‘Business doctor’ speaks out over women in work (From The Northern Echo)

‘Business doctor’ speaks out over women in work

9:41am Tuesday 19th February 2008 in North-East Business News

A SELF-DESCRIBED "business doctor" who set up a company in the North-East has spoken out about the need to encourage more women into self-employment.

Susan Edwards, the founder of office management company Magnum PA, believes support organisations and mentoring schemes should do even more to help women set up in business.

The 28-year-old works as a freelance personal assistant (PA) for clients across the North-East, but said that women faced obstacles when trying to succeed in the business world.

She said her ambition was to inspire other women into business.

She said: "I would love to do some work in this area, providing business support for women.

"I love the small business scene. It is exciting and vibrant.

The people are dynamic, positive and optimistic.

"Many women are trapped in low-wage jobs, and it is a terrible shame because a woman's strengths are what the 21st Century knowledge economy is all about - communicating, multitasking and flexibility.

"I would like to see an expansion in business mentoring schemes and agencies such as Business Link, and public library business information services should be more flexible in their opening hours so women can more easily access these services.

"In addition, there should be more financial support from Government to help the move from employed to self-employed status."

After a number of years working as a PA at director level, Ms Edwards, from Morpeth, Northumberland, set up Magnum PA to provide office management and admin support services to a growing range of clients, mainly start-up companies and small businesses.

She said: "When a business hires me, they do not have overheads such as sick pay, tax, national insurance or holiday entitlement to worry about."