it is women who lack the skills and confidence they need or the problem is that there is so much bias in the system”

In response Julia Elliott Brown suggested that it can be a bit of both but in her experience, women are often overwhelmed by the process:

“There are so many women that are left behind who no one is seeing in the stats because they aren’t even applying”

Alexandra Daly suggested that the difficulty lies in women being able to understand the different types of funding out there and how to access it:

“It’s about lifting the veil on funding to access the right capital for you and your business”

Juliet Rogan agreed that an important part of female founders being able to access the right finance is understanding what resources are out there to support them:

“It does help [women] to pitch themselves in a way that they can access all of those tools”

We will be continuing the conversation on removing the barriers that female founders face starting and scaling their businesses in our upcoming webinars. You can find out more about the event schedule and sign up for the events here.

Supporting the Next Generation of Female Founders

New research released by LifeSkills created with Barclays has revealed that over half of aspiring female entrepreneurs in the UK say that the COVID-19 pandemic has made them want to start their own business (51 per cent). In this Female Founders Forum blog, we cover Barclays’ Investing in Women Code commitments, the first of which is aimed at supporting the next generation of female entrepreneurs. We also share highlights from our FFF members and provide updated guidance on the government’s COVID-19 support schemes. 

Female Founder Highlights

Streetbees, founded by our Member Tugce Bulut has released its latest whitepaper, providing a deep dive into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quick-service restaurant industry. Read the special report here.

Government Support

Kickstart Scheme
The government has introduced a new Kickstart Scheme to create hundreds of high-quality 6 month work placements aimed at 16 to 24 year olds who are on Universal Credit and are deemed to be at risk of long term unemployment.

It is a very generous scheme which will: pay 25 hours of young people’s wages at National Minimum Wage; cover Employer’s National Insurance and pension contributions for 6 months and; provide £1,500 to employers for costs and training.

However, as TEN mentioned in their Newsletter last week, it’s being targeted at large businesses. You need to sign up to the scheme in batches of 30 – ie. take on 30 work placements. This might make sense for the ease of government administration, but given that it’s new, young businesses that create most new jobs, it looks like the Government may be missing an opportunity. 

There is a way around it, however by joining a group of other employers, nominating a representative for the group to submit the application, or registering your interest with existing representatives, such as local authorities, chambers of commerce or trade bodies.

If you're an employer who is looking to create a job placement, you can check here if you are eligible to apply for funding under the Kickstart Scheme.

Updated Guidance: Job Retention Scheme 
The government has published updated guidance to reflect changes to the Job Retention Scheme:

• From 1 September the government will pay 70% and employers will pay 10% of employees’ wages for the time they are being furloughed. Employers will also continue to pay their National Insurance and pension contributions.

• From 1 October the government will pay 60% and employers will pay 20% of employees’ wages for the time they are being furloughed. Employers will also continue to pay their National Insurance and pension contributions.

• You will continue to pay employees wages at the contracted rate for the hours they work for you.

The scheme ends on 31 October 2020. Find out more here. 

Barclays Support and Opportunities

Female Founders Forum 2020 Digital Events
We had an excellent session last week on Access to Finance where Juliet Rogan, Head of Barclays’ High Growth & Entrepreneurs (HG&E) team was joined by expert speakers, Alexandra Daly, founder of AA Advisors, Julia Elliott Brown, founder of Enter the Arena and Baroness Kramer. 
 
In our next session on Thursday 8 October 2020 from 10am - 11:30am, we will be discussing Attracting & Retaining Talent. You can sign up for the event here.
 
As we mentioned in the last blog, we will be running a series of events over the coming months:
 

• Building Personal & Operational Business Resilience webinar - 10am - 11:30am, Thursday 5 November 2020 - sign up here

• Cementing Your Story webinar - 10am - 11:30am, Tuesday 4 December 2020 - sign up here

 
In each webinar, we will be joined by an eminent high growth Female Founders Forum member, an expert speaker and hear insights from Juliet Rogan, Head of Barclays HG&E team. 

If you are interested in attending a specific webinar, please contact jess@tenentrepreneurs.org and we will add you to the invitation list.

Launch of Barclays’ first ‘Investing in Women Code’ commitment 
Barclays is taking action to close the entrepreneurship gender gap, through a series of measures designed to boost the resources and financial support available to female founders. The first in a series of three-year commitments, launched last week, will see the next generation of female founders supported through the bank’s LifeSkills programme, helping them turn their plans into action.  Hannah Bernard, Head of Barclays Business Banking, explains how the bank is backing women in business. You can read more about the launch of this first commitment here.

Eagle Labs Virtual Events
Barclays’ programme of virtual events covers a range of topics from cashflow management to building resilience to help entrepreneurs and start-ups navigate these uncertain times. Forthcoming events include a session on thinking differently about social media marketing and an event to demystify AI, machine learning, and machine intelligence. All events are free to attend and open to anyone. For more information visit the Eagle Lab event page.

Barclays Coronavirus Support Hub
The Barclays COVID-19 Support Hub provides the latest information, tools, and guidance to support businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays’ products, webinars, Facebook Live events, and more information on how to access government schemes. You can also download Barclays’ coronavirus checklist to support your business resilience planning throughout this period. There is also an updated FAQ section on this hub.

We want to inspire female entrepreneurs across the UK. Do you know any inspiring female entrepreneurs? If so, please connect them directly to me at jess@tenentrepeneurs.org.

Building Back Better

The Women’s Enterprise Policy Group (WEPG) has made fresh calls for more gender-responsive policy to address gaps identified in COVID-19 enterprise support schemes. In this blog, we cover the new report, insights from our inspiring Members, and updated guidance on the government’s support schemes. 

Female Founder Highlights

Here is a quick wrap up of this week’s news highlights, featuring some of our inspiring Members:

• A new report from the Women’s Enterprise Policy Group (WEPG) has warned of a “catastrophic economic impact” if government policy fails to support women’s enterprise. The group is urging the Chancellor to bring them to the policy table to help shape policy that ‘Builds Back Better’ for women entrepreneurs, for the economy, and for society. Roseann Kelly MBE, CEO of Women in Business NI said the study outlines how current policies have failed to reflect the extra challenges female entrepreneurs face from childcare, gender bias to access finance. Read the full article here.

• TechRound interviewed our Member, Tugce Bulut about the challenges she has faced as she grows Streetbees and her thoughts on being a Female Founder in 2020. “There is no such thing as ‘female’ or ’male’ entrepreneur, you are simply an entrepreneur but the reality is that there’s still a distinct lack of diversity among c-level positions in business, particularly tech.” You can read the full article here.

• BBC covered its most memorable interviews over the years for its CEO Secrets series, including their interview with Female Founders Forum Member and Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts where she revealed crushing feedback from early potential investors who told her “she didn’t look the part.” Read more stories about finding resilience here.

