That our enterprise support programmes attract a high proportion of women is no coincidence. Having been actively involved with women’s entrepreneurship for over five years, we’ve picked up and developed extensive expertise along the way.

Women’s engagement with mainstream business support services is notoriously low, but consistently strong gender representation across our programmes is a testament to the tailored support we provide.

First and foremost we do what it takes to overcome barriers to engagement to ensure that people can access the support they need to start a business or become self-employed. Our teams arrange weekend and evening workshops to accommodate family and work commitments, and we often schedule women-only sessions to enable women to participate freely in a relaxed and supportive environment. At Outset Torbay we recently launched weekend workshops, and the latest addition to our programme extends our tailored support through women-only sessions delivered twice weekly.

Where funding allows, we appoint an Enterprising Women representative within Outset to offer specialist support for women. As well as tailoring Outset to women and their distinct learning styles, motivations, barriers and needs, this extended support offers our female Outset clients one year’s free membership to the Enterprising Women network when they start a business.

Due to demand in Cornwall we’ve launched a local branch – Cornwall Enterprising Women and our latest appointment in our Outset Plymouth team will enhance our support for local women in Devon through a local branch opening there shortly.