Why community is key to making business connections
Nearly twice as many female founders who are part of one are likely to forecast growth, says Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook’s vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa
"Entrepreneurialism is in my blood. My parents own a catering firm, and my grandparents had a haberdashery business. I learnt from an early age that being a founder can be unbelievably rewarding — not just for people who set up businesses, but for their families, their employees and their communities.
That’s why I’m so proud of Facebook’s work to encourage and support small businesses here in the UK, including through our Community Boost programme via which we’ll be training 50,000 people and businesses in digital skills by 2020. But we also know that starting and growing a business is really tough, and that it’s particularly tough for female business leaders.
Today, just a fifth of the six million businesses in Britain are run by women, and there are twice as many male entrepreneurs than female. That’s despite there being a million more women than men in the UK. So how do we ensure the UK can continue to capitalise on women’s success? One way is to boost women’s confidence, which research has consistently told us is one of the main barriers holding women back.
It’s why we launched our #SheMeansBusiness programme back in 2016, through which we’ve worked in collaboration with Enterprise Nation, The Federation of Small Businesses and AllBright to support thousands of entrepreneurial women by offering them the training, tools and practical advice they told us they need to succeed.
The next challenge? Helping them to scale up.
Research tells us that nearly twice as many female founders who are part of a business community are likely to forecast business growth, compared to those who aren’t.
Female founders have a huge appetite to grow but are sometimes being held back by who they know — or more importantly, don’t know.
My advice to those reading this is simple: remember that being part of a business community could be the key to unlocking the connections you need to grow.
The result? Maybe one day, it will be your granddaughter sharing her stories of what an inspiration you were to her.”
To find out more, visit facebook.com/communityboostlondon