Women’s Day 2020: The Women Who Inspire Us

As it’s International Women’s Day, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to highlight some of our favourite female entrepreneurs, authors and podcast hosts to inspire the girl boss in you.

Empowerment & expertise

From podcasts to books, here are a few of our favourite resources for business guidance, diversity promotion and female empowerment.

Emma Gannon
Writer | Broadcaster | Podcast Host

Emma writes and speaks about a range of topics across lifestyle, technology and feminism. She’s best known for her podcast Ctrl Alt Delete, which has featured the likes of Ellen Page and Felicity Jones and explores how to navigate living in an online world. Emma also regularly appears on radio shows such as BBC Woman’s Hour. Meanwhile, Emma’s Sunday Times Bestselling business book, The Multi-Hyphen Method, covers how to turn a craft into a career and your side-hustle into a full-time job. You can keep up with Emma on Twitter and Instagram.

Pip Jamieson
Founder of The Dots | Diversity Advocate | Sunday Times’ Top #100 Disruptive Entrepreneur

Pip Jamieson is founder of The Dots - a platform that connects employees with businesses through projects. Since its inception in 2014, the business has gone from strength to strength. Pip was very aware of the unconscious bias she faced when pitching for investment, and so promotes diversity amongst The Dot’s membership in order to give diverse talent a boost. Pip often shares her thoughts on how to build a product based around diversity and equality, so it’s well worth following her on Twitter to keep up with the latest.

Women Who Create
Business | Mentors

Women Who Create is a business run by mentor and creative business coach Amy Phipps, who supports women to build a slower, more sustainable career that brings happiness, balance and creativity. Specifically, her podcast of the same name covers a very wide range of topics that affect female business owners, from public speaking, time management and PR, to broader subjects such as ‘mansplaining’ and the Marie Kondo Effect. It’s generally considered the one-stop-shop for getting a run-down on what’s currently impacting female creatives within the UK. Join the fun by following Women Who Create on Twitter and Instagram.

Code First: Girls
Social Enterprise | Community

Code First: Girls is a non-profit, multi-award winning social enterprise based in the UK with a simple purpose - increasing the number of women in tech. Since its launch in 2012, Code First: Girls has delivered over £6 million of free coding education, benefiting over 10,000 women. The enterprise also aims to increase diversity by helping companies to improve their recruitment processes so that they can access the growing pool of female tech talent. Code First: Girls is currently running a campaign to teach 20,000 women to code by the end of 2020. You can follow the campaign's progress on Twitter and Instagram.

Trailblazing female-led businesses

Here’s a quick look at some excellent examples of how to successfully build and grow a UK business.

White & Green
Founded in 2016 | Luxury Bed Linen & Homeware

White & Green is a family-run company specialising in creating luxury bed linen that’s Fairtrade and organic. The mother and daughter dream team behind the brand consists of Sari, Rebecca, and Danielle, who launched the business in 2016 from their kitchen table. The company has since been featured on Dragon’s Den and in Vogue. Their approach to business provides an excellent example of how to use online platforms to promote and sell a modest product. Take a look at what we mean by browsing the business’ YouTube channel and Instagram page.

Pip & Nut
Founded in 2013 | Natural Nut Butters & Almond Milk

Pip & Nut is now a leading nut butter brand in the UK, known for its short ingredients lists and delicious flavours. Founder Pippa frequently shares the story of how her small business quickly became the UK’s fastest-growing nut butter brand in podcasts and interviews, empowering other budding entrepreneurs along their way. The business now boasts a wide range of delicious and healthy treats, complemented by the innovative Nut Butter Cookbook which features hundreds of unique nut-butter recipes. You can keep up with the latest from Pip & Nut on Twitter and Instagram.

Inkpact
Founded in 2015 | Handwritten Communications

Charlotte Pearce is the CEO and Founder of Inkpact, a communications service with a difference. Inkpact allows companies to deliver their customer communications with a human touch by sending handwritten messages. The multi-million-pound company's customers include some of the UK's top brands, such as Unilever and Moet Hennessy. Away from the office, Charlotte promotes women in technology by speaking regularly at events and supporting social enterprises. Learn more by following Inkpact on Twitter and Instagram.

OLIO
Founded in 2015 | Food Sharing App

OLIO is the innovative app which connects business and individuals so that food surplus can be shared instead of being thrown out. The app allows locals to swap spare vegetables or unwanted groceries that are nearing their sell-by date. Founded by Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One, the app provides a way to help reduce the £12.5 billion of food that goes into UK landfills each year. Follow OLIO’s journey on Twitter and Instagram.

All in all, it seems like a brilliant time for female entrepreneurs and business owners to grow their UK businesses. In addition to the podcasts, books and thought leadership available to female business owners, there are also a range of flexible business loans currently available that are tailored to women and their business needs.

For example, Olivia, founder of Hackney-based Glasshouse Salon, recently benefited from a small business loan to enable her to expand premises. If you want to learn more, take a look at our flexible business loans which are designed to give your business the boost it deserves.