#4 Building Business Differently
Let's redefine what 'success' looks like and find alternative, empowering ways to finance the growth of our business. Say it with me 'profitability'.
Welcome to Friday Funding Chats, your weekly accountability buddy in your small business funding journey. Every Friday we deliver top fund picks and tips to your inbox, saving you time and making your funding journey an empowering one.
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Whats in this edition:
💸 Cash prizes and accelerators
💸 Build Business Differently
💸 Exciting new funding for the Oceans
💸 Networking events
💸 Funding Support Group Update
This Weeks Top Opportunities
Accelerator The Fashion Residency applications are open! 6 successful applicants will receive 18 months free studio space and 60 hrs of mentoring.
Award Sage Small Business Award - it’s back! Theres £50k in total for 5 businesses (you can get a max of £10k) plus branding opportunities.
Award Enterprise Nation x Adobe Express - there are only two opportunities left to win £1k for your business plus marketing strategy mentorship and 3 months of free Adobe Premium access.
These Top Opportunities were lifted from the Funding Opportunities Database, a unique listing of over 40 grants, awards, accelerators and other funding opportunities for your small business (with a focus on creatives and social & environmental impact). For full access to the database, upgrade for just £4 a month. Plus get Friday Funding Chats Live, and interviews with founders who have funded.
Build Your Business Differently
This week I came across an incredible post on LinkedIn by Anna Woods. If you haven’t come across Anna before, she was formerly a fashion Buyer at Arcadia before becoming a coach and most notably, the founder of Positive Retail. In her own words, ‘We provide a compelling solution for retail overstocks, while bringing a much-needed pioneering breath of fresh air to the high street. Our model and stores are unique in that we partner with credible brands on their surplus stock, and mix this with pre-loved designer items.’
Last week PR opened their first East London store, joining their shops in Margate, Deal, St Leonards-on-Sea and Faversham. Oh and they recently achieved B Corp status. In her post, Anna addresses the elephant in the room. ‘How has she done it? - without a fundraise, without a board, without a man quietly steering the ship - still needs explaining.’
It’s a question that speaks to a wider issue of systemic misogyny in the fundraising space, alongside the assumption that growth and scale at all costs can be the only goal. I’m glad Anna is challenging this because I’m challenging this too.
Did you know that only 2% of VC money goes to female founder teams? PitchBook data shows that the vast majority of UK VC investments are made into all-male teams. In 2017, mixed gender teams made up only 12% of VC deals. Thats CRAZY!
The fact that Anna has achieved what she has, is made more amazing for this fact. So how has she done it? ‘We’ve worked lean, worked smart, and we’ve made profit. Not by burning out, or selling out but by doing things differently.’
Anna clearly understands her customer, and the offering has evolved over the years. She doesn’t see the stores as points of sale, she sees them as community hubs. And building community is a bit part of the equation.
It’s also a great example of how scaling can be responsible. Growing a business doesn’t have to happen at the extent of people and planet. When scaling causes us to over-reach (whether financially, physically or resource intensively) it becomes less sustainable and your business won’t last.
Slow, well thought out moves, a small team, prioritising healthy cashflow and making a profit are your friends here. I love highlighting stories like this because I want you to feel empowered to make your own way as a responsible business and know that ‘success’ isn’t about IPO’s or the amount of people you employ - it’s about the intentional steps you take to tread lightly on people and planet.
Linking to the post here in case you want to read further
Question: What is profit?
Answer: Once you have paid yourself, your team, your bills, your suppliers etc, that is your profit. And as this accumulates, you can reinvest it into business expansion. But make sure you pay yourself first, don’t pay yourself out of your profit (or just whats left over at the end of the month).
Funding News:
News from the intersection of funding, sustainability and business. Let’s celebrate wins and learn where the money is.
At the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference, in Nice, Prada Group and UNESCO announced today the launch of the SEA BEYOND – Multi-Partner Trust Fund for Connecting People and Ocean. Starting with a contribution of €2 million by PRADA, the SEA BEYOND Multi-Partner Trust Fund will mobilise financial resources from a variety of partners to restore the relationship between humankind and the ocean.
Another though provoking post on LinkedIn this week, this time from Charlotte Morley , about the difficulties green startups face when getting funding.
Lloyds will soon open its Deaf & Disabled peoples grant programme . Sign up to be notified when it opens.
Should we all move to Ireland?! The Irish Government has announced €27m in funding for the Circular economy. The money is coming from environmental levies on plastic bags, landfill and waste recovery - circularity is exactly what this money should be spent on.
Events
Let’s networking to meet potential partners and collaborators, or to learn more about upcoming opportunities.
Grow London Local: Small Business Series, Meet The Founder - GLL host great networking events and this one is focused just on female founders.
23rd June, 12-2pm, @ London & Partners Offices, SE1
Meet The Funder Event: Lloyds Bank Foundation - to coincide with opening applications for the DDPO Grant programme (Deaf and Disabled peoples organisation), Lloyds are hosting a free session to understand the programme better and ask questions.
29th July, 1pm, Online
MOB Finance Insta Live - Each month Mum’s Who Build (MOB) host an Finance insta live, the next one is on 30th June.
Create South East programme webinar - The Create South East Programme is designed to support creative businesses working in Kent, Essex, or Sussex. The programme aims to help build your confidence as a founder to make decisions on investment, IP, business structures and growth plans. Join the webinar to learn more.
Build, Scale and Thrive - An action-packed event for mums building businesses — expert-led workshops, real connection, and tools to scale with confidence.
26th June, 9.30-2pm, @ Moorgate, London
Get Grants Free Virtual Conference - Another fab Get Grants event, if you are willing to dive headlong into understanding fundraising, then this 2 day virtual event is for you. And its FREE!
7th-8th October, Online
Funding Support Group Update
The Funding Support group officially kicks off next week! I’m excited to be welcoming 9 incredible women to our journey. I’ll be hosting accountability calls, keeping the Whatsapp group buzzing and creating a library of bitesize resource videos for time poor founders looking to empower themselves to fund confidently. I’m also having fun building a dictionary of words and terms that are used in the world of money, and the cohort will have access to this too.
Before You Go
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