Problem addressed

In the early 2000s, it was estimated that women constituted around 27% of self-employed people in the United Kingdom, and that only 12–14% of businesses were majority-owned by women. In response, the United Kingdom Government tried to promote diversity in business through the development of specialist ‘business support service’ agencies. These agencies were intended to provide support to business developers and owners, particularly those under-represented in the world of business, such as women. However, the Small Business Service in the United Kingdom recognised that despite the introduction of these agencies, business support services were still not reaching enough women.

Innovative solution

Prowess was born in 2002 as the National Association for the Promotion of Women’s Enterprise, a membership network of organisations delivering support to female-led start-ups across the United Kingdom. Prowess was born with the aim of creating an environment where equal numbers of men and women are involved in starting and growing businesses. It later became known as Prowess (Promoting Women’s Enterprise Support), an independent non-profit company limited by guarantee.

Prowess developed the Prowess Flagship Award. The award measures the quality of support given by specialist and mainstream business support service providers from a ‘women-friendly’ perspective. The first of its kind in Europe, the award was based on a set of 12 criteria. These were selected by the organisation, after consultation with members, as the key requirements to ensure the provision of effective support to women in business. For example, one of the criteria is that ‘the service provider regularly delivers services through face-to-face meetings’ – this is based on the rationale that ‘a lack of confidence is an issue for a lot of women starting their own business. In the early stages, face-to-face services are crucial.’

The Prowess Flagship Award was replaced by the Charter for Women in Business, which was piloted in 2016–2017, attracting 75 members. The charter builds on the criteria used for choosing Prowess award winners but has a more streamlined process and goes further by providing a code of practice for staff and online training in addition to optional accreditation.

The organisation also engaged in a wide range of activities, including advocacy and lobbying at national and regional levels and providing support services to its member organisations. The services provided for members included access to a range of training materials, best practice reports and quality standards for business support services that provide assistance to female entrepreneurs.

Key results and benefits

Thanks to Prowess, the national Business Link Service (a government-funded business advice and guidance service in England) adopted a sustained strategy to make its services more women-friendly in 2003, resulting in an increase in its proportion of female clients from one fifth to one third between 2003 and 2006.

In total, 24 organisations were awarded 1 of the Prowess Flagship Awards. Thanks to the success and visibility of the initiative, Prowess was also instrumental in lobbying the government to set up the Women’s Enterprise Panel and the Women’s Enterprise Task Force in 2004 within the Department for Business, which helped to retain a policy focus on women’s enterprise during a period of frequent political leadership changes. As such, Prowess was able to have a policy impact at national level.

Potential for mainstreaming

The United Kingdom Government’s Phoenix Development Fund and the EU’s EQUAL Community Initiative supported Prowess up until 2005, after which it became self-sufficient, relying on membership fees and special events, with a small amount of income generated from consultancy services.

The initial Prowess organisation dissolved in 2012. Its former CEO from 2002–2009, Erika Watson, purchased some of the assets and relaunched Prowess as a social enterprise committed to supporting women in business with top-quality information and resources. It is no longer a membership-based organisation and instead generates most of its funding through external sponsors who support women in business and enable the organisation to keep services free and affordable. Prowess has developed into an online United Kingdom hub for women-friendly business support, providing direct, digital resources and collaborative opportunities for women in business and their supporters. While Prowess does not currently have the resources to fully implement or roll-out the Charter for Women in Business, the toolkit and know-how remain available for potential transfer.

When transferring this project to another context, an important lesson to bear in mind is that accreditation schemes like the Charter for Women in Business work best where there is strong pressure from national policy to improve provision for women-led businesses. This political framework was key for the initial success and impact of Prowess, and its sustainability in the longer term. This legacy is evident in the assessment criteria for the United Kingdom’s Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative, which are used to accredit business support initiatives. The criteria relate to how well the organisation can meet the needs of diverse clients from different backgrounds.