Open for entries: Enterprise Nation Female Start-up of the Year 2021

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for - the highlight of the Festival of Female Entrepreneurs - that’s right, it’s the launch of Female Start-up of the Year 2021.

The Female Start-up of the Year award, kindly supported by TSB, celebrates the best of British female entrepreneurship in the UK. Whether you’ve created an incredible product, offer an amazing service or you're doing something truly different with your business, we want to hear from you.

The judges are looking for a clear direction for the future of entrants' start-up with a vision, purpose and mission. In return, there’s a whole host of business-boosting prizes and opportunities on offer to the crowning winner.

Prizes include:

• An award-winning laptop kindly gifted by Dell Technologies

• Three hour mentoring session with TSB

• A year’s legal subscription to Harper James Solicitors’ Enterprise Plan, including 12 hours of legal support worth over £2000

• Six month letterbox flower subscription from Bloom & Wild with different flowers each month

• A 60 minute strategy coaching session with business coach and entrepreneur Jess Salamanca from Moxie Club

• Social media advice session with Jo Francis at Jo Francis Biz and Rhea Freeman from Rhea Freeman PR

• Level up on LinkedIn: Online course worth £197 gifted by LinkedIn trainer and strategist Jennifer Corcoran to the winner and two finalists

• ...and so much more.

Enter Female Start-up of the Year 2021

This year’s competition opens on Wednesday 25 August 2021, and applications close at 5pm on Wednesday 22 September 2021, so get cracking with your entry.

Applicants must be eligible to work in the UK, be members of Enterprise Nation (it’s free to sign up so there's nothing to stop you!) and you must be running a UK-based company with no more than 10 employees that has been trading for up to five years.

Once applications are in, the judges will handpick a shortlist of 10 applicants. These 10 semi-finalists will face a public vote and the three businesses with the highest votes will be invited to pitch at the Festival of Female Entrepreneurs in Bristol for their chance to be crowned Female Start-up of the Year 2021.

If you are selected as a finalist, you must have a ticket and be available to pitch LIVE at our Festival of Female Entrepreneurs on 22 October 2021 - yes, like a real life Dragons' Den!

 
What's it like to win Female Start-up of the Year? Here's what Molly Masters, Books That Matter founder and 2019 champion, had to say:

"Winning Female Start-up of the Year has easily been one of the most transformative parts of my business journey. The experience of being longlisted, shortlisted, pitching on the day, and then winning; was hugely empowering.

"The prizes were incredible, all intentionally curated to help a business accelerate; for example, the laptop has been fabulous for me and my team, the headshots have been wonderful for our PR, the mentorship has been inspiring, and the Facebook credit is so powerful! I've also been able to create some amazing connections off the back of the events and the vast Enterprise Nation network. It's been such an incredible experience!"

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