The majority of the women than ever are selecting to work for themselves, according to figures from online business insurance broker Simply Business. The company has noticed a 12 per cent boost in quote requests from women venturing into businesses over the past one year, with women now accounting for 37 per cent of all start-up businesses, up from 33 per cent last year.
The figures are based on over 117,000 start-up business quote requests received by Simply business so far this year, of which 42,928 were for business start-ups owned by women, up from 34,116 at the same time in 2010.
The start-up businesses chart for female tops in creative and service based industries; with cleaners, beauticians, hairdressers and caterers dominating the top ten. However, women are also holding their own in ‘hard-skill’ industries. Accountancy and financial advisory is the tenth place most popular female start-up business and there has been a 16 per cent rise in self-employed female lawyers over the past year. Complementary therapy has grown 16% year on year, education consultants by 61% and nursing businesses by 46%.
“With unemployment at its highest for 23 years, it is encouraging to see that more and more women are embracing the opportunity to set up on their own.” told Jason Stockwood, chief executive of Simply Business.