Female entrepreneurs in radical business relaunch

Sarah King and Claire Dunn

Two Nottingham women are relaunching their business with an aim to radically shift the way the UK supports female founders.

Sarah King and Claire Dunn co-founded Work.by Design with the aim of helping 6,000 women set up and run their own businesses by 2025, via a package of e-learning programmes and an active online community space.

The goal behind the company remains the same, say the pair, but it is relaunching as ‘we are radikl’. King and Dunn says this rebrand reflects the radical women in the community and their desire to radically change the way female founders are supported as they build their businesses.

King said the change comes after months of testing their proposition, listening to the women they work with and wider research with investors, banks and partners.

She told TheBusinessDesk.com: “Over 60% of women cite confidence as their biggest challenge when setting up and building their businesses. This challenge impacts belief, behaviours and actions. With this need in mind, we believe the time to disrupt the eco-system of support for female founders is now.

“We’ve spent 16 months testing our proposition – if it could be tested, we’ve tested it. Branding, language, price points, platforms. We’ve developed deep insight on the needs of our customers. It’s the stories and experiences shared with us which meant we knew it was time for a change.”

The pair said that through their testing they’ve become more and more aware of how “underserved the 51%” are, and that by rebranding to we are radikl they’re giving themselves permission to stand up and shout “now’s the time for change”.

Dunn says the service offered by we are radikl is evolving to become more flexible for users with bite-sized, bespoke e-learning courses provided on a dedicated eLearning platform.

The online community will also have access to an hour-long weekly business Q&A, monthly expert webinars and hot seat opportunities, allowing members to share their knowledge, experience and insights to help fuel their businesses.

She added: “The core values of our business have always been radical know-how, kindness, connection and inspiration and these still form the backbone of what we offer.

“Our aim is to design products and services that really fulfil the needs of women and we want our voices to be heard so we can change the current way of doing things.

“We are currently developing some exciting partnerships which will help us take the business to the next level and really support the women are working with.

“For us now, the focus is on growing the number of women we’re supporting every day through our eLearning courses and online community. Previously we opened our membership twice a year. This has enabled us to go deep with our early adopters or founding members – now we – and they – are ready for the community to grow.”

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