Enterprise4All

Award winning business support for women

In February 2010, Enterprise4All was named as an Approved Women's Business Centre as part of a new standard funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency and developed by Prowess – the independent voice of women’s enterprise in the UK. This is the first and only international quality standard for women’s enterprise support – and Enterprise4All was one of the first organisations in the world to achieve it.

At Enterprise4all we have a long and successful history of supporting women's enterprise and, indeed, in the last 12 months, 43% of all the companies we have assisted have been owned and managed by women. This experience has enabled us to develop best practice approaches and support systems that have been proven to offer effective support for female entrepreneurs from any background.

Starting Up:
Starting up your own company is sometimes considered to be a flexible alternative to traditional employment – something that can fit in with a woman’s hectic lifestyle and increasing level of responsibilities. However, it’s not always a level playing field and female business owners often have to deal with many additional demands upon their time. So while launching a new venture can certainly be rewarding – perhaps even life-changing – it isn’t a decision to be taken lightly.

To maximize your chances of success, it’s important think hard about the help you can get from others – family, friends and professional support organisations, mentors and advisers. Give yourself the best possible start by planning carefully, getting the best advice you can and taking advantage of all the free support that’s available.

If you are considering setting up a business in the North West, Business Link can help you in many different ways. If you live in the Lancaster district – including Morecambe, Heysham, Carnforth and surrounding rural areas – then we can help through the NWDA’s Intensive Start-Up Support programme. Please contact us and we will contact you to let you know how we can help.

Post-Start Support:
After setting up a new venture, many small business owners can feel isolated and under pressure, especially if they are working on their own. Even when you have been trading for some time, there may still come a time when you’ll need additional training and support to help you remain productive, to grow or diversify. You might simply want to have somebody to talk to when things aren’t going so well or when you want to make the most of a new opportunity. With all these things, Enterprise4All can help.

For the existing business owner, we offer support through the following programmes:

Mentoring
Leadership development (LEAD)
Coaching for High Growth
Innovation

Our Achievements - Working with Women:
The 6th Annual International Prowess Conference was held in Blackpool on 4 – 5 March 2009 and it was here that E4All received the Prowess ‘Flagship Award’ quality standard for its outstanding services to female entrepreneurs across Lancashire and parts of Greater Manchester.

The Flagship Award is a national quality standard developed by Prowess and is recognised by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and several Regional Development Agencies (RDAs). It was received on behalf of E4All by Carolyn Hayes and Chief Executive Ilyas Munshi.

E4All was assessed against 13 rigorous standards designed to measure quality, client focus, inclusion and equality and was recognised as achieving the highest possible level of support in each of these areas.

Erika Watson, Executive Director of Prowess said “Our aim is to help members to provide the most effective services to all their clients, but especially their female users. Enterprise4All has been through a rigorous and robust assessment and firmly deserves this recognition of its outstanding work for the women of Lancashire and Greater Manchester.”

Commenting on the achievement, E4All Chief Executive Ilyas Munshi said: “I’m delighted to see our organisation’s work recognised in this way. We work hard to support new business growth and we're keen to do more to help and encourage women entrepreneurs. We have seen a tremendous surge in demand for start-up support in recent months, much of it from women who have seized the initiative and created thriving new enterprises. It’s great to see that there are businesses out there that are achieving great success and we’re proud to be playing a part in that.”

Womens’s Business Centre of Excellence: 
In 2010, Entreprise4All was named by the North West Regional Development Agency as one of one of the world's first Approved Women’s Business Centres.

Congratulating the company on its achievement, Prowess’ Quality & Standards Officer Jo Makepeace said: “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.

Further information:
If you are interested in any element of Women’s business please contact Carolyn Hayes on 0845 607 0786