British women are trailing far behind their male counterparts when it comes to setting up in business. Despite an abundance of skills, academic prowess and the high profile of businesswomen like Dragon's Den's Deborah Meaden, the gulf between the numbers of male and female entrepreneurs is significant. If women matched men's start-up levels, an extra £32billion* could be added to the economy , so why the gulf?

Lack of confidence is one of the main barriers recognised by NatWest and RBS, whose pioneering Women in Business Service has been introduced to encourage greater levels of entrepreneurship amongst females. Women starting up in business are also much more likely to worry about debt then men. Of the fifth of women who think about starting a business only half that number actually does. The service is endorsed by the government, Everywoman and Prowess. It provides experienced business managers dedicated to the specific needs and wants of female entrepreneurs.
 
Founder of the Women in Business Service, Tessa Lyndon-Skeggs joins us in a webchat alongside successful entrepreneur, Shaa Wasmund to answer your queries and provide advice on any challenges you're facing. Log on to the chat and get to work on taking your life in a new direction.

For more information visit: www.natwest.com/business/

* Average turnover of female run businesses is £209,678. The extra 150,000 businesses that would be generated if females matched male startup rates would have a combined turnover of £32 Billion. Sector statistics sourced from BERR (Department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform).

H: Jayne Constantinis, host
T: Tessa Lindon-Skeggs, business expert
A: Angela Bait, business ambassador
S: Shaa Wasmund, entrepreneur

H: Hello and welcome to the Business Show brought to you today by NatWest and RBS, I'm Jayne Constantinis. Now every time exam results are published we4 see girls constantly outperforming boys.  But despite winning the battle of the sexes in the classroom, British women are trailing far behind their male counterparts when it comes to setting up in business. And this despite the high profile of business women like Deborah Meaden from Dragon's Den. It's estimated that the lack of entrepreneurial initiative - can't even say it – among the country's female workers could be depriving the economy of as much as £32 billion annually. When women do set up in business they're just as successful as men. So why are they so reluctant to take a leap and set up their own firms? Well joining me today to discuss this and more is an illustrious panel – business expert Tessa Lindon-Skeggs, women in business ambassador Angela Bait and entrepreneur Shaa Wasmund. Welcome ladies. And of course we're live so if you've got a question for our guests then put it on the screen with your name, send it to us and we will get through as many as we can during the course of the show. Tessa £32 billion annually lost to the British economy, that's a huge amount of money, what is going on with women?

T: Vast and it is a real waste. What we have found is that far too many women would consider starting up in business but actually don't. So we went out and said what can we do as a bank? They came back with 2 things; one is be local, make a real difference for us in our local area and secondly is to have the right partners that will really help us with our business as well. So we have done just that we have set up 160 ambassadors who are women in business ambassadors right across the UK, they understand the market, they understand the needs that you might be facing and some of the challenges that you might be facing and they can also put you in touch with someone in the partnerships we have with Athena, Everywomen and Prowess.

H: Well Angela you are one of those ambassadors, at the kind of coal face, you are dealing with women everyday who are considering setting up in business. What are the particular challenges that they face? What are their special concerns?

A: I think the main challenge that they face is confidence in actually getting the right idea and turning that dream into reality. And that is what we are there to do, bring that dream out and actually give them the tools to go out there into the market place. I think a big key thing is doing a lot of research before you decide what business you are going to bring into the marketplace. We have a fantastic business plan that you can download on the internet. You can actually come in and speak to the ambassadors or anybody in the branches and they will actually help you and talk you through how to do that and bring it to life. I think the three keys to success in business are access to finance, access to network groups and access to mentoring and we offer all three of those at RBS NatWest. So I think that it is really good that we offer that sort of support and we are there and we really do want to help.

H: Shaa you were nodding then when you heard those are the 3 keys to success. You have been there done it and you have got several T shirts. You are an entrepreneur. I think you are probably not typical.

S: No

H: Just talk us through your experience and what you might have done differently?

