Women Unlimited (www.women-unlimited.co.uk), the UK’s fastest growing organisation focused on supporting women business owners, has picked ten of the brightest and most up and coming female entrepreneurs who it believes will be ‘stepping into success’ in 2010.
The predictions come in line with Women Unlimited’s annual conference, ‘Stepping into Success’. On Monday 8th March (International Women’s Day), Women Unlimited, in partnership with The British Library’s Business and IP Centre, will run a series of masterclasses and seminars, designed to provide motivation and inspiration, celebrating and encouraging women entrepreneurs.
Julie Hall, founder and editor of Women Unlimited, has selected ten businesses, which she believes has what it take to succeed in the current economic climate, and which will be the ones to watch this year. She comments:
“The businesses we have picked are founded or co-founded by women. They are all relatively new organisations that have been conceived and launched in the last five years. All have achieved some degree of success already, but they are our picks for growth and business success in 2010. They are a mix of established start-ups and up and coming businesses, and we think each of these companies have explosive growth potential ahead of them.”
The top ten companies are:
1. Alexandra Kelly of Powerchex – www.powerchex.co.uk - Powerchex specialises in providing a quick five-day turnaround to screen the histories of new recruits in the financial sector. It is already very successful, but we think Powerchex is set for explosive growth.
2. Lisa Irlam of Pool-mate Watch – www.swimovate.com – Lisa is doing everything right and making a splash with her watches both in the UK and internationally. She has managed to quickly gain customers all over the world - an example of right product/right time.
3. Sara Murray of Buddi – www.buddi.co.uk – Sara came up with the idea for this personal tracking device after losing one of her children in a supermarket and is a classic example of where a personal need became the foundation for a new product. Sara’s background launching confused.com gives her a good foundation in how to create a successful business.
4. Jo Behari of Home Jane – www.home-jane.co.uk – Jo created an all female DIY services company that is really hitting the mark. Home Jane is a multi-award winner and definitely one to watch in the coming year.
5. Galia Orme of Choc Chick – www.chocchick.com – Galia’s idea for making your own delicious, guilt-free chocolates instead of buying off the shelf chocolate is going from strength-to-strength and is now available to buy in Bentalls. We believe it won’t be long before we see all the supermarkets stocking her fabulous product.
6. Susi Pink of Lavish – www.lavish.co.uk – Lavish is a luxury gift voucher for beauty salons and spa that can be redeemed across the UK – why didn’t anyone think of this before? It is a perfect, simple and elegant gift and we think Susi is going to revolutionalise the spa industry
7. Anna Lowe, founder of Innovonix - www.innovonix.com – Innovonix is developing Water-Rays, a solar-powered water pump to allow subsistence farmers in developing countries to irrigate their crops. It’s rare to see a woman launching a business in the engineering field and we think Anna’s product will revolutionise the Third World
8. Viviane Jaeger – Squid London - www.squidlondon.com – Squid London is a forward thinking design team paving the way in future material technology as evidenced by their colour changing umbrella. We’re really looking forward to the new products that this creative team comes up with.
9. Kate Kitson of Truly Madly Baby - www.trulymadlybaby.co.uk – Truly Madly Baby already has over 300 consultants running parties all over the country.
10. Tina Michelucci of Dietfreedom – www.dietfreedom.co.uk – One of the original Trapezia fund businesses, Tina created Diet Freedom initially as an online diet forum, and they are now creating award winning diet products to enable weight loss.
Julie Hall adds: “These companies are great examples of where women are using their skills and experience in non-traditional businesses. Women are creating products up and down the country that are fulfilling their needs and are founding businesses that are more successful as a result.”
