International Women’s Day: Faster rise in female SME owners in past year with 31% growth

In celebration of International Women’s Day, it has been revealed that more women than ever are taking the leap into self-employment and starting small businesses. Analysis of over 1.4 million small businesses by SME insurer Simply Business, revealed that while there are still a greater number of SMEs owned by men, female small business owners are rising at a significantly faster rate.

Female-owned SMEs rose by 31% in 2019, compared to 21% growth in male-owned small businesses for the same year-long period.

The research also revealed that from 2016-2019 there has been a consistent year-on-year increase in female-owned SMEs, rising 58% overall over the four year period.

Bea Montoya, Chief Operating Officer at Simply Business, commented: “International Women’s Day is hugely important in celebrating and recognising women all around the world. And with this in mind, it’s fantastic to see more women than ever before taking the leap into small business – whether that’s turning a hobby into a livelihood, or using years of professional experience to go it alone. “Small business is crucial to the UK economy, and more and more, women are leading the way. We’re seeing that the number of female-owned small businesses are growing at a faster rate than those owned by men. And given the number continues to rise consistently year-on-year, we can only expect this to continue into 2020 and beyond. We’re proud to recognise and support thousands of women up and down the UK who are running successful and thriving small businesses.”

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Notes to editors: Data taken from 1,421,358 small business insurance policies from 2016-2019

Data extracted March 2020.

For further information, please contact:

Frank PR

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About Simply Business

Simply Business is one of the UK’s biggest business insurance providers, specialising in public liability insurance for SMEs and insuring over 900,000 small businesses and landlords across Britain.

Launched in 2005, Simply Business provides an online brokerage service, delivering policies tailored to individual business requirements. Using the power of tech and data to create the best possible customer experiences, Simply Business employs over 800 people across offices in London, Northampton, and Boston in the US.

Owing to its internal underwriting capability, Simply Business can cover over 1,000 trade types – ranging from plumbers to accountants to dog walkers. An accredited B Corp for their positive social impact, Simply Business has also been voted the Sunday Times Best Company To Work For twice in a row.