For businesswomen across the UK, all roads will lead to Reading, when the annual EWIB event is staged on Wednesday, September 27th. This year’s gathering takes place at the Select Car Leasing Stadium, formerly called the Madejski Stadium, which is the home of Reading FC. Last week, the event was given its official launch by the British Franchise Association (BFA).
EWIB, which means ‘Encouraging Women In Business,’ usually attracts a sizeable crowd and the theme for this year’s event is ‘Making your moments count.’ EWIB is open to all women, not just BFA members, and tickets can be purchased via the BFA website. Those wishing to buy a ticket, which costs £135 plus VAT, can do so by going to the BFA website and clicking here.
This year’s action-packed day, that will feature a number of guest speakers, is being jointly-sponsored by McDonald’s Restaurants, Platinum Wave Franchising, The Franchising Centre and Citation. Doors open at 9 am, and will close eight hours later.
The chief executive of the BFA, Pip Wilkins, said: “Some people question the need to have women only events in 2023. However, despite the unequivocal rise of female business owners, including their success in the UK franchise sector, women still lag significantly behind their male colleagues in many areas of business.
“Aside from the well-reported pay gap of 14.9% for women, meaning they effectively work for free for the first 54 days of each year, they are also conspicuous by their absence in senior roles.
“According to a 2022 Government report, only one in three leadership roles, and around 25% of all executive committee roles, are currently held by women. The good news is that nearly 40% of board positions at the UK’s FTSE 100 companies, are now held by women, compared to just 12.5% 10 years ago. This is great news but we mustn’t take our foot off the gas just yet.”
Regarding events on the day, the first keynote speaker will be BBC One’s The Apprentice winner Harpreet Kaur. This is followed by six speed sessions that will tackle topics such as coaching and building positive circles, as well as not creating barriers to success.
The second speaker is Sam McAlister, who is a former producer on BBC Two’s long-running Newsnight programme. This will be followed by an interactive panel of leading women within franchising. The final keynote speaker is Eniola Aluko, a leading figure in women’s football. Eniola won numerous honours in the game, including the English Super League and Women’s FA Cup.
Pip Wikins added: “Although EWIB is organised by the BFA, and attended by hundreds of women in franchising, I want to stress that this event is not just for the franchise community. Attendees can look forward to spending a day with like-minded women in an inclusive atmosphere, where they will be warmly welcomed. By the end they should feel educated, engaged and enthused.”
The Covid pandemic disproportionately affected entrepreneurial women negatively. Start-up rates for women dropped by 15% between 2019 and 2020. Women in upper–middle-income countries suffered terribly, with a 74% increase in exiting businesses, between 2019 and 2021. This compares to 34% for men.
Speaking about franchising, Pip Wilkins continued: “Whether you franchise a business or become a franchisee, both take bravery and a willingness to step out of the comfort zone. But sadly, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), there were half as many female-established business owners as there were males in 2020.
“Franchising relies on entrepreneurial men and women, and we need to ignite those fires. We need to encourage women to launch and run their own businesses.” Pip Wilkins also touched on ‘imposter syndrome’, which she believes may be holding women back from going into business.
She explained: “One of the reasons I am so passionate about EWIB is our chance to make women believe in themselves. It is a well-known fact that women suffer more than men from imposter syndrome.
“Even as chief executive of a national association, there are days when I question my ability. Fortunately, I have a very supportive team here at the BFA but not everyone has that back up.
“Therefore, we’d like EWIB to be that back up for our guests. We want to make them believe in themselves. Events such as EWIB allow us to showcase powerful female role models, and successful women ultimately benefit the British economy.”
According to a report by QuickBooks in 2023, 33% of female business owners reported that they often felt out of their depth, compared to just 18% of males. As many as 42% of males said they have never felt out of their depth.
EWIB has been a sell-out event for the past two years and in 2023 the number of available tickets has increased by 50%.
About the BFA: The British Franchise Association is the voluntary self-regulating governing body for UK franchising and was formed in 1977. The BFA promotes franchise systems which meet strict ethical and business criteria. The term ‘franchising’ has been used to describe many different forms of business relationships. Business format franchising is the granting of a license by the franchisor to the franchisee. This entitles the franchisee to trade under the trade name of the franchisor. The BFA lists its members, and code of ethics, on the website www.thebfa.org.
