Alison Theaker

By Alison Theaker

The number of women entrepreneurs lags significantly behind that of their male counterparts. There have been, and continue to be, government support programmes to encourage women’s entrepreneurship. Mentoring is often recommended as particularly relevant to women entrepreneurs. It often forms a part of the programmes aimed at encouraging women to start their own businesses. This aim of this chapter is to examine women entrepreneurs’ experience of mentoring and whether it contributed to their success. Research questions cover the identification of elements of successful mentoring for women entrepreneurs and the evaluation of the contribution of mentoring to entrepreneurial success. In-depth interviews were conducted with 24 women entrepreneurs and six of their mentors and analysed to draw out several themes. Whilst most participants expressed the view that mentoring was important, it was only part of the menu of factors that led to success. In addition, the most significant form of mentoring was often asserted to be from peers. This has implications for mentoring programmes that need to include this form of mentoring. The research was carried out in a rural area of the UK with a small sample. However, it provides some important insights.

Part of the book: Entrepreneurship