S: Well I think my experience is quite unique because I started so young. So I have quite an eclectic career. I started off effectively working for myself at 21. My first client was Chris Eubank the former super middleweight champion. I went straight in to a male dominated world and at 21 you actually don't know what you don't know and at 21 most of us feel like we can conquer the world. So I would say actually the younger you can start business the earlier you can start to learn your lessons and make your mistakes the better. Because what then happened was that I spent nearly 2 years working with Chris and I came out of that a totally different person. Supremely confident because the reality is if you can work with an Alpha Male in an entirely male dominated industry you can pretty much deal with anybody else in business. So that meant I had no fear, so I had no fear of failure. I had no fear, more importantly, in asking for advice and support from people. That said it doesn't mean I got everything right I had just as many failures as I have had successes. I think that is something that is really important for people to learn. In America failure is embraced as part of a learning experience and it is encouraged to learn and fail as early as possible so the cost to you and the business is as limited as possible. Because once you have made a mistake if you learn from it you rarely make the same mistake again. My view is it is better to lose a £1,000 than £10,000 and in my case it was better to have lost tens of thousands than millions but the same lesson applies. The things that I would have done differently. It took me quite a long time probably took me until I was 30 to recognise that you don't have to be good at everything to be fantastic at business. I think it is a real challenge that lots of women in business face because you are juggling so many different demands that you feel like you have to be able to do every aspect of that business and women are less likely to go out there and take on additional finance to recruit staff. They leave it to the very last moment to do so and I would actively encourage people to get the finance in as early as possible really understanding your core skills, if you are a fantastic sales person focus on being the fantastic sales person, and go out there and recruit really great account managers. Don't try to be all things to all people. So I think that is what I would have done differently I would have learnt early on to have matched my skill sets with other people.

T: That is a lesson that I have learned quite recently in my small business, focus on what you do well, we are rubbish at IT, my partner and I, we now delegate that and we concentrate on what we are good at.

H: Tessa I am curious to explore a little bit more about why women think they can't do it. Shaa then mentioned risk. Do you think as a species we are averse more averse to risk than men?

T: Yeah I think it is fair to say. Actually when you talk to customers and they come back with three things and they all relate to confidence. They say "well I didn't start a business because I was really concerned I didn't have the skills" or "I didn't start up in business because I was really frightened of failure" exactly as Shaa says. I didn't start up in business because I actually didn't know anyone else. The great thing is actually when you look at the stats the success rates for male and female across the developed countries are the same. So we can dispel some of those myths and hopefully gives some of the guys some of the confidence to actually get around to starting up. If you are looking to find like-minded individuals we have got a network right across the UK both of women in business ambassadors and the largest network across both business and commercial relationship managers so that we can find like-minded individuals and start to put people in touch which is something I know Angela has done a lot with her customers.

H: Yes and actually Angela, something else Shaa talked about there was getting finance. We have got a question here from Lucinda which is apropos of that. "Given the press about the credit crunch is now really a good time to wave goodbye to the comfort of a salary and set up my own business?" That must be on the minds of many people.

A: Yeah I think it is and I think that in the economy for some businesses they may not flourish and others may. It is having the right people giving the right support and advice at that time. So it is having the right trusted advisor with your bank manager to go and say managing my cashflow. How am I going to manage that? In six months time I am going to come across a really tricky time, how can you help me with that or provide the solution to that? Also knowing the other people in the market place that we can direct them to, to help them. One for example in my portfolio of customers I try very very hard to put them in contact with other people, like-minded individuals, so that they can share their business ideas. In a time like this it is really important to have the right people around you to give you that support.

T: I think you can feel quite isolated running your own business especially if it is a small one. Two men and a dog and sometimes not even a dog to be able to be in contact with people in a similar position is really comforting isn't it?

A: I think that is the biggest thing, if I might say so. When I have run women in business events myself the feedback that we have got from those is fantastic. Just because they have actually got together in a forum, very very informal, where they can talk about their business ideas whilst also saying "oh I really like your shoes!" for example, which is what us women do. And that's – it brings it really true to life

H: Shaa, another very important factor I guess is your family situation, having the support of your partner

S: Absolutely

H: And your family.  How was that for you – did it work?