• Harriett Baldwin, MP for West Worcestershire and our Member has urged people to treat themselves to a meal out in support of the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ campaign for the hospitality industry. Harriett said, “hospitality is one of the industries that will need extra support as we try to protect as many jobs as possible.” Read the full article here.

Government Support

Grants for businesses completing customs declarations
Businesses can apply for 3 grants to help their business complete customs declarations. They can apply for funding for:

• Training that helps a business to complete customs declarations and processes;

• Hiring new staff to help their business complete customs declarations; and

• IT improvements to help their business complete customs declarations more efficiently.

You can find out more information about the scheme, eligibility criteria, and how to apply here.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and overtime work
The government has published updated guidance on calculating how much employees can claim under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme for fixed employees who have worked enough overtime (in the tax year 2019 to 2020) to have a significant impact on the amount they need to claim.

Barclays Support and Opportunities

Female Founders Forum 2020 Digital Events
We are pleased to announce that Alexandra Daly, founder of AA Advisors and Julia Elliott Brown, founder of Enter The Arena will be joining our first webinar on Access to Finance on Thursday, 3 September 2020 from 10 am - 11:30 am. You can sign up for the event here.
 
As we mentioned in last week’s Newsletter, we will be running additional webinars in this series over the coming months, including:

• Attracting & Retaining Talent webinar: 10 am - 11:30 am, Thursday 8 October 2020

• Building Personal & Operational Business Resilience webinar: 10 am - 11:30 am, Thursday 5 November 2020

• Cementing Your Story webinar: 10 am - 11:30 am, Tuesday 4 December 2020

In each webinar, we will be joined by two eminent high growth Female Founders Forum members, an expert speaker, and hear insights from Juliet Rogan, head of Barclays High Growth & Entrepreneurs team. 
 
If you are interested in attending a specific webinar, please contact jess@tenentrepreneurs.org and we will add you to the invitation list.

Barclays Boosting Female Entrepreneurship Facebook Live event
Join Hannah Bernard, Head of Business Banking as she announces Barclays’ commitments to support female entrepreneurs through COVID-19 and beyond. Hannah will be joined by a panel of experts, including Barclays' long-standing LifeSkills ambassador Baroness Karren Brady CBE, as they offer their top business tips, discuss their own experiences and highlight why it’s so important to develop the next generation of female entrepreneurs whilst supporting the founders of today. Tune in on Wednesday 26 August, 10:00 – 11:00 to our Facebook Live to hear more.  

Eagle Labs Virtual Events
Barclays’ programme of virtual events covers a range of topics from cashflow management to building resilience to help entrepreneurs and start-ups navigate these uncertain times. Forthcoming events include a session on thinking differently about social media marketing and an event to demystify AI, machine learning, and machine intelligence. All events are free to attend and open to anyone. For more information visit the Eagle Lab event page.

Barclays Coronavirus Support Hub
The Barclays COVID-19 Support Hub provides the latest information, tools, and guidance to support businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays’ products, webinars, Facebook Live events, and more information on how to access government schemes. You can also download Barclays’ coronavirus checklist to support your business resilience planning throughout this period. There is also an updated FAQ section on this hub.

We want to inspire female entrepreneurs across the UK. Do you know any inspiring female entrepreneurs?

If so, please connect them directly to me at jess@tenentrepeneurs.org.

We will be sending through our Newsletter every two weeks. If you share content with the hashtag #femalefoundersforum, we will retweet you or repost it.

Supporting Female Founders Through COVID-19 And Beyond

As lockdown restrictions begin to ease for businesses, the Treasury is starting to think about how public finances can be put back on a sustainable footing. In this week’s blog, we cover the proposal for an online sales tax, a new study into childcare issues during lockdown, and share the latest updated COVID-19 guidance from the Government.

Female Founder Highlights

Here is a quick wrap up of this week’s news highlights, featuring some of our inspiring Members:

• A new study suggests that 1 in 4 parents have considered giving up work or reducing their hours due to childcare issues during lockdown. Commenting on the study, Justine Roberts, founder of Mumsnet and Female Founders Forum Member, said “lockdown was tricky for nearly everyone, but for parents of young children it was nerve-shreddingly difficult”. You can read the full NewsChain article here.

• Laura Tenison, our Member and founder of JoJo Maman Bébé, a leading boutique mother’s and baby omni-channel retailer, appeared on the Today programme to discuss the prospect of an online sales tax, like the one reported to have been proposed by the Treasury. In an Express article, Laura is quoted as saying “I think it's a great idea, but with some caveats”. You can read the full article here.

• Anne Boden, founder of Starling Bank and our Member, shared her views on the resilience of Wales’ tech sector in a roundtable discussion, supported by the Welsh Government. In a Business News Wales article, Anne said “we are now working very effectively remotely… I think there’s a chance for Wales to grab some of that opportunity from London”. You can read the full article here.

• Cofinitive, a corporate communications consultancy founded by Female Founders Forum Member Faye Holland has signed up as a Local Business Champion for Cambridgeshire. In a Cambridge Wireless article, Faye said “it’s never been more essential for businesses to have a voice, so it is important for us to be seen as a Local Champion”. Our virtual scale-up hubs are launching soon. For more information about our regional scale-up hubs, see our Barclays Opportunities section. 

Government Support

1. Small Business Leadership Scheme and Peer Networks

Small Business Minister, Paul Scully MP has announced two new training schemes designed to improve small businesses' management, productivity, and problem-solving skills. The two schemes are:

• Small Business Leadership Scheme - a 10-week virtual training programme delivered by university business schools; and 

• Peer Networks - a peer-to-peer networking programme for SMEs that is delivered locally by the network of Growth Hubs across England.

We covered the launch in our recent policy update.

2. Job Retention Bonus

The Government is planning to introduce a new Job Retention Bonus to provide additional support to employers who keep their furloughed employees in meaningful employment, after the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ends on 31 October 2020. 

The Job Retention Bonus is a one-off payment to employers of £1,000 for each employee they have previously claimed for under the scheme and who remains continuously employed through to 31 January 2021. Find out more about the eligibility criteria and more information about the Job Retention Bonus here.

3. Reporting outbreaks of COVID-19

The Government has released new guidance for businesses and organisations on how to recognise, contain and report incidents of COVID-19. The guidance has been published to ensure business owners:

• Know how to recognise and report an incident of COVID-19

• Are aware of measures local health protection teams may advise in order to contain it

Action cards have been developed to cover a range of business industries and provide tailored advice on the issues organisations may face now that lockdown restrictions are easing. You can download and print the action cards here.

4. Eat Out to Help Out Scheme

The UK Government has published new guidance for participating restaurants on how to claim reimbursement for discounts given to diners with the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme. Businesses can offer discounts through the Scheme to encourage diners to eat at their establishments. You can see examples of how to calculate the discount here. You can also register your business here. Registration will close on 31 August 2020.

