What it’s like to be a woman entrepreneur in Exeter
Exeter is a promising destination for female entrepreneurs in the UK. The city has a bustling economy with a vibrant student population thanks to the University of Exeter and other tertiary institutions. Exeter is also a good destination for tourism business with thousands of visitors trooping into the city every week.
How women are changing the business scene
Female entrepreneurs in Exeter are blooming, and this article will focus on what they’re doing and the financial opportunities open to them. Learn more in this article about how business loans for women work.
Snezana Jackeviciene of Archway Facilities cleaning company
Snezana Jackeviciene is an immigrant woman entrepreneur from Lithuania who immigrated to the UK after marriage and started a small home startup that has grown to become one of the largest cleaning companies in Exeter. She has run the company successfully for several years while running a home with her husband and two kids.
In an interview, Jackeviciene spoke about her strong work ethic, never-say-die attitude, a constant quest for perfection, and her relentless focus even though she couldn't speak English before arriving in the UK. She started as a cleaner and started learning English before enrolling in Exeter College. A management role opened up in a cleaning company where she worked. She got the job as she was their best cleaner. She left that role to found her own cleaning company, and she hasn't looked back since then.
The Exeter Cookery School event for Women's Day
In 2019, over 80 female entrepreneurs attended an event at the Exeter Cookery School. The NatWest Bank organized the event to celebrate International Women’s Day and support women who want to start their businesses.
A keynote speaker at the event was Sarah Turner, an author, and blogger who left her full-time job to begin a career in writing not long after she became a mother. The writing industry is miles apart from the financial sector where Turner worked, but she prevailed. She started her blog in 2013 and has published three books. One of her books was on the shortlist for the 2017 British Book Awards' Book of the Year.
Sarah Turner spoke on the challenges she faced as a female entrepreneur in Exeter and how she overcame these challenges. The feedback from the audience was immensely positive, and a lot of attendants spoke about what they learned and how the event helped them gain newfound confidence and motivation for the future.
The NatWest Bank business funding initiatives
A major funding initiative for female entrepreneurs in the South West is the NatWest’s Back Her Business campaign. This initiative has helped several women to launch their new businesses. The Back Her Business campaign aims to create 65,000 new women-owned businesses by 2025. It is hoped that these businesses will employ and support about 400,000 women altogether.
The funding initiative works via a partnership funding with Crowdfunder whereby raised funds on the platform will be matched up to £5,000. This is the perfect way for women to start their businesses and receive funding for it. NatWest Bank also released the Rose Review that examined the problems and barriers that female entrepreneurs faced.
Conclusion
Being a woman entrepreneur in any part of the world isn't easy, and Exeter is no exception. Just 33% of entrepreneurs in England are women. This is a low figure that must be improved. The figure might be worse in other countries, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t do better in Exeter and other parts of England.
Thanks to business loans for women, a bustling city, tourism business, and other opportunities, women entrepreneurs and their environs can grow their business and improve them massively, thus boosting women entrepreneurs in the UK in general.
