Award-winning Liverpool social enterprise, The Women’s Organisation, is to expand further overseas, creating 12 new jobs. Jennie Lewis reports

For more than 25 years The Women’s Organisation has empowered thousands of women to set up their own businesses and now the Liverpool social enterprise is to expand further overseas.

A strong performance in 2021 saw the expansion of services delivered locally but also internationally in China, Iceland, and the Middle East. Now that footprint is to be extended with the creation of 12 new jobs.

During the year, The Women’s Organisation also saw a 21% growth in turnover to £5.6m generating 5% growth in surpluses. This, along with further revenue generation from overseas, will allow it to support even more women across the Liverpool city region.

During lockdown, The Women’s Organisation reported that enquiries for business and other support services almost trebled, with more than 3,000 people accessing their training programmes and events.

Now, following year on year growth, the social business is launching a global expansion which will see them market their services in the US, South Africa and in Northern Europe.

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Chief executive Maggie O’Carroll said: “While COVID and Brexit has been hugely challenging for so many businesses, delivering to international markets has helped cushion the negative impact for the organisation and has helped to ensure surpluses are available to re-invest locally.

“We have always been international in our outlook and are very pleased with the success of our internationalisation strategy, but we feel confident that the time is right to scale that up.

“During the past 25 years we have experienced steady growth, which has accelerated significantly during the last few years.  We are delighted that our range of research, training, and consultancy services are being so well received by our customers.

“We continue to deliver a diverse portfolio of services locally supporting over 3,500 women a year in the Liverpool city region. Our expansion plans take us closer to our goal to be financially sustainable and demonstrate social impact by supporting as many people as we can to be economically active in our city region.”

The Women’s Organisation will undertake an extensive international portfolio of entrepreneurship training development and delivery for further and higher educational institutions, private businesses, and NGOs.

It will also be involved in high-level research into enterprise creation and growth, as well as social impact reporting and auditing, through its consultancy arm, Enterprise Evolution. At the heart of its combined work, locally, nationally, and internationally is policy development and implementation to enable women’s enterprise.