Barclays Support and Opportunities

1. Female Founders Forum 2020 Digital Events

As you know, we have been busy re-invigorating our 2020 Female Founders Forum event schedule. We are pleased to announce the topics of our upcoming webinar series to support female founders through the UK’s economic recovery. Save these dates in your diaries:

• Access to Finance Webinar – exploring the barriers that Female Founders face when accessing finance and how policymakers and business leaders can address this as part of the UK’s economic recovery (10am - 11:30am, Thursday 3 September 2020)

• Attracting & Retaining Talent Webinar – fostering a strong culture to attract and retain talent isn’t new but we explore why it has never been more critical as the UK enters into the post-COVID world (10am - 11:30am, Thursday 8 October 2020)

• Building Personal & Operational Business Resilience Webinar – as the UK enters into a sustained period of uncertainty in the post-COVID world, we explore the importance of personal and operational business resilience (10am - 11:30am, Thursday 5 November 2020

• Cementing Your Story Webinar – exploring how brand narrative and entrepreneurial storytelling has evolved during COVID-19 and what approach entrepreneurs should take to building long-term prominence in the minds of consumers and investors (10am - 11:30am, Tuesday 4 December 2020

In each webinar, we will be joined by an eminent high growth Female Founders Forum member, an expert speaker and hear insights from Juliet Rogan, head of Barclays High Growth & Entrepreneurs team. 
 
We will be adding invitation links to our upcoming webinars in our Newsletters, so look out for these. If you are interested in attending a specific webinar, please contact jess@tenentrepreneurs.org and we will add you to the invitation list.
 
2. Eagle Labs Virtual Events

Barclays’ programme of virtual events covers a range of topics from cashflow management to building resilience to help entrepreneurs and start-ups navigate these uncertain times. Forthcoming events include a session on thinking differently about social media marketing and an event to demystify AI, machine learning, and machine intelligence. All events are free to attend and open to anyone. For more information visit the Eagle Lab event page.

3. Barclays Coronavirus Support Hub

The Barclays COVID-19 Support Hub provides the latest information, tools, and guidance to support businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays’ products, webinars, Facebook Live events, and more information on how to access government schemes. You can also download Barclays’ coronavirus checklist to support your business resilience planning throughout this period. There is also an updated FAQ section on this hub.

4. Balancing the Books Facebook Live event

With businesses adjusting to the ‘new normal’, Barclays hosted a panel event to discuss what the knock-on effect could look like for businesses and customers alike and what support is available to mitigate the challenges that lie ahead. Calling on an expert panel, panelists discussed the management of cash flow, the impact this could have on the supply chain processes, and how to diminish late payments.  You can watch a recording of this Facebook Live event to learn more. 

We want to inspire female entrepreneurs across the UK. Do you know any inspiring female entrepreneurs

Connect them to jess@tenentrepeneurs.org.

The Most Influential Women In UK Tech

Who are the most influential women in the UK tech industry? Computer Weekly has released its shortlist and unsurprisingly, it features many of our Members. In this week’s blog, we cover Computer Weekly’s 2020 Longlist of Influential Women in UK Tech, the Government’s plans to lift restrictions on businesses and updates to the Government's COVID-19 support schemes.

FEMALE FOUNDER HIGHLIGHTS

Here is a quick wrap up of this week’s news highlights, featuring some of our inspiring Members:

• Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Women in UK Tech: The 2020 Longlist has been released. Unsurprisingly, several of our Members have been shortlisted including Alex Depledge, Anne Boden, Debbie Wosskow, Emma Sinclair, Erika Brodnock, Faye Holland, June Angelides, Justine Roberts, Marta Krupinska, Tamara Lohan, Tania Boler, and Tugce Bulut

• Our Member, Marta Krupińska hosted a Google for Startups UK session showcasing 10 innovative tech startups from across the UK. Marta was joined by public and private investors who spoke about the challenges and opportunities that building startups all around the UK can offer. You can watch the full session here

• A new study by Streetbees, co-founded by our FFF Member Tugce Bulut uncovers what the British public really thinks about social distancing. You can read the article written by Tugce here

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

1. Lifting restrictions for businesses in the UK

The Government has outlined a plan to lift restrictions from 1 August, if the virus remains around or below current levels and COVID-19 Secure guidelines are followed by businesses and the public. The Government plans to:

• Reopen most remaining leisure settings including bowling, skating rinks and casinos

• Give employers more discretion on how they ensure employees can work safely 

• Enable the restart of indoor performances to live audiences, pending the success of pilots

• Enable all close contact services to resume including make-up application

• Carry out pilots in venues with a range of crowd sizes including sport and business events

• Enable wedding receptions with sit down meals for up to 30 people

• Reopen schools, nurseries, and colleges for all children and young people

2. Face coverings at work

In last week’s blog, The Entrepreneurs Network covered how the mask mandate will help the UK’s high street. The Government has published guidance on face covering, the role in reducing transmission of COVID-19, and how they should be safely used and stored. This may be relevant to your business and you can read it here.

3. Eat Out to Help Out Scheme

Restaurants and other eligible establishments serving food for on-premises consumption can register for the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme. In order to be eligible, the establishment should:

• Sell food for immediate consumption on the premises

• Provide its own dining area or share a dining area with another establishment

• Have registered as a food business with the relevant local authority on or before 7 July 2020

Establishments who are taking part in the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme can use posters, images, and other promotional material here. Registration will close on 31 August 2020.
 
BARCLAYS SUPPORT AND OPPORTUNITIES
 
1. Female Founders Forum 2020 Digital Events
 
In light of COVID-19, we have been busily re-invigorating our 2020 Female Founders Forum event schedule. This year, we will be hosting a series of Webinars on key policy issues pertinent to our female founders to help support them through COVID-19 and beyond. 
 
We are creating 7 virtual scale-up hubs for regions across the UK, including Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Cardiff, Southampton and Edinburgh. The virtual scale-up hubs will bring together aspiring and established female founders through inspiring and engaging stories and content. 
 
We will keep you informed about the scale-up hubs and Webinars in our Newsletters. 
 
2. Barclays Coronavirus Support Hub

The Barclays COVID-19 Support Hub provides the latest information, tools, and guidance to support businesses throughout the coronavirus pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays’ products, webinars, Facebook Live events, and more information on how to access government schemes. You can also download Barclays’ COVID-19 checklist to support your business resilience planning throughout this period. There is also an updated FAQ section on this hub.

3. Balancing the Books Facebook Live event

With businesses adjusting to the ‘new normal’, Barclays hosted a panel event to discuss what the knock-on effect could look like for businesses and customers alike and what support is available to mitigate the challenges that lie ahead. Calling on an expert panel, panelists discussed the management of cash flow, the impact this could have on the supply chain processes, and how to diminish late payments.  You can watch a recording of this Facebook Live event to learn more. 

