Women's Enterprise Scotland

Women in Scotland are among the most enterprising in the UK. More than 60,000 businesses here are female-led and around 30% of self-employed are women. Their contribution to the Scottish economy is considerable – but could be even more valuable if more women had better access to information, connections and opportunities to grow their businesses, and to start new ones.

That’s what Women’s Enterprise Scotland (WES) is all about: connecting and encouraging women of all ages, from all sectors, and across rural and urban areas, to create new opportunities, partnerships and to grow their businesses in the way they want.

It’s also about giving enterprising women a voice – to influence government economic policy and to increase the representation of women in the media and in business organisations.

WES will do this in partnership with the Association of Scottish Businesswomen, through a web platform currently being developed. In addition to providing information and inspiration, WES will provide access to a wide-ranging collection of research, reports and statistics on women’s enterprise in the UK, Europe and beyond.

Women’s Enterprise Scotland is a social enterprise and its ultimate vision is to establish a seed fund for women who need finance to start or grow a business.

WES will launch later in 2011, and in the meantime, follow us on Twitter and send us a direct message if you’d like to be involved. www.twitter.com/wescotland. You can find their website at http://www.womensenterprisescotland.co.uk/ and download a WES briefing paper on the Untapped Growth Potential of UK Women Entrepreneurs.

Strengthening Scotland’s economy through Women’s Enterprise

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