A NEW group has been formed in Wellington to provide support for women who run their own businesses.

Wellington Women in Business (WWB) is inviting businesswomen to attend its first event in the town’s community centre, in White Hart Lane, on Wednesday, March 8.

The idea came from three women entrepreneurs who were all friends and realised that while they ran different businesses, they shared many of the challenges each faced.

Zoe Old runs beauty clinic ‘Pamper You by Zoe’, Marion Vincent started ‘Growing Minds, an outdoor learning group for children, while Sher Frendo re-purposes vintage and unusual items with her ‘Mary’s Attic’ business, and will shortly be launching a new events venture catering for any size of party.

Their collective experiences revealed how difficult it was to find the kind of support and encouragement they needed locally, which set them thinking about how to do it themselves.

Marion said: “Apart from knowing Zoe and a few other people, there was nothing in Wellington.

“I was trying to find support groups to learn from, but it was all so expensive.

“I came across an event in Exeter and I took Zoe with me, but we came away bamboozled about it all.

“After a chat over a drink we realised there was something missing in Wellington and we could do something about it ourselves.

“We want to raise the profile of the amazing businesses that exist in Wellington which are run by women and show what support there is for them.”

Then, Zoe was invited to an event hosted by her bank and she came away from it with some new contacts and new ideas which caused a re-think, and WWB was born.

She said: “We are a non-profit organisation to inspire and build up women in business, not knock them down.

“There are lots of little things you might struggle with on your own in business and we thought together we could bring in the right help.

“It is about encouragement and positivity and forward-thinking – and having a good natter as well.”

Sher said: “All our businesses are different but we have similar problems, so this is bringing us all together.

“Historically, people tend to look at other businesses as a threat, but we want to break that down and help them to work together.”

WWB will meet in Wellington Community Centre on the second Wednesday monthly and hopes to arrange speakers and facilitate ‘swap shops’ where businesswomen help each other with particular skills or tasks.

As well as covering Wellington, the group, which is free to join, will take in the surrounding communities.

The WWB concept is still incomplete, because the three founders want new members to help contribute to the way it works.

Said Marion: “It is a blank canvass at the moment and we want to make the biggest and brightest and best masterpiece we can.”