S: It does, but there are so many successful examples of single parent / mothers who also run very successful businesses so I think that – I'm never one to categorise people, I don't believe in putting anybody into a box. I do believe, however that as a gender women tend to have to juggle more responsibilities than men do. It's a sad fact but it's a true fact, and you know I'm sure over the next generation or two that will change and balance out, certainly on the way to balancing itself out.  But if I think about my own peer group of highly successful women, most of whom earn more than their partners do, they still do more of the domestic, household, childcare duties, and so yes it is a balancing act so I think first we have to ask more of your partner because again that's down to confidence, because if you don't ask you don't get.  And you have to be realistic, if you go into business it – if you are married or you have a partner you need to have them on board to support you, because there'll be times when you may need to leave late, you made need to start early, so you need to work it out as a partnership

H: Yes. But of course men will never evolve into creatures who can load the dishwasher properly. It's never going to happen! 

S: It's deliberate, it's so you don't ask them to do it

H: I know, I know – you do a job badly you never get asked to do it again!

S: Absolutely

H: It's a good lesson isn't it? And I just want to say that of course we are live, so if you've got any questions, plenty coming in, if you've got any more questions for our guests then do please send them in. What for you Shaa was the biggest challenge or the biggest sacrifice that you had to make?

S: I don't actually feel like I've ever made any sacrifices because I've always loved what I do, and I think that's a big difference, and I think that is also a big difference for most women in business, because you choose to pursue something you're passionate about. What I would say is I have a 2 and-a-half year old son and I would say that I don't feel I have to sacrifice anything, but sacrifices have to be made, and what I mean by that is I wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning in order to work from 5-6.30 so that I don't have to make a sacrifice in seeing my son in the mornings. So my day goes 5-6.30 I work, 6.30 my son wakes up, I spend an hour with him watching cartoons for half an hour and getting him breakfast, the nanny starts at 7.30, I get ready, I go to work. Again I'm fortunate I get to leave work at half five / 6 o'clock, most evenings I come home, I put him to bed at night, and then I work for three hours. So what is the sacrifice? I don't watch a huge amount of TV and I probably wake up an awful lot earlier than most people, but if I look at the rewards that I get which is being able to spend quality time with my son, and pursue something that I'm incredibly passionate about then I don't feel that's a sacrifice

T: Funnily enough from speaking to a lot of the women in business, what a lot of them say is, if they're really clear about what they want out of the business upfront they get a lot more of that kind of passion and drive, and it really works with them, so there was an excellent example recently where we had a customer who actually pulled her growth back because she felt that she really liked talking to customers, and she couldn't do that if she was MD of a very big company, so she kind of changed it, so it's interesting that you kind of get out what you need from it

H: Yes yes. You talked about multi-tasking earlier and we've touched on the fact that women have particular skills that make them actually very good at running businesses. Can you just – Angela – elaborate on what else you know, we have going on for us?

A: Yes. Do you know what, I really think, I think especially in the female world I think we're very good at promoting each other. If we hear of a good experience or service, we are far more likely to tell another woman or man in that case of what experience we've had, and if you think about that in a business forum and in a business environment putting women together, the business is going to grow. I mean, for example I could say Shaa I love your purple top – because I do – I think it's fantastic, I'd go out and buy that, and that would be promoting the business that she bought it from, and you can't really see a man doing that, a man going up to another man and saying "oh I love your tie" – it's probably not going to happen. And I think as women we're great advocates of when we do have a good service, we will go out and spread the word, and I think that's the main thing that sets us apart from men, personally

S: And I think that as women we appreciate the recommendation from other women more than probably men would, so I think that we are first of all we're much more likely to ask our female friends and colleagues for a recommendation – whether that's for a new purple top of for a plumber, or it's for a florist, or it's for an IT service, we are much more likely to ask our peer group than men are, because men – it's the age old thing –

H: Is it a pride thing?

