Inspirational business mums celebrated at Prowess Awards - 8 February 2007
Business mums received well-deserved recognition for their hard work, commitment and contribution to British business at last night’s Prowess Awards in Brighton*, where the first ever ‘Inspirational Business Mum of the Year’ award, sponsored by Yellow Pages, winner was announced. The awards follow a recent Yellow Pages study which found that mums who set up businesses from home have become a powerful force within British business, with a combined turnover of £4.4 billion.**Sarah Steel, from Faringdon, Oxfordshire and founder of The Old Station Nursery, won the “Inspirational Business Mum of the Year” award, which recognises the specific challenges faced by women combining entrepreneurship with motherhood. She fought off stiff competition from more than 125 UK ‘business mums’ who entered this award category at the 2007 Prowess Awards.
Sarah launched her business after leaving the army to become a full-time mum to her second child. She now runs a hugely successful enterprise, with eight nurseries across the country. The award judges were particularly impressed by Sarah’s “vision, determination and motivation”, as well as her continued contribution to enterprise development and training.
Other women recognised in the "Inspirational Business Mum" category included:
- Katie Mayne, founder of Tiny Talk baby signing classes (Highly Commended)
- Susan Moore from Warrington, founder of Party Crew, a children’s party planning business (Finalist)
- Nadine Lewis from Manchester, founder of Identikids identification solutions (Finalist)
- Abiola Ajayi-obe from Elstree, founder of SmartChartz, which produces sticker chart reward systems for children (Finalist)
Sarah said: “I cannot believe I have won! There are so many inspirational business mums out there who are doing an amazing job, so it’s a huge honour to win this award. I’ve faced a lot of challenges in the last five years, juggling work and my home life, but recognition like this makes it all worthwhile.”
Catherine Kehoe, head of marketing strategy and communications at Yell, publisher of Yellow Pages directories, said: “We launched the Inspirational Business Mum of the Year Award to help celebrate the passion, commitment and drive demonstrated by women in business. We’d like to extend our congratulations to Sarah, whom the judges all agreed really is the epitome of an ‘inspirational business mum’.”
The Inspirational Business Mum of the Year was one of eight awards presented on February 7 at the Prowess Awards 2007 Gala dinner, which celebrates those who are paving the way for women starting and growing businesses in the UK. Other award categories were: Female Business Mentor of the Year, Business Support Professional of the Year, Making an Impact, Press Award, Innovator Award, Female Business Mentor of the Year, Outstanding Contribution to Women’s Enterprise Development and Inspirational Woman. For more information, go to www.prowess.org.uk.
* Run by Prowess, the UK’s leading women’s enterprise organisation
** Figure based on the average turnover of 224 business mum survey respondents (£26,323) multiplied by the number of self-employed mothers working from home (167,353) (Source: 2006 figures from the Labour Force Survey)
