Profile
WBDA is a not-for-profit organisation,
established in 1990, hosting a specialist
all female team that are aware and sensitive
to the diverse range of challenges that face
women wanting to start and grow their own
businesses.

WBDA is now one of the most innovative and
well-known women’s enterprise support
agencies in the UK.

In 2005 we celebrated our 15th birthday. On
our 10th anniversary Patricia Hewitt,
(Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
and Minister for Women) described us as
the “best women’s enterprise agency in the
country”.

Since then the reputation of WBDA has grown
both nationally and internationally;
delivering a range of interventions
throughout the West Midlands and the South
West regions, supporting and empowering
women experiencing social/economic exclusion
to start and sustain businesses.

WBDA’s expertise is accessed by the
Department for Trade and Industry, HM
Treasury, the Home Office, Regional
Development Agencies and Business Links in
other regions of the country.

WBDA Services (women-only unless otherwise
indicated)
• Online and face-to face business skills
training
• Confidence building and transferable
skills programmes
• One-to-one business mentoring from pre-
start to business launch
• Business mentoring for existing businesses
• Support programmes for women with high
growth business potential (particularly in
science, engineering and technology-based
businesses) in partnership with University
of Warwick Science Park (UWSP)
• Financial education and investment
readiness training (now through the newly
formed ‘Moneta Consortium’ of WBDA, UWSP,
Advantage Business Angels and Aston
Reinvestment Trust)
• Enterprise education for school girls
studying science subjects
• Business skills training for male and
female refugees
• Network building for male and female BME
businesses

Client base
Until 2001 we worked almost solely with
women suffering multiple disadvantage in the
20% most deprived wards of the West
Midlands.

Five years on, our client base and expertise
has expanded significantly; developing
programmes for women with high-growth
business start-up potential; developing
Enterprise Education packages for girls at
school and college for example.

We have also applied our experience of
working with severely disadvantaged women to
men suffering similar exclusion. Since 2001
we have also supported women in the most
deprived areas of Devon and Cornwall.

WBDA innovations
• The ‘Patient-Model’ of Enterprise support,
funded by the Dti/Phoenix Development Fund
(PDF)
• The first women-only high growth/high
inclusion training and mentoring programme
in the UK,
• The first gender-sensitive enterprise
computer game (My Chemist) for school girls
studying science subjects in the UK
• The first women-only investment readiness
programmes in the West Midlands
• The first gender-sensitive online business
skills programme in the UK

WBDA nationally and internationally
• The only West Midlands organisation to be
awarded PDF funding in both bidding rounds
(2001, 2003).
• One of the first six organisations in the
U.K. to be awarded Prowess flagship status
(2003, 2004 & 2005).
• Cited as the West Midlands women’s agency
with which the DTI wishes to work in the DTI
Innovation Report ( Lord Sainsbury, 2003)
• Department for Trade & Industry (PDF)
Award for best managed project (2004).
• The only women’s enterprise agency in the
UK with Home Office 5 Star Rating for best
practice in working with refugees

Accreditations held by Womens Business Development Agency
MATRIX Accredited
PROWESS Flagship Best Practice