4. Eagle Labs Virtual Events

Barclays’ programme of virtual events covers a range of topics from cashflow management to building resilience to help entrepreneurs and start-ups navigate these uncertain times. Forthcoming events include a session on thinking differently about social media marketing and an event to demystify AI, machine learning, and machine intelligence. All events are free to attend and open to anyone. For more information visit the Eagle Lab event page.

Female Enterprise In Our New Economy

The Government has laid out a suite of policies to support the UK’s female entrepreneurs. We covered the Government’s efforts to support diversity in our blog last week. While the Future Fund’s diversity data is a step in the right direction, it is clear that there is still work to be done. In this week’s blog, we cover the launch of a new Female Ventures Fund, updates to the Government support schemes on offer, and highlights from our Members.

FEMALE FOUNDER HIGHLIGHTS

Here is a quick wrap up of this week’s news highlights, featuring some of our inspiring Members:

• The Women’s Enterprise Policy Group (WEPG), which represents leading experts and academic leaders across the UK, is urging the Chancellor to give women’s enterprise a voice and a seat at the policy table. In a Bdaily article Prof Julia Rouse, co-chair of the WEPG is quoted as having said “developing gender-responsive policy for women requires our expertise - we can help analyse how COVID-19 is impacting women-led businesses, monitor policy impact and help shape and implement policies that work for women”.

• Alternative investment fund manager Innvotec has launched a new fund to invest exclusively in female-founded enterprises. The Female Ventures Fund (FVF) is to invest in early-stage businesses founded or co-founded by women. The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) fund will also look to encourage more women into the venture capital space.

• Julia Elliott Brown, our Member, and founder of Enter the Arena is running a series of podcast interviews with inspiring female entrepreneurs sharing their honest stories on equity fundraising. You can listen to the podcast series here.

• June Angelides, our Member and founder of Mums in Tech, has been named in Forbes list of 25 Leading Black British Business People To Follow. You can follow June on Twitter here.

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

1. Summer Economic Update - Plan for Jobs 2020

The Chancellor presented his 'Plan for Jobs' to Parliament to outline how the government will boost job creation. 

The plan includes: 

• A Job Retention Bonus that will be introduced to help firms keep furloughed workers;

• A new £2 billion Kickstart Scheme of new, fully subsidised jobs for young people across the UK;

• A total of £1.6 billion invested in scaling up employment support schemes, training and apprenticeships to help people looking for a job;

• Bringing forward work on £8.8 billion of new infrastructure, decarbonisation and maintenance projects;

• A temporary increase to the Nil Rate Band of Residential SDLT (Stamp Duty) from £125,000 to £500,000;

• The rate of VAT applied on most tourism and hospitality-related activities will be cut from 20% to 5%; and

• A new Eat Out to Help Out discount to encourage people to safely return to earing out at restaurants.

Laura Tenison, our Member and founder of Jojo Maman Bebe spoke to News 24 about the Chancellor's Summer Economic Update, welcoming the meal reduction plan. "The best thing for me is the midday meal because we desperately want people out of their homes with any PPE who wish to wear and enter our stores."

2. Launch of the Sustainable Innovation Fund

The Government has launched a £200 million package to help innovative businesses bounce back from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and keep their cutting-edge projects and ideas alive. The Sustainable Innovation Fund will help power the UK’s economic recovery and develop new sustainable opportunities for businesses while also helping the UK to meet its ambitions to cut carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050. 

Businesses can apply for support through the Sustainable Innovation Fund here and find out more about the package here. 

3. More start-up and innovative firms will be eligible to apply for the Future Fund

The Future Fund’s eligibility criteria have been changed. UK companies who have participated in highly selective accelerator programmes and were required, as part of that programme, to have parent companies outside of the UK will now be able to apply for the Future Fund. Find out more here. 

4. Support for university research and innovation

The Government has announced 2 new packages to support research jobs and ground-breaking projects impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. A new research funding scheme will open in Autumn to cover up to 80% of a university’s income losses from a decline in international students and around £280 million in funding will be made available to enable universities to continue their cutting edge research. Find out more here. 

 BARCLAYS SUPPORT AND OPPORTUNITIES
 
1. Female Founders Forum 2020 Digital Events
 
In light of COVID-19, we have been busily re-invigorating our 2020 Female Founders Forum event schedule. This year, we will be hosting a series of Webinars on key policy issues pertinent to our female founders to help support them through COVID-19 and beyond. 
 
We are creating 7 virtual scale-up hubs for regions across the UK, including Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Cardiff, Southampton and Edinburgh. The virtual scale-up hubs will bring together aspiring and established female founders through inspiring and engaging stories and content. 
 
We will keep you informed about the scale-up hubs and Webinars in our Newsletters. If you know any inspiring female founders in these regions, send them through to jess@tenentrepreneurs.org.

 2. Virtual Event – with Nicky Goulimis (co-founder and COO of Nova Credit)

Nicky Goulimis, the Co-Founder and COO of Nova Credit will be joining Juliet Rogan, Head of Barclays High Growth and Entrepreneurs, for an informative discussion on how to rapidly scale and expand your business. In this session on Thursday 9 July at 5 pm, you’ll find out how Nova Credit went from light-bulb moment to a $50m Series B funding round, and learn more about Nicky’s experiences as a successful female founder. To sign up for this event, please register here.

3. Barclays Back to Business Programme
 
Barclays has launched a free toolkit to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the UK get back on their feet as they navigate the uncertainty created by COVID-19. The ‘Barclays Back to Business’ programme has been designed in partnership with the Cambridge Judge Business School and is open to all UK SMEs. The toolkit is designed to help business owners assess the overall health of their business, and create a tailored resilience plan for challenging periods. It is packed with practical tools including a working capital calculator, cash flow forecasts, and guidance on managing supply chain relationships.
 
Register your interest here. Cambridge Judge Business School will get in touch to confirm your place on the programme, including how to access the online platform, which launches on 22 June 2020. For more information, check out Barclays Back to Business Programme.

 4. Barclays Coronavirus Support Hub

The Barclays coronavirus support hub provides the latest information, tools, and guidance to support businesses throughout the coronavirus pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays’ products, webinars, Facebook live events, and more information on how to access Government schemes. You can also download Barclays’ coronavirus checklist to support your business resilience planning throughout this period. There is also an updated FAQ section on this hub.

Diversity and the Future Fund

Back in April 2020, Emma Sinclair MBE, one of our Female Founders and Hephzi Pemberton started a petition calling on the HM Treasury to align the Future Fund with the diversity agenda. In their open letter to Rishi Sunak, they raised some serious concerns that the Future Fund could exacerbate existing inequalities for the UK’s diverse founders. Namely, that diverse founders are less likely to have raised at least £250k of funding already, less likely to have ‘warm introductions’ and therefore less likely to have access to the Future Fund. 

