Superfast West Yorkshire to launch female business support programme

Superfast West Yorkshire is launching a new business support programme designed to assist female entrepreneurs and women-led businesses develop their digital and social media presence.

Funded by the Government Equalities Office, the Women and Broadband project will aim to facilitate existing female-led businesses and budding entrepreneurs from across West Yorkshire to improve their business’ competitiveness, productivity and profitability via a series of events and mentoring programmes.

Superfast West Yorkshire is launching the new business support programme to redress the gender balance in business after new statistics revealed women are underrepresented in terms of entrepreneurial activity and use of digital technology, and only 20% of SMEs are owned or majority owned by women.

The programme will provide assistance to women-led businesses and potential female entrepreneurs to boost their economic well-being by taking advantage of superfast broadband to either expand, start a business or work from home.

The programme will launch during Leeds Business Week at the event, Ladies That Launch, which kicks off at The Google Garage, Leeds on 16 October 2015.

The female business support programme will also establish a network of female digital champions across West Yorkshire, who have all used digital technology to transform their business and can share their experiences and provide guidance to others in the area.

Muz Mumtaz of Superfast West Yorkshire and manager of the new programme said: “The Women and Broadband business support programme’s activities will boost the knowledge, skills and confidence of business women, offering practical solutions on expanding market share, increasing customer satisfaction and improving productivity through the use of digital technology.

“The rollout of superfast broadband across West Yorkshire, and business support programmes, such as the Women and Broadband project, provides a great opportunity for more women to start their own businesses from home by taking advantage of the increased speed of the internet.”

The Government is investing £1.7bn in the UK’s digital infrastructure so that by 2017, 95% of businesses and homes across the UK will be able to access superfast broadband.

Superfast West Yorkshire aims to provide high-speed broadband to 97% of West Yorkshire, as well as improving access to broadband in both urban and rural areas across West Yorkshire which have poor, limited or no broadband coverage.

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