Banco Santander Training | Women of Colour - Financial Readiness

'Women of Colour Breakthrough Programme - Financial Readiness' is a business support programme for UK-based SMEs founded and/or led by women of colour. It’s fully funded by Santander and delivered in partnership with UpSkill Digital. 

We know that women of colour face additional challenges in business, and we’re committed to supporting female entrepreneurship by improving women’s access to the advice, resources and finance options needed to start and grow a business.

That’s why we partnered with PRECIOUS to research the challenges and achievements of female entrepreneurship and women business leaders from underrepresented groups.

You can read more about the outcomes of the research and our commitments to addressing the findings at Supporting women of colour in business | Santander Breakthrough.

This research and our steering group of wonderful female business owners of colour have helped us to develop a full programme of support centred around the following topics:

• Access to finance can make a big difference to a business’s potential growth. We know this a particular problem for women of colour due to the difficulty in applying for finance and poor treatment by financial institutions. This means that external finance is often not even seen as an option. We want to help build your knowledge and confidence in looking for, applying for, and managing business finance.
• Financial education from early on in life has an impact on how individuals approach business decisions and assess financial risk. We know many women of colour don’t benefit from access to generational wealth and may not have a family history of investing and entrepreneurship. We want to demystify the language used around finance and give you the confidence to discuss business finance more openly.
• Support at key life and business stages is key to overcoming challenges. Our female business owners told us that support for businesses is often targeted for start-ups and/or focussed on people under 30, so it wasn’t available when they needed it most. That’s why we designed this course for women who are already trading and are ready to take the next step.
• Relatable role models and a network of trusted peers can be essential in giving you the confidence to make ambitious choices. During the course you’ll be able to connect with women like you and hear the personal stories of other women’s experiences of business finance.

Who is the programme for?

This is for women of colour who have founded, or are currently leading, a small or medium sized enterprise in the UK. Ideally you will be looking for further support to scale your business. As the content of the programme is very focused on finance, businesses with a need for funding now or in the near future are likely to benefit most from the sessions.

What does the programme cover?

The programme consists of four digital sessions. We’ll ask you to commit to attending them on the dates and times shown below. If the timings don’t work for you, let us know and we can add you to future sessions instead.

• Tuesday 16 November (10:00-12:00) – Grow your finances. We’ll explore the funding landscape and take you through the key financial skills to help your business thrive. You’ll also have an opportunity to join our fireside chat where you’ll hear from business owners like you.
• Thursday 18 November (10:00-11:00) – Panel discussion. We’ll build on the finance conversation to really understand how you can use the right finance at the right time.
• Tuesday 23 November (10:00-12:00) - Demystifying business borrowing and managing its benefits. We’ll dig deeper into the role of business borrowing in growing your business, and best practice when it comes to applying for funding for your business. Again, you’ll have a chance to connect with other delegates before joining our second fireside chat.
• Thursday 25 November (10:00-11:00) – Panel discussion. We’ll explore in more detail the role of business debt, its various purposes for a business and how it can inform your business plan and growth aspirations as well as hear from business owners’ own experiences.