As more women than ever start new and innovative businesses, The Telegraph and NatWest celebrate their drive, ambition and commitment in their 100 Female Entrepreneurs to Watch list for 2022.
Last Thursday afternoon at 3pm I received the news that I had made the list. From retail to tech, beauty to fashion, and me in corporate services, the 100 Female Entrepreneurs to Watch is filled with those that have overcome huge challenges and made big sacrifices to follow their passions. As part of The Telegraph Women Mean Business conference - now in its fourth year - they set themselves a new challenge and in collaboration with the team at NatWest they launched the 100 Female Entrepreneurs to Watch list.
Their aim? To shine a spotlight on some of the most exiting high potential female owned businesses in the UK. My aim? I wanted to be one of them!
Female-led business will shine through despite impact of cost-of-living crisis. Choose to Grow are a HR consultancy dedicated to helping organisations adapt to and manage change in a hybrid world while protecting employee wellbeing - Caroline Barrett-Haigh, executive life style editor at The Telegraph.
Keeping this a secret until this Saturday just gone, when I was featured in a 8 page supplement with all the other 100 was hard, but so exciting. Entrepreneurship is one hell of a ride. There are times when it feels like you're putting out fires ❤️🔥one minute, and picking up accolades 🌟 the next. But the one thing with #entrepreneurship is you never stand still. The come back is always greater than the set back. I have to keep pinching myself and remembering my journey as leader in business. Its not been a straight one.
It's amazing to be recognised by Alison Rose, Yvonne Greeves, Caroline Barrett-Haigh, Toby Young, Jenny Tooth OBE, Debbie Wosskow, OBE, Emma Davies & Stephen Pegge and incredibly inspiring to read about the other #entrepreneurs creating disruption in their sectors, on The Telegraph & NatWest 100 Female Entrepreneurs to Watch list.
The response was phenomenal, and the women we met even more incredible - The Judges.
Looking at the list you can see that many of these female entrepreneurs started their businesses in lockdown, and I feel that we are a better and different HR Consultancy as a result of the pandemic due to the diversification we had to make in the way we delivered our services to the HR community. Most of our success this year (3 accolades in 3 months thanks to the Moja Team) have been down to the value we created for our clients during this time, and for innovating our Flagship Pivot Leadership Programme - which provides leaders of hybrid teams with the skills to successfully lead through continual change, all whilst enhancing the lived experience of the employee (Download Brochure).
Recent data from the Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship Report - launched by NatWest's chief executive Alison Rose in 2019 to raise awareness of the struggles women face when starting and growing businesses - reveals that female entrepreneurship has proven to be exceptionally resilient.
Furthermore, Caroline reports that the number of female founded businesses is growing by a third every year, outstripping growth in male-led forms for the first time.
Making this list is an asset for my company and I intend on using this 'commended' status to leverage business growth opportunities in the form of mentorship and investment moving forward post pandemic.
We have big plans for the next 3-5 years where we will continue to develop and grow the Pivot Programme so other practitioners in the industry can deliver award winning leadership development and coaching interventions within their businesses and for the companies they serve. In doing this together we will deliver on my big vision for corporates - which is to have a movement of Pivot Leaders in all organisations who can deliver on the organisations ambitions, while protecting the long term health of their employees with my 'Brian to Brain' principles for enhanced people performance.
I want to say thank you to The Telegraph and NatWest for highlighting my success and offering up this scheme to celebrate my company and its achievements.
As for the other 99 Female Entrepreneurs who made the list, a massive congratulations to you all 👏🏻💖
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