In an article for Sifted, John Glen MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, signalled his commitment to ensuring the Future Fund did not only benefit established, male-dominated, London-based businesses. He said that the Fund would support female founders by becoming a signatory of the Government’s Investing in Women Code and provide monthly reporting on the diversity of recipients, including regional spread. 

The British Business Bank has published its first set of data on the 252 companies who have been approved for matched-funding from the Future Fund.

So did the government’s efforts to support diversity work?

On a positive note, 79% of funding went to companies with mixed gender management teams. However, if we look at the data for all-women management teams, just 3 have received funding out of the total 252. By contrast, 66 all-male management teams received funding. 

As Amy Lewin noted in her Sifted article on the Future Fund’s first set of diversity data, it is worth mentioning that the data applies to the ‘senior management team’ - not just founders. By contrast, when we track the equity funding gap, we only focus on startups with female founders. This means that the headline statistics are slightly more favourable for the government.  

When it comes to ethnicity, 113 teams were of mixed ethnicity, 109 were all-white teams and only 12 were all-BAME. 

On the diversity of the fund, Deborah Okenla, founder of YSYS said to Amy Lewin in her Sifted article that “it’s a positive start to see The Treasury commit to collecting and publishing the data. We can see from the data that we still have a long way to go. And we need to understand what the data shows for specific groups, such as black founders within the BAME categorisation, and move beyond binary gender.”

The Extend Ventures and YSYS Report on the impact of COVID-19 on Diverse Founders Startups revealed that almost half (48%) of BAME business owners did not expect to access or qualify for any government support schemes.

In our latest FFF Newsletter, we covered Erika Brodnock’s thoughts. Erika is co-founder of Extend Ventures and one of our Female Founders. Speaking to Amy Lewin from Sifted, Erika said “For too long, minority entrepreneurs have remained unsupported and have needed to ‘fend for themselves’... we need to ensure this isn’t going to be the same for newer businesses”.

So how can we change the status quo? 

With support from Barclays, we are continuing in our efforts this year to provide female entrepreneurs with the support, advice and networks they need to succeed. We will be sending out invitations to our digital events in our FFF Newsletter, which you can sign up to here.

BAME entrepreneurship policy overlaps with some of our previous work on immigrant founders – and Sam Dumitriu has just written an excellent article making a powerful case for why we should let asylum seekers work – but, of course, it is also about British-born BAME entrepreneurs. 

With support from NatWest, we’re also putting together an APPG for Entrepreneurship Webinar on BAME entrepreneurship. You can register your interest by dropping us an email. We hope and expect that this will be the start of some more focused policy work.

Embracing Tech & Innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented many challenges for the UK’s female entrepreneurs but it has also created an opportunity to lean into new technologies. FFF Member, Rt Hon. Baroness Kramer stressed this point in our recent APPG Webinar on The Economy, Technology and Bouncing Back. So how is the Government investing in the opportunities that will underpin the UK’s future economy? We cover the latest policy updates and some new highlights from our inspiring Members in this week’s FFF blog.

FEMALE FOUNDER HIGHLIGHTS

Here is a quick wrap up of this week’s news highlights, featuring some of our inspiring Members:

• Erika Brodnock, was quoted in a Sifted article by Amy Lewin, talking about a new report by Extend Ventures and YSYS into the impact of COVID-19 on Black and Ethnic Minority-Led Businesses. “For too long, minority entrepreneurs have remained unsupported and have needed to fend for themselves” said Erika, “we need to ensure this isn’t going to be the same for newer businesses”. You can read the full report here. 

• Streetbees, founded by our Member Tugce Bulut, has been selected by the World Economic Forum as one of the most promising Technology Pioneers of 2020. Many of the Technology Pioneers are using their tech to support COVID-19 responses around the world, like Streetbees COVID-19 Return To Life Monitor.

• “The industry must navigate an ethical way through this crisis by providing support not only for businesses’ immediate teams but also international and developing world partners” said Laura Tenison, founder of Jojo Maman Bébé, in her article for Drapers. Laura also spoke with Marc Smith for Director earlier this year on her commitment to achieving B Corp status and the company’s dedication to putting people and the planet above profit.

• “It’s important that we don’t lose many of the start-ups that are out there because they are our future”. Read the highlights from our APPG Webinar with Rt Hon Baroness Kramer on The Economy, Technology and Bouncing Back here.

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

1. Future Fund Diversity Data Published

The British Business Bank has published data on the companies that have been approved to receive Convertible Loan Agreements since the Future Fund Scheme launched on 20 May.

The data reveals that 79% of funding went to companies with mixed gender management teams. Since the launch, more than 30 venture capital firms and angel groups have become signatories to the Government's Investing in Women Code, alongside the Future Fund. Read the full press release here.

Priya Guha, venture parter at Merian Ventures said in a Sifted article that “Whilst the self-reported stats for management teams are encouraging, using this as the measure for diversity data could be misleading. I would encourage the British Business Bank to publish the figures showing the percentage of BAME and female founders who were successful which will give a truer picture of the the diversity of the Future Fund”.

2. Future Tech Trade Strategy launch

In a recent headline policy announcement, Rt Hon. Liz Truss MP, Minister for Women and Equalities and Secretary of State for International Trade, launched the Future Tech Trade Strategy.

The strategy includes a package of interventions to attract more investment from around the world into the UK tech sector. Among the other measures, it includes:

• A Digital Trade Network (DTN) for Asia-Pacific, to help support UK SMEs break into the Asian market;

• The launch of a new Tech Exporting Academy, which will provide expert advice to UK scaleups;

• A new DIT platform (think virtual trade shows); and

• Creation of 25 tech export champions across the UK.

Diversity is at the forefront of this agenda. In order to help make the UK’s FinTech ecosystem more diverse and bring more female tech entrepreneurs to the UK, the DIT launched it’s Women in FinTech Global Initiative. You can find out more about this initiative here. 

3. Re-opening your business safely during COVID-19

The Government has developed a tool to help businesses in England reopen safely during COVID-19. This tool is designed to help business owners carry out a risk assessment and make adjustments to their workplace. Find out more here. 

4. Code of practice for the commercial property sector and further halt to business evictions

The Government has published a new code of practice to encourage landlords and commercial tenants to map out a plan for economic recovery. The code has been developed with leaders from the retail, hospitality and property sectors to provide clarity for businesses discussing rental repayments with their landlords and to encourage best practice. You can read the code of practice here.

The Coronavirus Act has also been extended to 30 September 2020, meaning businesses who miss a payment in the next three months will not be forced out of their premises. 
 
BARCLAYS SUPPORT AND OPPORTUNITIES

1. Barclays Entrepreneur Awards – now open for nominations!

The Barclays Entrepreneur Awards are back for the fifth year running and whilst the start to 2020 has been a difficult time for all, it's given us even more reason to celebrate entrepreneurs and recognise their achievements. So often it's their exceptional innovation alongside their drive for social change and to overcome challenges that keep the country moving forward. 

