Enterprise4All

Enterprise4All Approved as Women’s Business Centre

The Lancashire based business support organisation, Enterprise4All has been named as an Approved Women’s Business Centre under a new standard funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and developed by Prowess – the independent voice of women’s enterprise in the UK.

Enterprise4All’s achievement was formally announced on Friday 29th January during the Northwest Women in Business Awards, which are held annually by the North West Women’s Enterprise Forum. The event took place at Ribby Hall at Wrea Green and the award was received on behalf of E4All by Chief Executive Ilyas Munshi.

Congratulating the company on its achievement, Prowess’ Quality & Standards Officer Jo Makepeace said: “This is the world’s first and only international quality standard for women’s enterprise support – and Enterprise4All is one of the first organisations in the world to achieve it.

"With the backing of the government, and the continued support of the NWDA, the Women’s Business Centre standard has been developed as a framework for providing world-class support services to budding and established women entrepreneurs. Organisations such as Enterprise4All that have achieved the WBC standard put women’s requirements at the forefront of their thinking.

“As an Approved Women’s Business Centre, Enterprise4All has undergone a rigorous assessment against the WBC standard. In achieving Approved WBC status, it has demonstrated that it understands and embeds the needs and aspirations of its women clients into the very fabric of its organisation. It is focused on establishing and maintaining a long-term relationship with female clients, providing support through the whole lifecycle of their business journey.”

As the world’s first international standard for women’s enterprise support, the WBC standard is intended to become the foundation for a global network of Approved WBCs that will bring together women entrepreneurs from many different countries and cultures, enabling them to learn from one another, to share knowledge and to promote their businesses.

Speaking immediately after receiving the award, Enterprise4All’s Chief Executive Officer, Ilyas Munshi said: “We’re all very thrilled to have been approved as one of the first Women’s Business Centres. It’s the result of a real and ongoing commitment to delivering tailored business support to entrepreneurs from under-represented sections of the community. We’re proud and delighted to have gained this recognition; the award is a culmination of a lot of hard work from all our Enterprise4All team over the last few years.

“In March 2009, we received the Prowess ‘Flagship Award’ which is a national quality standard for services to female entrepreneurs, so this latest achievement marks another step forward because it opens international opportunities. We now look forward to building on this, working on both local and international projects that seek to address the many social issues facing women today, and bringing in elements of the enterprise agenda that create new opportunities for employment, wealth creation, education and engagement between different communities.”

Enterprise4All is currently supporting female entrepreneurs across Lancashire through a range of programmes funded by the NWDA. Amongst others, these include the High Growth Programme, the Mentoring programme and the leadership development initiative, LEAD. In the Lancaster district, E4All is supporting aspiring business women through the NWDA’s Intensive Start-Up Support programme, and in Pennine Lancashire, it is helping to support women from minority ethnic communities through a LEGI-funded programme called Micro-business Support in Deprived Communities, which is being provided under the No Limits initiative.

More information about the Women’s Business Centre standard can be found at the organisation’s website - www.wbcinternational.org.

More details about Enterprise4All and its support for female entrepreneurs can be found by calling Carolyn Hayes on 0845 607 0786.