Our commitment to empowering women in business
We’re absolutely committed to delivering meaningful and ongoing support to help all women in business realise their ambitions.
The challenges you might face in business are varied and complex. But we’re here for the long haul to help provide you with the expertise, skills, finance1 and knowledge you need for ongoing success.
In 2019, we pledged to help 100,000 women start up and run their own businesses. We’re delighted to announce that we’ve reached our target – and that we’ve set an even higher one to replace it.
Here’s a snapshot of some of the support we’ve provided so far.
Starting out in business
We’ve provided expertise, dedicated events and specialised support to help women get their businesses up and running, including:
Our specialist coaching programme, which matches female entrepreneurs with Business Relationship Managers for dedicated sessions on business planning, cashflow forecasts, digital support and accessing finance
Our Eagle Labs support, which provides connection, skills and guidance for women in business
Creating the Female Founders Forum, in partnership with The Entrepreneurs Network. The Forum connects the UK’s most inspirational female founders with women whose businesses are on the edge of rapid growth, as well as drawing attention to the inequalities facing women in business.
Finance and investment
We connected women with the finance they needed to succeed, by:
Providing flexibility on our lending and finance options to help manage maternity leave and accommodate life changes, with family-friendly capital repayment holidays – where borrowers only repay the interest on their loan for a set amount of time
Launching accelerator programmes designed to give women in business access to valuable networks, mentors and investors, including AccelerateHer
Offering a range of tools, webinars and guidance to build understanding of the funding landscape and how to navigate it.
Building skills and education
Tackling gender inequality in business goes beyond providing assistance today. That’s why we’ve built skills and education for this generation and the next, by:
Delivering entrepreneurial life skills content to schools, featuring female role models and focused on building the practical skills necessary to start a business
Partnering with the British Library and its national small business service to deliver support on starting a business, building resilience and accessing finance
Partnering with Ethical Angels to provide mentoring for female-led businesses and charities.
While great progress has been made, the same challenges still remain and we’re a long way from a level playing field.
That’s why we’re continuing our work to support female entrepreneurs and increasing our goal to support 150,000 women to startup, run and grow their businesses over the next three years.
Want to know more? You can read about the work we’re doing and the work of the Female Founders Forum.
We offer four one-hour sessions with one of our Business Relationship Managers to help you manage and grow your business.
All sessions are virtual and can work around your schedule. To apply, you need to have:
“Really the biggest, most enormous thank you. From the very first moment Barclays gave me the confidence and vision to put myself out there again and the results are showing good signs already. I think the biggest thing for me is the confidence Barclays gave me in myself again, and my abilities and the energy to want to have another go...” – Anna Cook, Anna Letitia Cook Limited
“Engaging with my Relationship Manager was a refreshing experience. She provided a safe space to delve into our current business challenges, opportunities and direction. Her informal and relational leadership approach allowed for organic and meaningful exploration of areas where Barclays could offer support.
Ending the sessions with an investor pitch practice alongside Louise and her bank colleagues was an excellent learning opportunity that would usually be difficult to access. The connections we established with Barclays and other national contacts from the bank will undoubtedly prove beneficial as we seek to expand our services beyond the North East.” – Charlotte Windebank of FIRST Face To Face Ltd.
We were founding signatories of the Investing in Women Code – a government-led initiative created to shine a light on the challenges women face when starting and growing businesses, and to increase transparency on the funding gap and encourage financial services to provide more support.
Every year, we contribute to the Investing in Women Code’s annual report, which explores the ways signatories are nurturing female entrepreneurship and shares inspirational success stories of women in business.
We’re delighted that our services and several businesses we’ve supported feature in this year’s report, including our:
Because you’re balancing more than just the books, we want to make sure you’re equipped with the right information, tools and networking opportunities to bring your business dreams to life
We’re proud to have partnered with The Entrepreneurs Network (TEN) to set up the Female Founders Forum – a space where inspirational women entrepreneurs can connect, support each other and promote innovation2.
As part of our pioneering Eagle Labs platform, we’ve planned an exciting range of talks, events and workshops to help your business thrive.
Whether you’re looking to unlock your own potential or nurture others, we’re here to help you develop the key skills you need to excel at work and beyond.
Research shows the biggest challenges to female entrepreneurs are access to networks, business advice and capital.
We’re committed to changing this, so we’ve teamed up with Techstars to create the Female Founders First programme. It’s an opportunity for 30 trailblazing female-led tech companies from around the globe to access mentorship and a range of online events and products. This helps them ready their start-ups for their next phase.
Read about some of our female entrepreneurs – they share how they grew their business and overcame challenges.
Boosting business opportunities through education in local communities.
Charlotte Windebank, founder of FIRST, shares how her business is making entrepreneurship more accessible to underrepresented groups. She also discusses the challenges facing women in business, her hopes for the future and more.
Our handy tools and guides will help support you and your business.
Information and advice to help your business going forward
We’ve put together a wide range of knowledge and insight for you – read up on plans, financial support, media and marketing and much more.
We’ve teamed up with Ethical Angel to mentor 100 female-led social SMEs.
A podcast created by six of our graduates, designed to bridge the early-career confidence gap by inspiring and educating young women to find their inner entrepreneur.
You can listen on Anchor, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or any other major podcast platform.
Not sure where to begin? Discover the insights you need to start building a business you’re proud of today.
Your guide to a successful business plan
A good business plan defines what you want to achieve and how you intend to achieve it. Our guide could help you write yours.
Adapting to change
We’ve put together a series of articles and guides to support you and your business, and help you feel more confident about the future.
Help keep your business finances healthy
Sharpen your business money-management skills with our guides on managing cashflow.
Whether you’re a seasoned businesswoman or just starting out, our business accounts are here to help make banking simple. Make payments, send invoices and manage your account on the go with our award-winning app3. T&Cs apply.