To find further information on the awards itself, please visit our website here and you can find further details on the award criteria and categories directly on our nomination website. Submit your nomination by Friday 3 July.

2. Virtual Event – with Nicky Goulimis (co-founder and COO of Nova Credit)

Nicky Goulimis, the Co-Founder and COO of Nova Credit will be joining Juliet Rogan, Head of Barclays High Growth and Entrepreneurs, for an informative discussion on how to rapidly scale and expand your business. In this session on Thursday 9 July at 5pm, you’ll find out how Nova Credit went from light-bulb moment to a $50m Series B funding round, and learn more about Nicky’s experiences as a successful female founder. To sign up for this event, please register here.

3. Barclays Coronavirus Support Hub

The Barclays coronavirus support hub provides the latest information, tools and guidance to support businesses throughout the coronavirus pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays’ products, webinars, Facebook live events and more information on how to access the government schemes. You can also download Barclays’ coronavirus checklist to support your business resilience planning throughout this period. There is also an updated FAQs section on this hub.

4. Barclays Ventures Female Founder Events

Barclays Ventures has stayed committed to supporting the start-up ecosystem during the COVID-19 crisis and has delivered a variety of measures to support female founders. From roundtable catch-ups to live panel sessions with Barclays Business Bank to discuss financing options through COVID-19, the passion with which Barclays Ventures supports tech startups remains steadfast. Check out future events across Barclays Ventures here.

5. Barclays UK Investment Insights Podcast : A high growth digital future

Listen to Juliet Rogan, Barclays Head of High Growth & Entrepreneurs talking to Phil Attreed (Barclays Head of Investment Consulting) and Will Hobbs (Barclays Chief Investment Officer) about the pandemic, Brexit and current trade tensions, as well as the accelerating the transition to the UK’s digital future. You can find the podcast here.

We want to inspire female entrepreneurs across the UK. Do you know any inspiring female entrepreneurs? 

Connect them to jess@tenentrepeneurs.org and sign up to our Newsletter, which we send out every two weeks.

If you share content with the hashtag #femalefoundersforum, we will retweet you or repost it.

Bouncing Back

This week, the Government has focused its attentions on the initiatives that will help the UK economy to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic. In this week’s blog, we cover updates to the Government support schemes, the launch of recovery roundtables to unleash the UK’s growth potential and news highlights featuring some of our inspiring Members. 

FEMALE FOUNDER HIGHLIGHTS

Here is a quick wrap up of this week’s news highlights, featuring some of our inspiring Members and other female founders from the network:

• Mr & Mrs Smith, founded by our Member Tamara Lohan, has launched a crowd-funder to raise money for a night off for NHS and care home workers. The initiative is aimed at giving 1000 NHS workers a night at one of their hotels. To find out more and donate to the crowd-funder, click here. If you are an NHS or care home worker, you can apply for a free stay here. 

• Founder of Enterprise Alumni and our Member, Emma Sinclair has started #FounderHour with three guests joining each session.You can register for a #FounderHour Webinar here.

• June Angelides, founder of Mums in Tech spoke with Danielle Newhnan about lockdown life in London and the opportunities coming out of the coronavirus pandemic – “there has never been more accelerated innovation”. You can read the full interview here at Medium.

• Cofinitive, founded by our Member, Faye Holland, ran its #21toWatch Campaign and Awards this week. The campaign is run each year to showcase and highlight individuals and companies across Cambridge and the East of England who are setting the standards in innovation and entrepreneurship. 

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

1. Self-Employment Income Support Scheme extended

The Government has announced a final lifeline for the self-employed. Those eligible for support under the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will be able to claim a second and final grant in August 2020. The grant will be worth 70% of average monthly trading profits, covering three months’ worth of profits and capped at £6,570. For an update on the Scheme, check out our policy update.

2. Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme extended

The Government has explained how it intends to continue to support jobs as people begin to return to work. From 1 July 2020, businesses will be given the flexibility to bring employees on furlough back to work part time. In June and July the Government will continue paying 80% of furloughed wages, up to £2,500. From 1 August 2020, the payments will be tapered to reflect the fact that people will be returning to work as follows:

• August 2020 – employers will be asked to pay NI and employer pension contributions

• September 2020 – contributions will drop to 70%, with employers paying 10%

• October 2020 – contributions will drop to 60% with employers paying 20%

The scheme will shut in October/November. For more information, check our policy updates and our Twitter updates.

3. Business Secretary launches recovery roundtables

The Government has announced the launch of 5 new business-focused groups to unleash Britain’s growth potential and create new jobs. This is part of the Government’s plan to help the economy bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic. 

The ‘recovery roundtables’ will bring together businesses, business representative groups and leading academics to consider measures to support economic recovery. The roundtables will focus on 5 key themes: the future of industry, green recovery, backing new business, increasing opportunity and opening the UK for business. 

BARCLAYS SUPPORT AND OPPORTUNITIES

1. Barclays Back to Business Programme

Barclays has launched a free toolkit to help small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across the UK get back on their feet as they navigate the uncertainty created by coronavirus. The 'Barclays Back to Business' programme has been designed in partnership with the Cambridge Judge Business School and is open to all UK SMEs. The toolkit is designed to help business owners assess the overall health of their business, and create a tailored resilience plan for challenging periods. It is packed with practical tools including a working capital calculator, cash flow forecasts, and guidance on managing supply chain relationships.
 
Register your interest here. Cambridge Judge Business School will get in touch to confirm your place on the programme, including how to access the online platform, which launches on 22 June 2020. For more information, check out Barclays Back to Business Programme.

2. Barclays Entrepreneur Awards – now open for nominations!
 
The Barclays Entrepreneur Awards are back for the fifth year running and whilst the start to 2020 has been a difficult time for all, it's given us even more reason to celebrate entrepreneurs and recognise their achievements. So often it's their exceptional innovation alongside their drive for social change and to overcome challenges that keep the country moving forward.
 
To find further information on the awards itself, please visit our website here and you can find further details on the award criteria’s and categories directly on our nomination website. Submit you nomination by Friday 3 July.

3. Virtual Event – with Nicky Goulimis (co-founder and COO of Nova Credit)

Nicky Goulimis, the Co-Founder and COO of Nova Credit will be joining Juliet Rogan, Head of Barclays High Growth and Entrepreneurs, for an informative discussion on  how to rapidly scale and expand your business. In this session on Thursday 9 July at 5pm, you’ll find out how Nova Credit went from light bulb moment to a $50m Series B funding round and learn more about Nicky’s experiences as a successful female founder. To sign up for this event, please register here.

4. Barclays Coronavirus Support Hub

The Barclays coronavirus support hub provides the latest information, tools and guidance to support businesses throughout the coronavirus pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays’ products, webinars, Facebook live events and more information on how to access the government schemes. You can also download Barclays’ coronavirus checklist to support your business resilience planning throughout this period. There is also an updated FAQs section on this hub.

