BREXIT & COVID-19- A DOUBLE WHAMMY FOR WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE UK

2020 was the year of all things uncertain for businesses around the world; whether formal or informal; whether micro, small, medium or large in size. The United Kingdom’s businesses faced an additional layer of macroeconomic uncertainty-BREXIT. It is well known that the nemesis of business strategy is the inability to plan because of uncertainty. In this article, I explore the nature of the uncertainty brought on by these two phenomena for UK businesses, and I focus specifically on women’s enterprising as women’s businesses already faced more challenges than those of their male counterparts prior to COVID-19 and BREXIT.

The impacts of crises are never gender-neutral, and COVID-19 is no exception.

The Office for National Statistics released the following summary data in November 2020:

• The percentage of businesses trading fell by 18%.
• 50% of businesses experienced a decrease in turnover.
• 34% of the accommodation and food service activities industry had no or low confidence that their businesses would survive the next three months, the least confidence expressed among all industries.
• The arts, entertainment and recreation industry had the highest proportion of its workforce on partial or full
  furlough leave, at 34%, compared with 9% across all industries.
• 37% of businesses in the hospitality sector had changed their operating hours as the result of full closure, and 32% because of the 10pm
  
  curfew.
• Across all industries, 7% of businesses expected to temporarily or permanently close a business site in the
  
  next two weeks, with 25% of businesses in the accommodation and food service activities industry
  
  expecting to close a business site.

The most impacted industries have more women

The statistics here represent all businesses, irrespective of whether they are men-led or women-led. I, however, focus on impacts on women’s businesses because of the disproportionate worse impact on these businesses.

Women’s paid labour and women-run businesses will be hit hard(est)

An article published by Manalova et al. (2020)aptly summarizes the findings on the impact of Covid-19 on women’s businesses as follows:

1. The industries where most women operate are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 recession
2. Women are more likely to run many of the youngest, smallest, most vulnerable businesses; and
3. With schools closed and elderly family members under threat, women are more likely to be juggling primary care-giving and homemaking, while they are scrambling to save their businesses.

I now turn to summary impacts of BREXIT. For all businesses, changes are expected in payments due for taxes and duty, industry safety standards, the movement of labour and the movement of goods.

With women’s businesses largely concentrated in retail and service, they are once again on the disproportionate end of worse impact. Of the summary areas highlighted, the movement of labour and goods are especially crucial to women’s enterprising in the UK as migrant EU labour tends to be cheaper as are imports of goods in comparison to domestic goods.

With the doom and gloom comes some potential light at the end of the COVID-19 and BREXIT tunnel as follows:

• You need to reach out for help. There are numerous small businesses grants targeted at women in the UK provided by both the government and not-for-profit sectors. Explore some of these sources here https://www.aabrs.com/small-business-grants-for-women/ and also here https://www.womenentrepreneursuk.com/business-grants-for-women-entrepreneurs/
• Women’s businesses are largely social capital dependent. Take advantage of this feature by joining women focused entrepreneurial groups on various social media. Information is well spread in these networks and information is the most valuable of all resources. Some UK networks can be found here https://www.driven-woman.com/blog/archive/the-20-best-womens-networks-to-help-you-achieve-your-goals
• Restrategise for business after BREXIT. Sage has produced an easy to read, free to download guide on how to cut costs in import and export, hiring EU workers, managing tax obligations and so much more. You can get the guide here https://www.sage.com/en-gb/blog/how-will-brexit-affect-businesses/#gate-a9abb7b9-c3e5-426a-8c5d-7594284d0122
• BREXIT brings currency volatility and new trade partnership opportunities, this actually favours small import dependant businesses. Keep an eye on the UK’s new trade agreements and what this could mean for your business.

The recommendations here may seem like pie in the sky but I hope you will be further inspired by the case evidence that follows.

Case Spotlight: Gapsquare founded by Dr Zara Nanu

Gapsquare is a UK based software company whose mission it is to help businesses in complying with gender pay gap regulations.

Founded in 2017, the company has been growing during the COVID-19 pandemic and even taken on new employees.

Following experience from the pandemic and recognizing a need for better people management during crisis, Zara identified a market opportunity and has now launched an interactive workforce management dashboard that uses data to help employers make decisions around managing people in crisis. This dashboard is usable for unpredictable crises like Covid-19 and expected disruptions like BREXIT.

The new platform helps global businesses track changes to business operations, compare across industries and plan ahead.

Zara describes her team as “agile and inventive”.

Rather than setting a fixed price, the company has moved its services to a “pay-what-you-can” model, in a bid to help budget-constrained organisations.

“We’ve seen that the crisis disproportionately affects women, people of colour, people with disabilities or vulnerabilities, and other minority groups - so there’s been more opportunity to help companies build fairness into their recovery.”

I hope Zara’s success inspires you in that you can pivot your business model in the face of crisis without compromising your core mission. Pivoting will not only allow you adapt but thrive.

Stay safe, keep well and be kind to others.

*In-text article quotes (greyed and indented) cited from UN Women