Almost 400 business leaders from the Swansea Bay region gathered at the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, last Friday (October 11) to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Women in Business Awards.
As well as recognising the achievements of a number of female entrepreneurs and business executives in the region, the awards also welcomed American businesswoman, model, actress, and TV personality Caprice Bourret as the day’s keynote speaker, who inspired the audience with her life story.
The event also recognised the achievements of all of the inspirational winners from the past decade who were also invited back as part of the judging panel.
These included 2011 winner Connie Parry, 2013 winner Hayley Davies, 2014 winner Heather Cooper, 2016 winner Alison Orrells, 2017 winner Debbie Green, and last year's winner Karen Hewitt.
They were joined by Lisa Cameron, Media Wales commercial managing director, and Alison Vickers, managing partner of Bevan Buckland. The overall winner of the event was revealed as Danielle Watts-Jones, managing director of DWJ Wealth Management.
Lisa Cameron opened the event with a speech that both recognised the achievements of previous winners of the event but also offered some startling statistics around the extent to which gender disparity still exists in business in the UK.
“In the 10 years since we launched these awards, I feel we have done much to encourage women to start and develop businesses in the region. I hope these awards have played a part in giving some the confidence to go out and fulfil their potential,” she said.
“But at a national level, the news is not so positive. According to The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship in the UK, published in February this year, the gender parity gap between male and female entrepreneurs in the UK has been worsening steadily since 2013 – and is now at its lowest level since 2008 – the year before we launched these awards!
“In the same period, many other countries including Canada and the Netherlands have reduced their entrepreneurial gender gap – the proportion of women running businesses compared to men – by about one-third.
“This is important. Up to £250bn of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as UK men. Even if the UK were to achieve the same average share of women entrepreneurs as best-in-class peer countries, this would add £200 billion of new value to the UK economy.
“We all know that women do not lack ability or ambition. Yet only 1 in 3 UK entrepreneurs is female. Female-led businesses are only 44% of the size of male-led businesses on average, in terms of their contribution to the economy, and male SMEs are five times more likely to scale up to £1 million turnover than female SMEs.
“I know that none of the women I know lack ambition or are afraid of hard work. The fact is that we need to find the solutions. And I firmly believe that events such as this do much to encourage women to start businesses.”
The first keynote speaker was local businesswoman Jessica Rice, founder of JR Events & Catering, who delivered a motivating and empowering speech. She said: “As women, we are often told statements like ‘Smash the glass ceiling’, however we don’t talk enough about how to do this, or how to build an empire. We need to discuss this more.
“I want to tell you all my five coping mechanisms to achieve positive outcomes: HAPPY. This stands for Handle failure, Attitudes are contagious, Peach, Play fair, and You time.
“Peach is particularly important, even though it sounds a bit peculiar. You can be the fluffiest, juiciest peach, but not everyone likes peaches. And that’s ok”.
This speech resounded with the audience, who gave Jessica a standing ovation.
Presenting the awards was Frances Donovan, a journalist and broadcaster. She praised all of the women in the audience, saying: “Thank you for being brilliant and coming today so we can celebrate you.”
Caprice Bourret, the second keynote speaker, then addressed the room, injecting some humour into her speech. She said that she had no idea that she wanted to run her own business, as she came from an underprivileged background.
“I was one of the first people to license my name, approaching the CEO of Debenhams to do so. I know what it’s like to be poor, so I am always forward thinking. Since I am plagued with the stereotype of an American model, I continuously want to prove myself, and prove others wrong,” she said.
“I wasn’t taken seriously by stockists at all, so I fell into a depression. It took a lot of time for me to get out of it, but I managed to pull myself together. I told myself, ‘Stop victimising yourself!’. Now, I have a homeware range that is supplied in Bed, Bath & Beyond, and Macy’s.”
Caprice also offered advice on how to run a successful business.
“You’ve got to live, breathe, and love your business,” she said.
“Invest in good contracts, and make cashflow your bible. Sometimes, the best thing to do in business is to dump a really bad idea. Change is amazing ladies, don’t be afraid of it.”
Finally, the moment everyone had been waiting for arrived. It was time to crown the Woman of the Year 2019. The inspirational woman who claimed this award was Danielle Watts-Jones, managing director of DWJ Wealth Management.
