Scottish Women in Business Profile

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Scottish Women in Business Profile

Name of your organisation: Scottish Women in Business (SWIB), which is a Glasgow-based businesswomen’s network. SWIB is a member of the Association of Scottish Businesswomen, which also holds national events such as an Awards Dinner.

Year Established: 1992

Website address: www.scottishwomeninbusiness.org.uk
 Email address: admin@scottishwomeninbusiness.org.uk

Costs involved in becoming a member: from £70 for an individual member, see Prices section of SWIB for details of different memberships

Where and how often do you hold events: 2nd Tuesday of each month (quarterly lunch event, remainder evening events); mostly held in or near Glasgow city centre restaurants.

Can you briefly describe the structure of your events:

Each event begins with informal networking over a glass of wine and includes a 2-course meal. Our events are varied: interesting speakers, table-based networking and development topics (e.g. marketing, selling, communicating), and so the actual structure varies depending on the event. See the Events section on SWIB for more details.

Your top three tips for effective networking:

1. network for the long term, not the quick sale
2. aim to build long-lasting business relationships
3. offer help and contacts, rather than trying to sell

A big thank you to Heather Alexander (President of SWIB) for providing the above information. If you have attended SWIB events in the past then please feel free to add your comments :)

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- who has written 48 posts on Start a business in Scotland with StartUp Scotland.

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  • http://www.entrepreneurealism.com Martin J

    I’m a bit supporter of business networks, and indeed a member of a couple, and would recommend anyone to join one. Recently, however, I read a book about SMEs and enterprising and one of the topics covered was that of minorities and small business. It stated, as you will probably be aware, that women and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in small business ventures in the UK.

    So far so good, well not good, but you catch my drift – so far so Right, I guess would be a different way of putting it. It then went on to discuss why this was, and how to solve it. Some of the reasons mentioned were that
    *Women feel intimidated by other business networks, as they are largely dominated by men and they therefore feel out of place
    *Women find it more difficult to build networks appropriate to business
    *Women are less confident in approaching possible partners, lenders, etc.

    And it all just seemed rather belittling to me. I know a lot of strong women, in fact I know a lot of women who are much more apt to building good networks and fighting for their cause than are men. If anything, in my circle of acquaintances, the women are probably better equipped, on average, than the men.

    I should also mention that this book wasn’t just making assumptions. The statements were based on research carried out by, amongst others, Shaw, Carter, Galloway in books such as “unequal entrepreneurs”, “securing a business loan: how women entrepreneurs view banks and how banks them”.

    So I guess what this long comment boils down to is my wonder: how accurate is this? Am I wrong, do women actually “need” these specialized networks?

  • Heather Alexander

    Hi Martin

    I can’t comment on finding funding, as it’s not something I’ve done, but I agree with you that many of the women in business I know would not feel intimidated by business networks or find it difficult to build networks. Indeed, many of the members of Scottish Women in Business are members of several networks (including BNI, various Chambers, 4N, BNS, SBC, FSB and so on). I’ve attended or belonged to most of these, and still belong to more than one network.

    However, what you may find (and hopefully some others will comment) is that – while we don’t NEED a specialised network to be successful in business – we ENJOY what the network offers and use it to complement our other networking.

    It is not, unlike some, competitive, demanding or full of business-card-pushers. It is friendly, fun, educational, supportive, business-like and – as the original post indicates – it strongly encourages the building of long-term business relationships. Many SWIB members do business with each other and refer business to each other, but some have also built business partnerships so that they can offer new services or tackle a new sector.

  • http://www.skillfair.co.uk Gill Hunt

    Coming at it from a different angle, I think men need women in their networking groups! It doesn’t happen that often now but I still occasionally find myself the only woman at an all male event – or one of very few – and the level of interaction between people who don’t know each other is much lower when there are mainly men. Admittedly these events tend to be one dominated by engineers/IT people who stereoptypically tend to be less sociable.

    I have absolutely no qualms about chatting to men in a male dominated event – been doing that all my working life – but there’s no doubt that events where there are more than 25-30% women are friendlier, more open and more effective at building relationships.

    Maybe that’s because women (on the whole) tend to listen more and broadcast less? All female events are also very good – so maybe the point is that its men who miss out if women only groups are set up :-)

    Getting funding and other issues though are a whole different area.

  • http://www.ngmaccountants.com john fairgrieve

    One of the advantages of age is that I go back a long way. I don’t know the research referred to above but there was – maybe 10 years ago – a feeling in Glasgow certainly when Wellpark Enterprise Centre was operating as a centre for Womens’ business in Glasgow that women needed more support to venture into what might be seen by them as areas of risk – e.g. borrowing money, operating a business as a first plan for “returning to work”, and so, many plans and mechanisms were put in place then to help that to happen – one of which was Microcredit – “stolen” from India.The project was successful and rolled out beyond Glasgow before the Wellpark initiative was closed down.

    So much for history. Now, venturing into unsafe territory….

    It really doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman, the kinds of support systems in the business arena should meet a need. I have many clients who are women and all have different needs from their accountant. Some ask difficult questions; some are eager for knowledge; some need encouragement and still others need confidence building and coming to know that they CAN do whatever it is.

    The previous writer is correct in that there are many men who struggle at/with networking and many women who don’t, but the problem is that – as far as I know – apart from SWIB, there isn’t a gender exclusive networking opportunity in Glasgow. For men there isn’t a “SMIB” (so logically, there has been no need but this might be down to the macho role that men are supposed to play and so no-one wants to admit they would need a “SMIB” ); there is a SWIB, so there is a need and I guess it works because it is still there. There will still be women (and men) who won’t network because they lack confidence regardless of the support mechanisms that exist.

    There will always be research that supports one angle or another but what is important is that to have a vibrant Glasgow business community we need men and women present so its really important that as many inclusive opportunities exist as is possible. Those who don’t “need” them will choose something else.

    JohnF

  • http://Www.Idrach.com Wendy

    I don’t think it is that women NEED special groups, I think they like to network and build trust in a more careful way than is possible in many networks. Womens groups exist because there is a demand for this different approach. Women going to a women’s group know they are restricting there possible contacts in that group and go to others to. But many find the companionship and support of a womens networking group very valuable.

  • http://www.socialenterpriseglasgow.co.uk sean

    so many advantages and opportunities with business networking, its something not to be missed. I am all for it

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