Forward Ladies Make Their Mark

20/11/2008

To mark Women’s Enterprise Day, Forward Ladies, the North’s fastest growing women’s networking group held a Christmas market to enable some of its members to showcase their products and services.

To mark Women’s Enterprise Day (19th November - part of 2008 Enterprise Week - 17th to 23rd November) Forward Ladies, the North’s fastest growing women’s networking group held a Christmas market (hosted by The Met, Leeds) to enable some of its members to showcase their products and services.

Forward Ladies, which is supported by Yorkshire Forward as part of its commitment to encouraging greater levels of female entrepreneurship in the region, now has over 3000 women on its database.

Run by Make Your Mark, Women’s Enterprise Day is one of hundreds of events which will be held worldwide as part of the first ever Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Well known supporters include Penny Newman OBE, CEO of Jamie Oliver's chef training academy the Fifteen Foundation; businesswoman, Margaret Heffernan who appeared on the Channel 4 series, The Secret Millionaire and Jacqueline Gold, chief executive of Ann Summers.

Over 30 companies and organisations exhibited at the Forward Ladies event, including Rachel Binks (who is a trained accountant). Rachel set up Batley-based ReB Creations 18 months ago and now sells her range of handmade tiaras and jewellery across the UK.  She said: “Being a Forward Lady has been really useful to the business at a critical stage of development. It has provided me with some excellent contacts and I was delighted with the feedback I received from the fair.” 

Etta Cohen, managing director of Forward Ladies said:  “It is vitally important that despite the current challenging economic climate, we provide our members with the encouragement and support to succeed and achieve their goals and aspirations.”