S: Well I think, you know men would never admit that they don't know how to read a map or ask for directions, so instead you spend, you know, two hours lost, whereas we would just think do you know what, I've got more to do with my time, just ask anybody? 

T: It's actually a real strength that people can use for their businesses which is, you know think about, if that's a really strong channel which is you know women talk to each other, and they refer business, how can you kind of build that into your plan for your business and take that forward as a particular strength

H: Yes. We're not turning into the man-hating show, we're definitely not – can we get down to something very specific now because we've got a question from Susan. She's been working at a recruitment firm for 6 years, risen through the ranks, would love to run her own recruitment consultancy but is scared of being self-employed. What is the best way to go about it? We don't need to be specific I think about recruitment, but somebody who's at that point whether they're thinking oh I'd really love to do this. Can you just, you know give us the steps that you need to go through from that point on?

T: I guess there are different views from a sort of, you know the standard bit of have a great idea, be really passionate about it, really think about what you want to get from that business, whether it's service, whether it's the highest growth that's ever happened, you know what is it you want? Run it past your customers, so many times, make sure that the people you want to sell it to want to buy it, and they're really rigorous with what they're kind of doing on that front. And then when you've done all that, I guess start to think about a business plan. We've actually got both in our branches and on our internet site a business planning software so use that, or talk to one of our relationship managers and we'll kind of help you along with it, and then from there we can start to put you in touch with the right people who really pull the business together. Now what's it feel like from the inside Shaa?

S: Well I'm a really, really big believe, and very passionate about encouraging people in general, not just women in business about taking action, and so I would come from a slightly more practical point of view, so I would say well first of all ask yourself what kind of recruitment agency do you run, and I am going to talk about specifics, just give an example –

H: No it's useful, yes

S: What kind of recruitment agency do you want to run, is this just something you want to do for a lifestyle business or do you want to actually grow a fast-growth sustainable business that is going to be worth, you know x amount of money in the future. So once you've figured that out you then say to yourself well is there an opportunity given that I'm already working for a recruitment agency, instead of going out completely by myself, just say do you know what, we currently specialise in x, I think there is a real market for y, and I have proven that I'm really good because I've risen up the ranks in the last 6 years. Instead of going this completely alone, I'm going to draw up a business plan, do everything that Tessa's said, but I'm now going to go to the board and I'm going to present an opportunity for the board and the company to support me in my venture, and maybe I'll take a – I won't own 100% of it, maybe I'll only own 25% of it because maybe they'll provide all the funding, all the back end administration, that's a fantastic way, very low risk to go and start your own business

H: Yes. Good opportunity. The other thing as well that we worked on very hard when we were setting up our business is looking at the competition, and seeing if in fact somebody else is doing precisely what you're offering and how to make – differentiate yourself from everybody else out there

A: I think – that's really key, and having sort of ambassadors in the local area, we know that. The bank we can actually say no we know that there's 18 hairdressers down that road, probably not best to start up in that area, however maybe over here, because we've got that in-depth knowledge of the local areas, and it's good to actually have it because you know, we obviously are quiet predominant in the UK, there's always a NatWest or RBS round the corner, so you can go and speak to someone

H: Yes. And that answers Gloria's question, because she said "I've always got great little ideas for businesses, but short of going on Dragon's Den I don't know where to begin." We're not recommending going on Dragon's Den are we?

S: Nothing wrong with that!

H: The – we've talked about sort of testing the market and refining your offer and all that kind of stuff, looking at the competition – then a lot of people I imagine are put off by the legal position, the financial business, tax, all that stuff. How do you help them navigate through all of that?

