Why Buy From a Female-Founded Business This Christmas

Did you know only 20% of businesses in the UK are founded by women? That’s a crazy statistic, right?

Well, listen to this…

Only 6% of UK women run their own business, compared to 15% in Canada, 11% in US and 9% in Australia. It looks like we’ve got some work to do Brits! We’re all part of the sisterhood, so let’s show our female entrepreneurs some love this Christmas. “Women are twice as likely as men to mention family responsibilities as a barrier to starting a business. In addition, for female entrepreneurs with children, primary care responsibilities are the #1 barrier to further business success, with 46% of female parent entrepreneurs identifying it as a “very important” or “important” barrier versus 33% of male parents with businesses.” As a business founded by women and run by women, we like to think we know a thing or two about this topic. Our Founder & Creative Director Katie Lopes expresses the positives of running her own business, allowing her to take control of her life and schedule.

“I cannot think what other job I could have that would offer me the flexible hours, ability to work super hard but on my own terms and potential to succeed, as running a business.”

- Katie Lopes, Co-founder of Stripe & Stare

Katie, tell us some more...

Recently, our Co-Founder & Creative and Sustainability Director Katie Lopes sat down with Connie Nam (Astrid & Miyu) to discuss the creation of ‘the knicker brand everyone is talking about’.

“A mistake I made along the way before Stripe & Stare was having zero confidence and thinking I was a bit rubbish. Then I thought, I'm perfectly capable and I'm going to start trusting my instincts. My thing is about women taking responsibility for themselves, ownership and having confidence. There’s a real army of women out there, female entrepreneurs who are trying to change those statistics on the investment money going to female founded businesses (Buy Women Built).” - Katie Lopes, Co-Founder & Creative and Sustainability Director at Stripe & Stare.

“Only 1 in 3 UK entrepreneurs is female: a gender gap equivalent to circa 1.1 million missing businesses. Female-led businesses are only 44% of the size of male-led businesses on average, in terms of their contribution to the economy, and male SMEs are five times more likely to scale up to £1 million turnover than female SMEs.”

You can see why we feel so passionately about supporting other female founded businesses, so we can start improving these staggering metrics across the UK.

Wondering where to start?

We’re here to help. Stripe & Stare are part of an organisation called ‘Buy Women Built’ with the goal of ‘shining a light on amazing brands built by women’. Our story started with a tweet: “Not everyone can invest in female founders. Not everyone can mentor female founders, but we can all buy from them.” - Buy Women Built. You can start small this season by supporting female founded businesses. From online shopping or heading into a store - your purchase can make a difference in changing the landscape for female founded businesses. The more awareness we bring to this topic, the more support and investment women are likely to get.

That's a wrap...

The Stripe & Stare journey is one of unwavering commitment and 6 years of starting conversations all over the world. Shop our Christmas Gift Guide now to support a female founded business.