Growth and planning strategies within women‐led SMEs

This paper aims to explore the planning strategies of female entrepreneurs who have indicated a desire to grow their businesses, the time horizons of planning strategies and the relationship between planning horizons and number of employees and annual sales as measures of business performance.

In order to gather data for this exploratory study, a questionnaire was sent by e‐mail to members of networks of female entrepreneurs across England and Wales. Questionnaires were selected for analysis on the basis of an indication from the respondent that they wished to grow their business. Data were entered into SPSS to generate descriptive statistics, and conduct hypothesis testing.

The most preferred business growth strategies were: improving existing products or services and expanding advertising and promotion. Planning horizons are very short (often under three months), although the planning horizons associated with new products and entry into new markets were in some instances a little longer. Such short planning horizons could have serious consequences for business performance and growth. The planning horizons for cashflow, and investment in infrastructure showed a correlation with number of employees, whilst the planning horizons for cashflow, new product development, and expenditure showed a correlation with annual sales.

Female entrepreneurs need to be encouraged to extend their planning horizons, especially in terms of financial indicators such as expenditure, cash flow, and investment.

This research contributes to the growing literature on female entrepreneurs and their business, by providing further insight into their growth strategies and planning horizons.