In the UK, small businesses account for 71% of suppliers and 30% of spending, while women-owned businesses account for 8% of suppliers and 5.6% of spending.

Small businesses are perceived to face greater barriers to winning tenders to supply government than medium and large businesses. They also have fewer resources to overcome these barriers.

There is a catalogue of reasons behind these barriers, including the prevailing preconception that the public sector prefers to grant tenders to larger, more established entities and that tendering is a long and complex process rife with bureaucracy in exchange for relatively low financial rewards.

Much of this is due to a lack of information on available projects and perceived difficulties in discovering opportunities.

There is plenty of scope to review the case of the female-owned small business and examine the reasons behind the shortfall in tenders submitted and won and if further development and investment in information dissemination is required.

NEW POLICY PAPER:

Procurement: Fostering Equal Access for Women’s Enterprise

Claire Mason, Vic Crook, David Mercer, Man Bites Dog, March 2009

This paper examines the issue of equality of access to procurement opportunities for women-owned business. The paper includes a review of: relevant UK policies and initiatives; levels of under-representation of women-owned business in the supply chain: and key barriers to equality of access.

Download here

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