Our commitment to empowering 200,000 female business owners by 2027

Our Women in Business content series

In February, we conducted a survey among our members across the UK, gathering nearly 2,000 responses**. The results revealed that more than half of women find it challenging to start their own business. They highlighted barriers such as lack of mentors, operational knowledge and self-confidence that often hinder their progress2. Having listened to our members, we know the struggles they face when starting and running a business, and we want to make that process as easy as possible for them.

It’s disheartening to see that female-led businesses currently account for only 20% of all new businesses in the UK, and a mere 5.6% of women in the UK run their own business – much lower than developed economies such as Canada (15%) and the US (11%)3.

We’re fully committed to changing this statistic and creating an environment where every woman has the opportunity to succeed, so we launched our Women in Business content series4. This is an initiative that offers women valuable business mentoring, learning and development opportunities, success stories and guidance – all to equip them with key skills to navigate the world of entrepreneurship.

Nurturing the growth of small businesses: Mastercard’s Strive UK programme

We’ve teamed up with Mastercard to offer our members access to their Strive UK programme5 – from the Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth – that’s focused on helping small businesses with digital skills, particularly those led by women and ethnic-minority owners.

All our members will get free training and targeted advice, helping them tackle critical business challenges head-on – whether they want to create a social media strategy, set up an online shop or accept online payments. They’ll be able to:

• Craft a tailored business action plan through Enterprise Nation’s Make a Plan tool6, to make sure that every step aligns with their vision

• Engage with industry experts in strategy, marketing, technology, finance and more, through personalised 1:1 or small-group business mentoring offered by Digital Boost7

• Benefit from the guidance and support of their very own board of experienced business professionals for an entire year – they can connect with a mentor or receive technology advice free of charge through Be the Business8

Today’s commitment is just the beginning of our journey to improve gender equality in entrepreneurship and we look forward to working with Mastercard and others to achieve this goal.

Kelly Devine, Divisional President, UK & Ireland at Mastercard said: “There’s so much we can do to support women entrepreneurs if we work together. Entrepreneurs told us that they often don’t know where to look for credible support services, so it’s great that Tide is helping women find support, inspiration and information that will help them start and grow a business.”