We want to inspire female entrepreneurs across the UK. Do you know any inspiring female entrepreneurs? 

Connect them to jess@tenentrepeneurs.org and sign up to our Newsletter, which we send out every two weeks.

If you share content with the hashtag #femalefoundersforum, we will retweet you or repost it.

Getting Back To Business

This week, our Female Founders have been at the forefront of a number of amazing initiatives, from developing new apps which track the social impact of the COVID-19 crisis, to sharing stories about mental health, in the hope that it will help others. It’s inspiring to see our Female Founders banding together in uncertain times and championing inclusive and diverse innovation. 

In this week’s FFF Newsletter, we cover the latest policy updates you should know about and share practical guidance to help you stay resilient in these uncertain times.  

UK GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

1. Innovative Businesses and Start-ups competition

The UK Government announced an additional £40 million funding package to support the UK’s next generation of innovative businesses, doubling their investment in the Fast Start Competition. The competition aims to fast-track the development of innovations, borne out of the coronavirus crisis and support the next generation of UK cutting-edge start-ups. 

2. Future Fund goes live

The Future Fund scheme went live last week and has opened for applications. Following the Save Our Startups campaign, the Government announced the Future Fund, a matched convertible loan scheme for startups looking to raise between £250k and £10m.

In last week’s Newsletter, we covered the open letter written by Emma Sinclair and Hephzi Pemberton, urging the Chancellor to set an “aspirational target” for backing diverse founders. Signatories included our Female Founders, Sam Smith, Tamara Lohan and Kathryn Parsons. 

The British Business Bank published new guidance ahead of the launch. You can read the FAQ here. For an update on the Future Fund, you can check out our policy update.

3. Updated Guidance: Holiday Entitlement and pay during Coronavirus

The UK Government has published new guidance on how holiday entitlement and pay will operate during the coronavirus pandemic. It is designed to help employers understand their legal obligations, in terms of workers who continue to work and have been placed on furlough, as part of the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). You can contact the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) if you have further questions. 

4. Updated Guidance: Statutory Sick Pay

The UK Government has published new guidance on how to claim back Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) paid to employees affected by coronavirus. The online service went live on 26 May 2020. The Coronavirus SSP Rebate Scheme will repay employers the SSP paid to current and former employees. The repayment will cover up to 2 weeks starting from the qualifying day of sickness.

5. Updated Guidance: National Cyber Security Centre advice for Sole Traders and SMEs 

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has launched advice and practical tips to help SMEs move their business online. The advice comes, as many SMEs have had to adapt their organisations to remote working environments. If you are self-employed or a sole trader, you can find useful advice here. If you are an SME, advice here may be useful.

BARCLAYS SUPPORT AND OPPORTUNITIES

1. Barclays Coronavirus Support Hub 

The Barclays coronavirus support hub provides the latest information, tools and guidance to support businesses throughout the coronavirus pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays’ products, webinars, Facebook live events and more information on how to access the government schemes. You can also download Barclays’ coronavirus checklist to support your business resilience planning throughout this period. There is also an updated FAQs section on the hub.

Barclays is also developing further digital content, including Q&A videos with our Members, which will go live on our new YouTube channel. We will update you via Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn when the Q&A videos go live.  

 2. Back to Business Live Broadcast

As lockdown is lifted and we all continue to adapt to the situations around us, Barclays is hosting a ‘Back to Business’ live broadcast as part of its wider Business Banking live streaming series on Thursday 28 May, 10:00 – 10:30.

Join the discussion on the Barclays Business Banking Facebook and LinkedIn channels where a panel of experts will be exploring the support currently available for businesses as well as the opportunities and challenges for SMEs during this time.

3. Barclays Back to Business Programme 

Your toolkit to build for tomorrow with the help of Barclays’ free online learning platform. Developed with Cambridge Judge Business School, the Barclays online programme is free for SMEs who are existing Barclays SME clients including Business Banking, Barclaycard Business, RISE and Eagle Labs tenants.

You’ll get practical frameworks to help you create a plan to sustain or grow your business during a period of uncertainty such as the current pandemic, downloadable workbooks, and you’ll be able to bounce ideas off a range of specialist from Barclays to finalise your plan at the end of the programme. 

Register your interest here from 28 May, and subject to availability, Cambridge Judge Business School will get in touch to confirm your place on the programme, including how to access the online platform, which launches on 22 June 2020. For more information Search ‘Barclays Back to Business Programme’

4. Barclays Eagle Lab headline RE-Defined

Barclays Eagle Labs are this year’s headline sponsors of RE-Defined. A virtual conference celebrating the successes and resilience of female founders and underrepresented women in business across the UK. Taking place on Friday 29 May the conference will include practical workshops, curated talks and a panel session featuring inspirational female founders and leading women in business. This is a ticket-only event – to secure your place click here.

5. Highlights from Barclays Ventures Panel

Barclays ran a Ventures Panel with two fabulous female founders – Michelle Kennedy, founder of Peanut and Amber Atherton, founder of Zypher. The panel ran on 14 May and covered actionable tips, how the founders have pivoted during the pandemic. It included inspiring stories of how they’ve done this whilst managing remote teams and battling with personal challenges.

FEMALE FOUNDER HIGHLIGHTS

Here is a quick wrap up of some of the news highlights, featuring our Female Founders. 

• Buddi, a company founded by our Member Sara Murray, has been selected by the UK Government to support the NHSX against COVID-19. Member June Angelides, founder of Mums in Technology, spoke to Squiggly Careers in their podcast 'Stories from the front line – managing my mental health'. 

• Our Member, Tugce Bulut, founder of Streetbees spoke with EU-Startups about how the current pandemic has impacted Streetbees. Streetbees has recently launched a COVID-19 Human Impact Tracker which is already being used by several consumer brands. Streetbees has also given free access to a number of non-profits including Amnesty International, the NHS and the London Mayor’s office

• Marta Krupinska, Head of Google Startup, Co-Founder of Azimo and one of our FFF Members, discussed with Spark how Google Startup, governments and NGO’s can partner to support entrepreneurs in the coronavirus crisis, so that we can come out of it stronger and more connected.

• Sam Smith, founder of FinnCap and an FFF member, wrote a letter in the Financial Times, making the case for better funding support for UK SMEs.

• Our Member, Annabel Karmel took part in Maternal Health Week, speaking about how she is dealing with lockdown and sharing her advice and tips for taking care of your mental health, during this crisis

• Last week, Liz Johnson, gold-medal winning Paralympian and Co-Founder of The Ability People, spoke to Dr Lisa Cameron MP and Kush Kanodia about the key issues impacting disabled entrepreneurs in the APPG for Entrepreneurship Webinar.

