Specialist funding for women entrepreneurs

Independent enterprise is one of the most important vehicles for the empowerment of women in South Africa. The Business Partners' vision is to enable more female entrepreneurs to take up meaningful roles in the business community.

Business Partners Limited has, as part of its strategy to increase its footprint in the women owned SME arena, made a strategic decision to create the Business Partners Women's Fund. By assisting women with capital, skill and knowledge, resulting in wealth and job creation for themselves and their teams and thus contributing to the growth of the economy, the Business Partners Women's Fund is at the forefront of shifting the dynamics of the SME market to embody gender equality.

Why women?

Many women are starting and expanding sustainable businesses and the Business Partners Women's Fund will assist them with finance and mentoring. By dedicating a fund that will assist women entrepreneurs to own and grow their own small and medium businesses, Business Partners wants to unlock economic growth and empower women.

Women have a far better opportunity of empowering themselves as entrepreneurs than they do in regular employment or big business. Unfortunately traditional trends still hold true in big business: Women employees still fill the lower ranks of the organisation, and find it very difficult to rise to senior and executive management level. Even fewer are ever appointed to the board of directors.

More and more women who are frustrated by the limited opportunities in traditional business and who want to have control over their working lives are opting for the entrepreneurial route. In this way they are not only generating wealth for themselves, but are contributing to overall economic development and creating valuable new jobs. Approximately 14 new jobs are created every time Business Partners invests in a female-owned business.

Business Partners Women's Fund

The Business Partners Women's Fund offers a unique opportunity to women who propose sustainable business ideas or want to expand their existing enterprises on an independent level.  The fund is to be managed by a specialist team of women, lead by a fund manager who is supported by a team of professional female financiers.

Whether it is a need for finance, information, markets, a network base or mentors, the Business Partners Women's Fund aims to create and facilitate a women-friendly environment where women receive assistance, tailor-made for the unique challenges they face in South Africa.

The fund caters for women with a 25.1% - 49.9% ownership (female engendered) or 50% - 100% ownership (female owned) who require an investment ranging from R250 000 to R 5 million. As is the case with all applications for investment finance evaluated by Business Partners, the assessment criteria for the Business Partners Women's Fund will primarily focus on the viability of the business, the associated risk, as well as on the vision, integrity, drive, skills and experience of the entrepreneur.

Currently approximately 30% of Business Partners' client base comprises businesses owned and run by women and these businesses are spread across all sectors. The company's experience has shown that women can take on absolutely anything they set their minds to, are a better business risk than men and have a significantly lower rate of failure. Women in all business sectors prove themselves to be very good at setting goals and at pursuing them in a focused and innovative way.

In a country where unemployment is as high as 30%, this contribution cannot be underestimated. Similarly, in the SME sector that accounts for over half the people in formal employment and contributes 35% to annual GDP, women are, indeed, showing themselves to be the silent engines of growth.

The business world has often been a tough and inhospitable environment for women, but as more women enter the workplace and achieve excellence, a new era is dawning - one in which they can stand up and be counted amongst the greatest of business success stories.