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- https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/business-english/youre-hired/episode-01

- Episode 2: The Interruption (https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/englishatwork/2012/02/120222_english_at_work_episode_2_story.shtml)

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Present Simple and Present Continuous ADVANCED online exercise for

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Liveworksheets transforms your traditional printable worksheets into self-correcting interactive exercises that the students can do online and send to the teacher.

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Explanation and practising of using the verbs tell, talk, speak, say

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Say or tell, speak or talk? These two pairs of verbs can be tricky for the students of English. So you can use this worksheet for practice, revision or diagnostic test. The key is included.

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- Assessments (αξιολογήσεις) - τεστ για να δεις το επίπεδό σου

- 4 worksheets

-Study the class notes

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Glosbe dictionary - one place, all languages! Translations, example sentences, pronunciation recordings and grammar references. Check it out!

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It's Christmas and the team at Tip Top Trading have been invited to the Plastic Retailers' Christmas Ball, but because the team aren't getting their end-of-year bonus, no one feels like celebrating

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Not sure which exam to take? Try our online test to find out which Cambridge English exam is right for you. It’s quick, free and gives an instant score.

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English Pronunciation in Use, by Cambridge University Press

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English Pronunciation in Use, by Cambridge University Press

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Liveworksheets transforms your traditional printable worksheets into self-correcting interactive exercises that the students can do online and send to the teacher.

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Cambridge Dictionary | English Dictionary, Translations & Thesaurus

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The most popular dictionary and thesaurus for learners of English. Meanings and definitions of words with pronunciations and translations.

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Only one in five businesses in the UK is run by a woman, according to official figures ¹ - even though women outnumber men in Britain by around 900,000. ²

Last September, the British Government announced it was launching a review into the barriers to women in business. The Rose review, spearheaded by NatWest chief executive of commercial and private banking, Alison Rose, revealed that the advancement of female entrepreneurs could be worth £250bn to the UK economy.

So why are so many women discouraged from starting companies? We explore the main challenges these women face, and speak to some of the country's most successful female leaders about how they overcame them.

1 A shortage of funding

Last year, the Telegraph, alongside 200 British business leaders including Samantha Cameron, Mary Portas and Karren Brady, submitted an open letter to the Government, highlighting the chronic and unfair finance gap faced by female entrepreneurs.

Just 9pc of the funding funnelled into UK start-ups goes to women-run businesses, according to the Entrepreneurs Network. Women also tend to start businesses with much less available capital than male entrepreneurs.

Credit: Getty

New research from insurer AXA found that 63pc of men start their business straight out of a full-time job compared with just 38pc of women, who are often working part-time or coming out of a career break. This puts them at a major disadvantage.

Sarah Gallacher, founder of Cocoa Cabana chocolatiers, struggled to secure capital for her chocolate maker, even though she is a serial entrepreneur with a proven track record.

She says: "I was refused finance despite the fact I'm running a very successful business." However, she refused to give up, and recently raised £80,000 of private investment and £50,000 of asset finance.

Her message to other female entrepreneurs is not to lose faith. She says: "Financing business isn't easy but it's entirely possible if you have a good idea, good planning and projections, and the determination to get yourself out there and find what you need to get your idea off the ground."

Growth company backer Hambro Perks has worked hard to increase its investments in female founders to help redress the balance.

Kate Burns, venture partner at the growth investor, says: "At 30pc, our female founder ratio is above the UK average, but it is a goal of ours to improve the balance even more. Reaching parity will take time, but I'm encouraged that now there is more support, advice and funding for females.

"We are constantly searching for female investors," she says. "Currently only around two in 10 investors are female. We know from working closely with our female founders that having women investors, advisers and board members makes a huge difference in the level of empathy and advice they are given."

2 The psychological barriers and bias against women

Some female leaders experience outright sexism. According to a Telegraph poll, two-thirds of 750 female founders felt they were not taken seriously when pitching to investors, and felt they were treated differently to their male counterparts.

Yet there is no evidence that female-led companies perform worse than their male-led counterparts. Indeed, several studies have found they are actually more profitable. According to research from Boston Consulting Group and MassChallenge, businesses founded by women deliver twice the revenue for each dollar invested, compared with those founded by men.

Sarah Norford-Jones, who is co-founder of YEO, a secure messaging app, has experienced sexism first-hand. She says: "Launching a start-up tech company alongside my co-founder, who also happens to be my father, Alan Jones, I have realised that sexism exists from London to Silicon Valley.

"In meetings, whether it's with potential investors or other industry leaders, I don't get patronised... I get glossed over. I get all the niceties, and all of the hard-hitting questions go to my dad."

She argues that the issue is particularly rife in the tech industry because of the dearth of women working in the sector as a whole. "As a woman I know I am more likely to be judged on the idea that I might be more 'emotional', or the fact that I'm at 'prime childbearing age', which some people, consciously or not, will use as excuses to question my dedication and motivation towards my business.

"My co-founder and father is fully supportive of me and treats me as an equal - family ties aside! - and this means I'm rarely underestimated beyond the first few minutes of a meeting. But it's still ridiculous that it happens in the first place."

But there is evidence that the technology sector is becoming more open to female founders. GP Bullhound, the London-based investor, recently said it has seen an end to the "boys' club" in technology. "We are seeing a growing number of rock-star female founders shake up the M&A markets with successful exits," it said in its 2019 trends report.

