HOVE BUSINESS WOMAN APPOINTED AS WOMEN’S ENTERPRISE ADVOCATE

Penny Bailey, Managing Director of Bailey Solutions based in Hove, has been appointed as a Women’s Enterprise Advocate by the South East England Development Agency. Penny joins a select group of female entrepreneurs who are being recruited to act as role-models for other women and to promote the benefits of being in business.

Penny is well placed to act as a role model because she has experienced every step of the way from being employed to self employed consultancy, sole trader and incorporation as a limited company in 2002 and today Bailey Solutions is the fastest growing mid market library and information system vendor in the UK. So Penny understands each step and the progression from employment to entrepreneur. Penny’s company, Bailey Solutions Ltd, creates software products to help library and information managers in businesses run their units more efficiently. Despite the fact that Penny works in the stereotypical world of male world of computing she has succeeded because she hire ‘techies that talk’ in order to provide excellent customer service. Her emphasis on communication skills has paid off as the company can boast a 100% customer retention record in a competitive market. Penny also places emphasis on usability and good design principles in her products which she believes are often neglected. Penny joined the Woman’s Enterprise Advocate scheme because, in particular, she would like to encourage more women into information technology. She says, “I think women might be put off by the nerdy image, but in fact IT needs a range of business skills from programming, management, design, communication to customer services in order to create products and services that make a difference.”

Encouraging more women to start and grow businesses is an important priority for the Government, which has recently established a National Taskforce to address the issue. Women are massively under-represented among the region’s business owners. In the South East, women make up 52% of the adult population and 46% of the working population. However, only 27% of the self-employed and only about 15% of business owners are women.