We want to inspire female entrepreneurs across the UK. Do you know any inspiring female entrepreneurs? 

Connect them to jess@tenentrepeneurs.org and sign up to our Newsletter, which we send out every two weeks.

If you share content with the hashtag #femalefoundersforum, we will retweet you or repost it.

Power of the Pack

There is power in the collective impact of women banding together to support one another. For many of our Female Founders, the pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges, making strong female networks more important then ever. In our Mentoring Matters report we talked about how mentoring increased not only knowledge and skills, but importantly self-confidence. 

Our Female Founders have channelled the power of collaboration and raised each other up. We are seeing digital events being offered which go beyond technical content and focus on mentorship, well-being and stress management. 

In this week’s newsletter, we cover the important policy updates you should know about, including the UK Government's recently revealed COVID-19 recovery plan. We also provide some updates on the opportunities available to our Female Founders. We finish with a wrap up of news highlights from this week.
 

UK GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
 

This week, we cover policy updates related to the Government Support schemes on offer and the Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy.  We would encourage you to check out the UK Government’s Coronavirus Business Support Hub for more information. Keep an eye out for our business resilience checklists, which we will be releasing in the coming weeks, for tailored support. 

1. COVID-19 Recovery Strategy

This week, the UK Government released its COVID-19 recovery strategy, setting out an indicative roadmap to “return life to as close to normal as possible, for as many people as possible, as fast and fairly as possible... in a way that avoids a new epidemic, minimises lives lost and maximises health, economic and social outcomes.”
 
The precise timetable for these adjustments will depend on the infection risk at each point, and the effectiveness of the Government’s mitigation measures like contact tracing. If you are interested in reading more about the three phases for reopening, check out our recent policy update.  

2. Top-Up Grant Funds Scheme

The UK Government has responded to concerns from SMEs who were not able to access the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF). The additional fund of £617 million is aimed at SMEs with ongoing fixed property-related costs. We covered this in our recent policy update.

Allocation of funding will be at the discretion of local authorities who have been asked to prioritise businesses in shared spaces, regular market traders, small charity properties that would meet the criteria for Small Business Rates Relief and B&Bs that pay council tax, rather than business rates. 

There will be three levels of grant payments:

1. £25,000 will be the maximum.
2. £10,000 grants will also be available.
3. Local authorities will have discretion to make payments of any amount under £10,000. (It will be for councils to adapt this approach to local circumstances.) 

You can check out more about the Top-Up Grants here and find your local authority here. 

3. Support for our Start-ups

In our previous newsletter, we covered the UK Government’s Future Fund, set up to support start-ups through coronavirus. The Future Fund will issue convertible loans of between £125,000 and £5 million to startups seeking bridge funding for working capital purposes. 

Our Member, Emma Sinclar, has written an open letter to Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, calling on the HM Treasury to align the Future Fund with the Diversity Agenda. As Emma highlights in her petition, with only 1% of VC funding going to Female Founders in 2019, they are less likely to have raised the £250k required to receive support. The open letter urges the Chancellor to set an “aspirational target” for backing diverse founders, to ensure that the Future Fund does not set back the Diversity Agenda. 

4. Job Retention Scheme 

The UK Government has extended the Job Retention Scheme for 4 months, until October. There will be no changes to the scheme until the end of July, whereby the government will pay 80% of furloughed workers’ wages up to £2,500 per month. From August, the scheme will continue for all sectors and regions, but with greater flexibility to enable companies to bring furloughed staff back on a part-time basis. Employers will need to share with HMT the cost of paying employees' salaries. 

5. Bounce Back Loans

The Bounce Back Loan scheme for small businesses launched last week. The Government is guaranteeing 100% of the loan and there won’t be any fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months. You can borrow between £2,000 to £50,000. Barclays has launched their Bounce Back Loan Scheme, for more details click here.

BARCLAYS SUPPORT AND OPPORTUNITIES
 

1. Female Founders Forum - 2020 Events

In our previous newsletter, we announced the regional roundtable Eagle Lab events which will be kicking off in September. The events will be run either digitally or physically, depending on the lockdown guidance. We received a great response from Female Founders in Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Southampton, Leeds and Newcastle.

If you know of any female leaders in these regions, we would like to hear from you/them. Please get in touch or pass on my details jess@tenentrepreneurs.org.

2. Barclays Coronavirus Support Hub 

The Barclays coronavirus support hub provides the latest information, tools and guidance to support businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This hub includes information about Barclays products, webinars, Facebook live events and more information on how to access the government schemes. 

You can also download Barclays’ coronavirus checklist to support your business resilience planning throughout this period. There is also an updated FAQs section on this hub , which provides the latest information for businesses. 

3. Barclays Eagle Lab headline RE-Defined

Barclays Eagle Labs are this year’s headline sponsors of RE-Defined. A virtual conference celebrating the successes and resilience of female founders and underrepresented women in business across the UK.

Taking place on Friday 29th May the conference will include practical workshops, curated talks and a panel session featuring inspirational female founders and leading women in business. This is a ticket-only event – to secure your place click here.

FEMALE FOUNDER HIGHLIGHTS

Here is a quick wrap up of some of the news highlights, featuring our Female Founders. 

• Our FFF Member, Tugce Bulut, founder of Streetbees, spoke to The Times this week, about how quickly her staff adapted to home working, explaining that she is now considering permanent changes: “I don’t think we’ll ever resume full-time office work,” she said. “It’s important for the culture we don’t give it up entirely, but things will change forever.

• In an open letter to AWS’s CEO, our member, Emma Sinclair, called on the company to give oxygen to start-ups and scale-ups right now, by extending additional credits. Emma believes that Amazon is in a position to make a dramatic impact on the Global tech community. By giving out free credits, Emma believes, this will give struggling small businesses more runway. If you are interested in reading the letter, you can see it here.

• In an effort to support the struggling hospitality sector, our new Regional Member, Julie Grieve, has announced free use of Criton’s hotel guest engagement platform until 2021. Julie said to Insider: "it’s been very hard watching the impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality sector and all of the fantastic people who work in it”. 

• Our Member, Julia Elliott Brown, has been running a series of online Masterclasses, including a free Masterclass on Raising Investment in Challenging Times. These Masterclasses are aimed at supporting small businesses through through coronavirus. Julia has also been offering personalised support to female entrepreneurs with Enter the Arena’s Fundraising Academy.

• In order to help business owners manage their money more effectively, Felicia Meyerowitz Singh, founder of Akoni is providing its cash marketplace and tools for free to SMEs. You can register here for free for access to market-leading interest rate accounts, cash planning tools and tips.

We want to inspire female entrepreneurs across the UK. Do you know any inspiring female entrepreneurs? 

Connect them to me at jess@tenentrepeneurs.org and sign up to our Newsletter, which we send out every two weeks.

If you share content with the hashtag #femalefoundersforum, we will retweet you or repost it.