Confidence is the key
Confidence is the key
CONFIDENCE, determination and good mentors are what would-be women entrepreneurs need, according to Margaret Beckett, Labour MP and leader of the House of Commons.
"A lack of confidence is the single greatest inhibitor to women starting or developing a business," she told delegates at the Women in Rural Enterprise conference at Harper Adams University College last week.
But the "independence of mind" of country women would stand them in good stead in new business ventures, she said. "You need the capacity to keep going when the heavens are falling in around you."
Mentoring from like-minded people is also key. "Theyre unlikely to take advice from politicians but theyre likely to take it if its from someone like themselves. They need someone to help them to turn the idea or the vision into a reality."
Women are now starting up 35% of new small business – but still face barriers to becoming self-employed, including sexual discrimination and problems getting capital. "Our countryside can – and should – become an economic as well as an environmental asset," said Mrs Beckett at the Shropshire campus, highlighting new government figures showing a 69% drop in farm income in 2000.
NEW communications have brought many business opportunities for country people, claimed Christine Jones, chief executive of Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce at the conference.
Nine-tenths of UK businesses have e-mail and two-thirds have web-sites, she said. "E-business is international not local. You put a web page up and your first response could be from Tonga.
"There are unprecedented opportunities for individuals who are entrepreneurial," she said. "It is now officially sexy to be an entrepreneur."
More than one in eight people are now thinking about starting their own business. "There has been a revolution."
Ann Steward, director of e-government, agreed the new technology offers solutions to some of the barriers to enterprise in rural areas such as the distance from markets. "Dont be frightened of this stuff," she said of computer-based kit. "You cant kill it; you cant hurt it."
Phones, she added, are still the most important communication medium.
JOB losses in the steel industry make government sit up and take notice – shame they dont react the same to the countryside crisis. "The drip, drip, drip from agriculture isnt noticed," claimed Womens Food and Farming Union founder Margaret Charrington. "It worries me that, in 10 years time, people will say: We did have a rural England once." She also called on countrywomen to fight their corner. "Patriotism alone wont sell inferior or more expensive goods – but campaigns do work and if you have a just cause, the British public will listen," she said.