3 The fear of failure

A recent report by Vistaprint found that British female business owners find failure more difficult to overcome than their male counterparts. More than two-thirds of female entrepreneurs admitted they find it hard to bounce back from failures, compared with 55pc of men.

This fear of failure is actively holding back women from creating start-ups: one in eight working women wants to start their own business, according to research from FreeAgent and OnePoll, compared with just 8pc of men. Yet of the six million businesses currently active in the UK, just 20pc are run by female founders.

"I was definitely apprehensive about starting up my own business," says Rushina Shah, founder of popped sorghum brand Not.Corn, who left a career at Procter & Gamble to create the start-up in2017.

"It's one thing having the backing of senior staff and large corporate budgets to fund big marketing campaigns... but another when you don't have that. There were things like funding; finding a manufacturer and supply-chain management, which I hadn't had experience of.

"I also knew that if I made a mistake on my small business - unlike working at a corporate - I would be completely accountable and it could wipe out my entire business." But she took the plunge and was rewarded by the success of her snack brand, which is now stocked in Whole Foods and Planet Organic.

Feelings of anxiety and the fear of failure can be exacerbated by working in male-dominated industries, where female founders can feel excluded or patronised. "The manufacturing industry is notoriously male-dominated and it was definitely intimidating for me to approach men who had worked in this industry for years," says Ms Shah.

"To date, I still haven't ever met a female manufacturer. Having had no experience in manufacturing or negotiating cost prices, I was turned down by a number of manufacturers. This rejection definitely knocked me back and made me think I wasn't capable. But it didn't stop me.

"The most important lesson that I have learned is that when someone states that something is impossible, they are stating their own limitations and not yours. Prove them wrong!"

4 Lack of networks and mentors

With fewer female founders, the pool of women who can mentor and advise their fellow entrepreneurs is consequently smaller. This makes it harder for enterprising women to learn from their peers and tap into those who have 'been there, done that'.

"It is harder for women to network in business, as networking has traditionally been done on the golf course, shooting or in men-only private members' clubs," says Alix Lawson, serial entrepreneur and founder of the alixawson.com interiors brand.

Credit: Getty

She says: "In my 15 years in business, I have never been invited on a shoot or to play golf. Women have to work a lot harder to build their network as we don't have the traditional avenues open to us. We also have to work a lot harder to be taken seriously."

According to Monique Tollgard, director of design company Staffan Tollgard, women do have mentors - but unlike with male leaders, these tend to be more informal relationships.

"I have been lucky enough to have female mentors throughout my career," she says. "I wonder though if they saw themselves as mentoring me. I perhaps don't see that I am mentoring my designers, but I imagine that there are many female mentors who don't formalise the advice, support and help they give.

"There may be a tendency of underselling that goes on. Do some women feel that they aren't ready yet to mentor, and therefore don't acknowledge the important role they play in the careers of others?"

More women-focused networking events and clubs have cropped up in recent years. One such is AllBright, which has a women's members' club in central London. Female leaders are also finding one another online, through Facebook groups, Instagram and other platforms.

Ms Lawson says: "The past few years have brought change, largely helped by social media raising awareness to empower women in business. I believe that social media will continue to give women their global voice and create strong female networks."

5 Juggling childcare and growing a business

One reason that a woman may be less likely to start a business is because she is usually a family's primary caregiver. Of the 6.5 million unpaid carers in the UK, 58pc - that is, 3.34 million - are women, according to census data. Juggling a demanding leadership role alongside childcare can be complex, emotionally fraught and extremely costly.

Credit: Getty

"One of the biggest barriers to being a female founder is the reality of losing control when you go on so-called 'maternity leave', even though it's nearly impossible to take a proper break," says Georgia Larsen, founder of luxury lingerie brand Dora Larsen and mother of a three-month-old.

She says: "Female founder businesses are unavoidably disrupted by the founder having children, at least in the short term. But do believe that the disruption can be positive.

"New motherhood can put the business into perspective and emphasise the importance of work-life balance for both founder and employees, as well as introducing the founder to a whole new way of living and even an understanding of a different type of customer."

Lucinda Sanford, founder of the eponymous master builder, is a mother of three. She is back at work, having given birth to her youngest in January.

"As mothers and entrepreneurs we learn to juggle, learn from our wider experiences and continue to learn," she says. "The challenge is not that children slow down leadership; it is that leadership should not diminish our role as mothers."

The women who manage to combine motherhood and entrepreneurship have become increasingly valuable to the UK economy. A report from economic think tank Development Economics, commissioned by eBay, found that the "mum economy" generates £7.2bn for the UK and supports 204,000 jobs. By 2025, these numbers are predicted to rise to £9.5bn and 217,600 jobs.

Helping women succeed in business

Visit NatWest Rethinking Business to find out how NatWest can help business women succeed.

Back Her Business is available to UK residents with new UK projects. Eligibility, fees and specific criteria apply.
Sources: 1 gov.uk/government/news/treasury-launches-review-into-barriers-for-women-in-business 2 statista.com/statistics/281240/population-of-the-united-kingdom-uk-by-gender

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Why women still struggle to start a business

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Only one in five businesses in the UK is run by a woman, according to official figures 1 - even though women outnumber men in Britain by around 900,000. 2 Last September, the British Government announced it was launching a review into the barriers to women in business.

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Are you looking for a new job or recruiting a new employee? Watch our video series for intermediate or upper intermediate level learners.

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This free online level test will give you an approximate indication of the English level you are working towards or completing.