161 - Mia Drennan discusses the lack of diversity within UK business start-ups.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:03)
Welcome to Modern Mindset, the show that picks the brains of the world's leading minds to help you unlock yours. Decoding the beliefs and strategies of global experts to give you an updated mindset to make the most of modern life. Hosted by the UK's most in demand and highest paid hypnotherapist, Adam Cox.

**Adam Cox** (0:27)
This is Mini Mindset, the show that takes a brief look at the psychology and emotion of finance and business. I'm your host, Adam Cox. And joining me today, we have Mia Drennan, who is co-founder of GLAS, which stands for the Global Loan Agency Services. Welcome to the show.

**Mia Drennan** (0:41)
Hi.

**Adam Cox** (0:42)
Hi. So you've done some research looking at the UK's lack of diversity when it comes to business startups. What have you discovered?

**Mia Drennan** (0:54)
Essentially, I think in terms of the facts that are out there, there's just a general trend that there's still a lack of women who are starting their own businesses. I believe the female ownership of small businesses has risen by 15% over the last four years, and only 32% of those businesses in the UK are owned by a woman.

**Adam Cox** (1:24)
And of those reasons why, let's say, less women are starting up their own businesses, do you think that's for logistical reasons? Do you think that's for confidence in themselves? What are the key reasons that are impeding more women from being entrepreneurs?

**Mia Drennan** (1:40)
I think it's very difficult for women to have the freedom to set up their own businesses, right? I mean, there's a, let me just take a step back. I mean, there's, there's certainly opportunity. And I think that women probably, and particularly over the pandemic, it would be interesting to see, you know, how many people have worked from home or have found themselves outside of a regular job and have found some opportunity to set up a business. But, you know, typically, you know, the woman is the homemaker and is, you know, normally settled with family.
And that is actually some of the times, the time when they would look to start their own business. But I think it's the fact that, you know, one is commitment, but two also, women are, you know, don't take as many risks as men.

**Adam Cox** (2:34)
And, you know, quite often these big, huge businesses start off with little kind of hobbies that, you know, there's never been more opportunities to turn that side hustle into a proper revenue stream. Do you think that that kind of appetite for risk can be changed and more women can be encouraged to start these businesses up?

**Mia Drennan** (2:55)
Absolutely. I think, you know, again, having been through, you know, two businesses now, so this is my second business, which is far more successful than the first. You know, one of the challenges is as well, where do you start? You know, one thing is to, you know, have a good idea, and number two is certainly to be able to find somebody to sell to and continue to sell to and make sure that the customer's experience is, you know, front and center. But obviously, getting financed, you know, getting, where do you get financed from? You know, the banks aren't exactly falling over themselves to sort of help startups. And then obviously then you've got sort of the various other sort of pathways, whether it be through some of the grants that were available, or whether it's through, you know, looking for venture capital and all that good stuff. But I don't think any of those things are really obvious. And certainly when I started my first business in 2005, it was very challenging, actually, even just to get an overdraft from the bank in that first period of time. So, you know, I can imagine why a lot of people would probably just give up.

**Adam Cox** (4:10)
And back in 2005, that was prior to the Credit Crunch, where it became even more difficult. Do you think overall with things like the British Business Bank, there is more of an appetite to lend and there is more opportunity for those people that do have that appetite for risk and those good ideas, that there is more access to funding than perhaps there was before?

**Mia Drennan** (4:31)
I don't think it's as easy as it should be.
I think there needs to be far more diversity in women, amongst the people that actually help women get on the ladder or help foster diverse groups to be entrepreneurs. I don't think that's there yet. So women understand women and will be able to help them be more successful in taking things forward. But I believe there is obviously a lot of appetite for supporting business and entrepreneurs, because obviously it's a great way to develop the economy. But I think in practice, it's still very challenging for people to get on the ladder and to find their finance backing to be able to, particularly if you need backing to cover you in the first few months of the business.