It pays to have
women in business
- EntreprenHER
“
I f you start with an optimistic nature, it doesn’t matter
if you fail. Start with an idea that you really care about
– that’s what matters.”
T
HOSE WERE THE WORDS of leading entrepreneur,
businesswoman, television personality – and Queen
Margaret University (QMU) Chancellor – Prue Leith CBE
at an exciting event at QMU on Tuesday 19 March 2019.
The event, EntreprenHER, formed part of QMU’s celebrations of
International Women’s Day which took place earlier that month, and
focused on women in business and the challenges facing female
entrepreneurs. The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship,
commissioned by the UK government and launched on 9 March
2019, states that up to £250bn of new value could be added to
the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at
the same rate as men.
Women do not lack ability or ambition yet only one in three UK
entrepreneurs is female. At QMU we are proud to be bucking the
trend; of the 37 start-ups in the University’s Business Innovation
Zone (BIZ), 20 are run either solely or in partnership by women.
A survey of companies by Unilever Foundry found women who
started their own businesses often encountered discrimination
such as investors being less willing to invest in their firms on
gender grounds.
14
QMYOU / Sustainable Business
EntreprenHER provided a platform for a panel of female
entrepreneurs based out of the BIZ to take centre stage and provide
real-life experiences of the challenges – and discrimination – they
have faced in establishing and running successful businesses.
Chaired by Elaine Jackson from East Lothian Business Gateway,
the panel discussion covered a range of topics including finding
time for self-care, the self-perceived lack of ability some women
hold, and the role of universities in supporting and developing
entrepreneurs at all stages of the process.
QMU is the only university in Scotland to have a Business Gateway
facility on campus, and is an excellent example of partnership
working to simplify the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The sold-out
event also gave the audience the opportunity to gain insight into
the world of business as experienced by Prue Leith.
While perhaps best known today as one of the judges on the hit
television show, The Great British Bake Off, Prue is no stranger
to the world of entrepreneurship. She launched events and
contract catering company Leith's Good Food in 1962, opened
her restaurant Leith’s in 1969 which earned a Michelin star, before
going on to establish Leith’s School of Food and Wine in 1974. She
also launched Prue Leith's Chef's Academy in South Africa in 1997,
was a journalist, a teacher, and has written 14 cookbooks, eight
novels and one autobiography. A far cry from humble beginnings
catering for people’s dinner parties where one hostess – in an effort
to take credit for Prue’s efforts – told her guests, “The girl in the
kitchen? Oh, she’s just here to do the washing up!”
“I found that the best marketing tool at my disposal was to do
my job well,” said Prue. “Talk to your customers, find out what
they want and do it better than they expected. That’s the best
advice I can offer you.”
Kim Stuart, Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange
Development at QMU, said: “The prevalence of ingenious,
innovative and ambitious women is a prized strategic strength
of QMU. As society challenges existing cultural bias, QMU in
partnership with the East Lothian Council Business Gateway is