Farm Stay winners of Women 1st Shine Award 2013 Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Farm Stay UK is the embodiment of successful women in business. With just three full-time employees, it supports over 1,100 members running farm accommodation businesses across the UK – the vast majority of which are female. Farm Stay UK plays a vital role in helping women successfully run these micro-businesses, which are usually too small to feature on the Government radar but create a crucial lifeline for farms that are not large enough to be sustainable in their own right. This includes the recent ‘Wake Up to the Heart of the Countryside’, project, established with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which enabled 250 women in the West Midlands to receive IT, PR, marketing and social media training and take part in best practice visits, including sessions at a five star hotel. Following the project, web traffic to the farms involved increased by a staggering 1,760% and 82 VisitEngland Breakfast Awards have been awarded in the region. Farm Stay UK also encourages women to support one another through 100 local groups, which meet regularly to share best practice. For those who are unable to attend or do not have a group nearby, it created a Facebook forum, allowing them to communicate with like-minded women and share experiences. Almost 20% of the company’s members have signed up to date. The members of Farm Stay UK’s elected volunteer board have 350 years of experience between them – just 15 years of which are held by male representatives. In addition, all of the company’s chairmen have been women.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 19:19:37 +0000
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