WIREDGOV

52% of the UK population are women, but only 19% of SMEs are led by women (Women’s Business Council Report, 2013).

This 19% contributes an estimated £70 billion to the economy - highlighting a compelling commercial opportunity to support more women to start up and succeed in business, achieve their entrepreneurial ambitions and help close the gender gap across UK plc.

With this in mind, the RBS Women in Business (WiB) programme was initiated.

The steps we took 

The RBS WiB programme offers bespoke support, mentoring, networking and professional business advice to women-led and owned SMEs across the UK. Delivered by a team of 230 WiB Specialists, accredited by the Chartered Banker Institute and certified by Everywoman, the programme provides our female customers with a ‘one stop enterprise shop’ and a 121 relationship with a specialist bank manager.

As well as providing individual support, our WiB Specialists leverage relationships with partner organisations and national and government bodies and work collaboratively with other RBS initiatives to support women in business.

This includes:

Hosting ‘start up’ surgeries and networking events to help women – both those starting out in business and those already established – tackle barriers to success. During 2013 and 2014, we hosted over 230 start up surgeries and networking events, reaching out to 12,100 women.

Collaborating with the RBS Inspiring Women in Enterprise grant fund, which has completed it’s commitment of £1.5m in grants to 49 not-for-profit organisations since 2013. To date, this support has seen 6,827 women across the UK explore and unlock their enterprise potential, with 659 new women led businesses being created as a result.

Supporting Women’s Enterprise Scotland in developing a framework and action plan to increase the contribution of women’s enterprise to the Scottish economy in collaboration with John Swinney MSP and Angela Constance MSP.

Delivering WiB enterprise forums and events in partnership with Everywoman, bringing together WiB Specialists and customers for skills development, networking, inspiration and panel discussions – as well as offering discounted customer membership to the EverywomanNetwork.

Partnering with the National Black Women’s Network to deliver conferences and business skills workshops specifically designed for female BME business owners.

Working with our internal RBS employee-led women’snetwork to host customer events, providing opportunities for them to network, showcase their businesses and selltheir products to new audiences.

What we’ve experienced 

As well as supporting women across the UK, our evidence proves the WiB programme is working for RBS, where we are seeing a steady increase in:

• the percentage of our business banking customers which are women-owned
• the number of women-owned starts ups opening accounts with RBS
• the number of established women-owned businesses moving their accounts to RBS

Feedback from women-led businesses who have been supported by the WiB initiative indicated that in addition to financial support and guidance, the WiB programme has helped them to gain access to invaluable expertise on a wide range of personal and business development topics, and new networks of professional contacts with which to share best practice, learn key skills and secure new business opportunities.

The impact of our WiB programme is encouraging. Our focus during 2015 is to build on our successes to date and continue to play a role in supporting the recovery of the UK economy.