T: It can seem really complicated because it feels like, you know what's the difference between a sole trader and a partnership and how –

H: Exactly

T: And how do you do the legal entities and all this sort of thing, and I think when it comes down to it, it really comes down to have you got a great underlying business and if you have, from there you can find the right people to help you kind of structure it in the right way, so if you've got a great plan, you've got a great idea, you've got great passion for kind of delivering that, then speak to as many people as possible, speak to others who have started up, speak to you know clearly us as a bank, but accountants, solicitors, and it will start to pull it together for you and it's actually simpler when you start to go through it

H: Yes yes. Holly has sent a comment in – there are loads of people to advise on setting up businesses – banks, lawyers, government agencies and so on. In her experience nearly all of them are men. And she wonders if some women find that off-putting. Great that here we have three women who are giving other women advice. Do you think some people – women – do find that off-putting?

A: Yes I think a lot of women – it goes back to their confidence issue. A lot of women are intimidated by a man in that environment and feel like they might have a brilliant business idea but not know what a sole trader or a partnership is, and feel intimidated to go and say that to a man, and that's why we've put the Women in Business package together, to actually say you can come and speak to us, we're not going to make you feel daft.  I mean I'm not a stereo-typical, what people would think of a bank manager, and I would never make anybody feel inferior for asking a question like "what's an overdraft?" for example and it's having that right form of support and offering that form of support that's really important in the marketplace

H: And women often, don't they, they sort of do down their now skills they've learnt, for example in the home. Because running a home is like a business isn't it?

S: Absolutely

H: And they could – you know those are skills that are easily transferable. Now we've had George has sent us a question, here – his wife is a pretty amazing hairdresser and he thinks she could easily make it big if she set up on her own. How does he encourage her to take the leap of faith to go it alone? That's fantastic that he's behind her

S: Absolutely

H: Shaa what would you say to George?

S: Well first of all you have to make sure that's what she wants to do. I think that's really key!

H: George wants to do –

S: Maybe George is thinking he can have a nice high life at home

H: While she's earning all the money, yes!

S: But if we take the assumption that she does want to do – this is fantastic – she'll have twice as much chance of succeeding with a really supportive partner as she will without one, so I think it's great that George has taken the initiative to send in a question, it clearly shows that he wants to support his wife and I think that's a first step. Sit down with her, talk about it, let her know that you're there for her through the ups and the downs because believe me everybody has ups and downs in business, the most successful business people in the world – they just have bigger ups and downs that's all and sit there with her, go through the business plan as Tessa said, go and see one of your local RBS / NatWest advisors and just work it with her

H: Yes. I know where George is coming from, my husband is always – it's a joke in our house – he always talks about when my very small business currently goes NASDAQ and he can give up! We're nearly out of time sadly but can we just – can you each give me a couple of top tips. Hayley wants to know what your top tips would be for starting her own business from home?  Can we start with you?

A: Yes. I think one of the major key things is actually going and talking to somebody about it, don't keep it to yourself, go and get the right advice, come and speak to the experts because we know what we're talking about, and we would help you plan through that business right from the ideas stage and put it into practice for you, and we can help with the finance, we can help with the network groups and I think that's really key just to not keep it to yourself, come and talk to people because we're here and we want to talk

H: Fantastic. Shaa, top tip or two?

S: Well if I had to just pick one I know it sounds a bit corny, but I really would just paraphrase Nike and say just do it, because you will never learn until you start and the longer you prolong something the less likely it is that you're going to do it, and when you know, when we get to 80 and we're in our glorious times of retirement we're going to look back and look at things that we didn't do, not the things that we did, and you don't want to be one of those people who say I coulda, I shoulda, I woulda – just go do it

H: Fantastic. Tessa, what about you?

T: I would really echo what Shaa says but add to that, it sounds like she's home – at home and therefore make use of the support out there, there's the internet it's fantastic now, and there are loads of organisations like some of the ones we partner with who can help them and have a great plan and enjoy it I guess, because if you're not enjoying it you're not going to be doing as well as you might

H: Fantastic, really good advice. Really enjoyable chat, thank you very much. Lovely purple top and very nice shoes – thought I'd mention them again

A: Thank you

H: Thank you. And thank you for joining us. If you'd like more information on starting up your own business then you can visit Natwest.com/business. Bye for now, see you again soon