The Unstoppable Army of Female Entrepreneurs

 We sat down with one of our customers Kate Yates of Territory Interior Design to dig deeper into this trend.

Tell us a bit about you.

Since graduating, I had always worked for other people and larger companies. While this gave me some great experience, I always fancied the bigger challenge. There was always a part of me who wanted to do things my way, put my own slant on things. The hardest part was making the decision to change, to leave a successful, flourishing business to start my own. From scratch.

Luckily, I was blessed with the support of the people around me, a fantastic business partner in crime and a bucket load of determination. Getting things off the ground was tough but once the ball started rolling, things really took off.

What advice would you give to a mum who is toying with the idea of being her own boss? 

Go for it. The early mornings and long nights with a baby are the perfect training for running your own business! The really great thing is being able to be flexible with your work so that you get to spend time with your family without having to put your career on hold while you do it. Unfortunately, many companies don’t offer flexible working. This way you get to do both which is so rewarding.

How long was it before you transitioned from the home office to moving into your own space?

We worked from home for 5 years before we moved into our office space at Atlantic Business Centre in Altrincham. As designers, our overheads are fairly low, and we were worried about being tied down to a contract, a space, an area.

When we came across BizSpace we loved how flexible they were, the location was great and the staff were approachable and couldn’t do enough to help. We have got a great office that we can grow into and would feel proud to bring a client to for a consultation. What’s more, we get to meet other like-minded businesses and trades in the same building.

Any tips for those looking to find the right office for their business?

I think it’s important to feel at home. It’s such a huge trend in office design right now and it makes so much sense that creativity and productivity is at its peak when people feel at home in their workspace. BizSpace has really allowed us to make our workspace our own and that home-from-home environment makes going to work more fun.

Female entrepreneurs in numbers

• Between 2008 and 2011 women accounted for an unprecedented 80% of all new business owners.*

• There are now almost 1.5 million self-employed women in the UK.

• That’s an impressive increase of around 300,000 since before the economic downturn. **

• Women account for 17% of business owners, ie. owners/ managers/ employers. ***

*(Labour Force Survey, Office of National Statistics 2013).
**(Women in Enterprise: A Different Perspective, RBS Group 2013).
*** (Labour Force Survey 2008, in Women in Enterprise: A Different Perspective, RBS Group 2013).