Building Relationships and Social Capital for Womens Enterprise Development

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Building Relationships and Social Capital for
Womens Enterprise Development
PROWESS Conference 9 11th November 2004

• Dinah Bennett Pat Richardson
• Women Into the Network

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Introduction

• We are talking about
• Womens enterprise development
• Confidence and social capital
• Women Into the Network (WIN)
• The Awards - a tool for building relationships
  and social capital
• Based upon experience the beginning of a more
  systematic assessment and analysis

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UK Context

• Womens enterprise increasingly seen as important
• Growth of womens business ownership
• The gender dimension to barriers recognised
• A wide range of initiatives aimed at addressing
  these
• The issue of confidence continues to be
  highlighted

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Confidence and Social Capital

• Confidence is
• A complex issue
• Very personal
• Not exclusively gender specific
• A relative concept e.g. business stage
• Relating confidence and social capital

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Capital/Assets for Business
Human Assets
Natural Assets
Social Assets
Women
Financial Assets
Physical Assets
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Social Capital a definition

• OECD networks together with shared norms,
  values and understandings that facilitate
  co-operation within and among groups
• OECD 2001 The Well-being of Nations. The
  Role of Human and Social Capital.
• the personal contacts and social networks that
  generate shared understandings, trust and
  reciprocity within and between social groups
• Pv Social Capital and Economic Inclusion in The
  North East
• Draft Final Report by Durham University, Miles
  Strategic Consulting and WYG to ONE September
  2004

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Social Capital

• Social capital can be accumulated when people
  interact in a purposeful manner with each other
  in families, workplaces, neighbourhoods, local
  associations and a range of informal and formal
  meeting places
• p v Social Capital and Economic Inclusion in The
  North East
• Draft Final Report by Durham University, Miles
  Strategic Consulting and WYG to ONE September
  2004

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Nature of Social Capital

• Bonding - refers to those ties between those
  people in similar situations like family, close
  friends and neighbours
• Bridging - describes weak or new ties to like
  persons
• Linking refers to ties to people in dissimilar
  situations- weak ties

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Social Capital Critical to Business

• Successful entrepreneurship is about managing
  relationships with a range of stakeholders (Gibb)
• Knowing who are the critical stakeholders in your
  network and why
• What are these relationships how are they
  maintained
• Business Networking a critical vehicle for
  building social capital

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Role of Networking

• Know who/how
• Individual/collective
• Membership group

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WIN as a Case Study

• When - Started in 1999 in the North East of
  England
• Why - Low numbers of women in business and
  research showed 700 networks under utilised
• Who - Potential and existing women in business
  those who support
• What - Relationship building through networking
  for womens enterprise
• Size - 1500 women members growing

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WIN multi layered activities

• Events from training workshops to lunches
• Awards annual event
• Communications and Publications website,
• newsletters, ezines
• Role models development promotion
• Sectoral initiatives
• Research
• Signposting
• Dissemination

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Action Research

• Continuous feedback from events
• Member review 2002, 2005
• Straw polls on topic adviser profile
• process of starting

• Qualitative research - Bankers

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For Example

• Review of start up support for new and young
  businesses
• 131 responses so far

Businesses Under 1 yr old
Businesses 3 6 yrs old
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Role of Friends

• The idea to meet other women who are in
  business, with similar attitudes and motivations,
  also living a very similar working life is much
  needed for us. I think to find a friend, not
  just business associate, is essential hopefully
  offer each other support or even just a listening
  ear will be a benefit to most of us, we all have
  the understanding of the lonely and difficult
  world of a women in business , I really enjoyed
  it thank you.

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WIN AwardsNorth East Women Entrepreneur of the
Year

• A case study of building social capital

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North East Women Entrepreneur of the Year Awards

• Why have womens awards?
• What does it consist of?
• The Susan Dobson Award for Entrepreneurship

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The Statistics of the Awards

• 2000 2004
• Awards Categories 5 9
• Applicants 51 144
• Attending the night 200 450
• Numbers now limited by venue

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An Event it is a Process

• A series of activities a process of key steps
  in relationship building
• The Awards Event
• Post Award activities
• Launch Event
• Nomination Events
• Series of weekly media coverage
• The Awards Event

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Awards Individual Benefits

• For women who are short listed and win
• Confidence
• Visibility
• A voice which is now heard
• Increased Contacts/networks
• More business

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Awards Collective Benefits

• For Women entrepreneurs in North East
• Raises profile and credibility
• Interest coverage and financial support
• Voice media
• Acceptance - mainstream networks

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Benefits for others

• Support agencies
• Media
• Funders
• Access to women entrepreneurs

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Lessons..

• Social asset building is critical making the
  tacit explicit
• No so much networking as relationship building
• It is building weak ties as well as strong
• A dynamic process ..
• Life long learning

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Lessons..

• You are increasing opportunities for people to
  develop social contacts
• More contacts numbers
• Quality of contacts acquaintances, friends
  suppliers customers
• Diversity building the bridging and linking
  contacts- the weak ties
• Different contexts- local regional national
  international

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WOMEN INTO THE NETWORK
A dynamic model of relationship building for
developing womens enterprise Thank you for
listening
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• Info_at_networkingwomen.co.uk
• Pat Richardson - 0191 384 9736
• patrichardson1_at_btopenworld.com
• Dinah Bennett - 0191 334 5497
• Dinah.bennett_at_durham.ac.uk
• www.networkingwomen.co.uk