UK’s Success Capitals Revealed – chatting with Female Entrepreneurs across the UK

Analysis of over 60 Million social posts has revealed the UK’s Success Capitals as we Celebrate Female Entrepreneurship.

A new report analysing over 60 million social posts has revealed the success capitals of the UK just in time for International Women’s Day in support and celebrating of female entrepreneurs.

Public Desire has collated this data to reveal and create an Interactive Map which allows you to explore the data worldwide, displaying different confidence/motivation elements from success and career to self-love. The map discovers the most loved hashtags of each city and the content that our nation loves to share.

TOP CITIES FOR SUCCESS REVEALED:

Female entrepreneurship is often highlighted online through hashtags such as #girlboss, #career, and #success, and whilst it celebrates these proud moments it also allows people to connect and networking with the like-minded, furthermore growing the business.

Public Desire has spoken to several female entrepreneurs across London, Brighton and Bournemouth to gain insights and share what it’s like being a girl boss in this day and age, how their cities highlight the female boss industry and how they find social media in terms of celebrating and spreading the success of their business.

LONDON IS THE #SUCCESS CAPITAL

Difficult to define but universally understood, #success covers many aspects of life. It could be securing that dream job or starting your own company as a girlboss, London is a huge hub for female success stories making it the British capital a hub for successful life inspiration.

We spoke to Louise Deverell-Smith who is Founder at Daisy Chain in London:

When we asked Louise what she thought about being a female entrepreneur in London, she said: “I definitely feel the vibrant buzz of London for business and for entrepreneurs.  I am part of many women’s groups which are based in London, however, there are women at these events that aren’t based in London.  I think having Sadiq Khan as our major of London is fantastic as he is often talking about flexible working and helping working parents – which is our focus at Daisy Chain.”

Social media gets a bad rep sometimes, so we asked Louise how she found social media for celebrating success and for her business;

“Social media has been really positive for us as a business! We only post positive messages and images, and we love to champion our employers and candidates on Daisy Chain! We love a success story and our network loves to share our success too.”

She goes on to say: “I do find that women love to help other women… there is a real sisterhood vibe in business with women.”

Daisy Chain is a free online platform which connects parents to family-friendly employers.

Louise was also recently been awarded in the f-entrepreneur top 100 female entrepreneurs in the UK.

BRIGHTON – ANOTHER #SUCCESS CAPTIAL

We spoke with Kathy Caton, Managing Director at Brighton Gin in Brighton:

Brighton Gin was established by Kathy Caton back in 2014, which distills gin by the seaside of beautiful Brighton. The gin is sold across the country stocked by bars, restaurants, and hotels, but also can be bought online. They were also awarded 1* at the 2018 Great Taste Awards, a proud moment for Katy. 

Kathy says: “Brighton is an amazing place to get things started – it’s a town where people will give you a break if you’re willing we’re to put the graft in (and as we all know graft is the key!) – and where we really like to celebrate home-grown successes and collaborate and support wherever possible.”

When we asked her about what it’s like a female entrepreneur she said; 

“I am ridiculously proud of what we’ve achieved with Brighton Gin (and I tend to say we, not I) – we’ve taken this from a light-bulb idea and (dodge) experiments around my kitchen table-top to a company that makes what has just been named Handmade Gin of the Year (Lux Life Magazine).

It is hard, hard work though, Starting your own business can be quite a lonely and certainly a scary business and the wider female entrepreneur community in Brighton are very supportive to each other.”

When we brought up the topic of social media, we wanted to express that it can circulate a lot of negativity but we wanted to hear what Kathy thought about social posts in relation to celebrating successes and connecting with like-minded people and also for her business, she says;

“We’ve used social media since day one, and it’s been really important to me since the outset that our tone of voice is authentic and genuine, that we look after our own posts, and that it’s as much about the place we live and celebrating and connecting with others as it is about talking about our Brighton Gin exploits.

Instagram has let us show to the outside world the genuinely small-batch, craft nature of what we do, and with personality too. One of the things I love about social media is that we can have direct conversations with our end customers and them with us without going through gatekeepers – I’m big into community as you can tell and I love that there are different communities out there on each platform!

I was at the Copenhagen Gin Festival a few weeks ago and it was absolutely amazing to meet Danish fans of Brighton Gin who I’ve only ever spoken to on Insta or Twitter! Our big goal for the next few years is to try to take the Spirit of Brighton to the world – and we’re hoping that social media might just help us do that!”

We spoke to Maria Lloyd, Managing Director at BC Beauty in Brighton:

Maria decided she wanted to start her own business in 2012-13, after becoming a qualified beautician she decided to start her own business to teach, mentor and qualify others.  

Now, BC Beauty Training has taught over 2500 students in the South East.

She estimates that about 500 of those are people that have wanted to start up their own business themselves, and alongside the beauty training also provides general business mentoring to her students who wish to go down this route.

Maria says: “I love being a female entrepreneur, I love the fact that I have built my business from nothing to a £190, 000 turnover in 6 years. The challenges are building something from nothing and not being sure of where to start.”

She goes on to talk about how social media has impacted her business;

“Social media has helped us build the business, without social media I don’t think we would be where we are now. It has helped us share all the highs/successes of the business.

We have our own Facebook group where women can interact, ask each other questions etc, and from looking at that I see nothing but women supporting each other and celebrating each other’s successes. It makes me very proud to see!”

BC Beauty Training were also the most recent winners of ‘Beauty Training Academy of the Year’ at the English Hair and Beauty Awards.

We spoke to Erin Thomas, Founder of Making Mumpreneurs in Bournemouth:

Making Mumpreneurs is an online community supporting mums building businesses around family life. The inner sanctum of Making Mumpreneurs is The Cocoon online business club – a safe place to learn, evolve & grow as an entrepreneur.

When being asked what it’s like being a female entrepreneur in Bournemouth, Erin said; 

“Bournemouth is an incredibly entrepreneurial town and a fantastic place for startups. There are lots of women in business networking opportunities which makes me feel right at home! I find the small business community here incredibly supportive, positive and collaborative.”

Erin goes on to say;

“I feel completely empowered to be running a business on my own terms, which also fits around my young children.

I think it’s important to stand tall and be a role modelto children, so they know that they don’t have to fit in a box and choose a set career.”

“We have so many opportunities open to us now, especially in the digital age, and it’s exciting to feel that you really can achieve whatever you want to. The challenges we face are often down to mindset – low confidence, being too self-critical, and a fear of failure. I think these can be overcome the more you surround yourself with like-minded female entrepreneurs.”

She goes on to talk about how social media impacts her business and her thoughts on using it to celebrate successes. 

“I have built my business entirely on social media and for me, it has been an incredibly positive experience. I have been able to build a highly engaged community of mums in business, all at different stages of their journey.

It’s very easy to get caught up in comparisonitis on social media, so it’s essential to build your confidence about what you’re doing, and not be afraid to celebrate and tell people when things go well. I’m very honest with my community about the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship, and I think it’s important to balance that with also shouting about the successes you have.” 

Tayyab Akhlaq, Marketing Director at Public Desire said,

“We know that social media is a great platform for positivity. Often society focuses on the negative aspects however, we believe it provides a great source of inspiration and motivation for users to share their businesses successes.

With International Women’s Day on the 8th March we wanted to celebrate and understand how female entrepreneurs thrive in their cities and utilise social media to not only highlight their success but also connect and network with like-minded people.”

To explore the UK’s confidence capitals further and see how your city compares, please visit: https://www.publicdesire.com/instagram-capitals/