Karen Gill and Maxine Benson are founders of everywoman.co.uk - a website dedicted to female business owners. Read their weekly blog here

Well we can hardly believe that the year is nearly over; we can't believe how quickly it has gone, and how much has happened at everywoman. The year kicked off with our hugely successful inaugural conference in Scotland, with founder of Fake Bake Sandra McClumpha amongst speakers sharing their experiences with female entrepreneurs in Edinburgh...

The run up to Christmas brings with it invitations to numerous events, but a recent survey has found that 81% of senior decision makers in small businesses are spending less time at networking events at the moment due to a lack of time and feeling guilty about leaving the office...

Many of you who are caught up in X Factor fever this year will agree that those who are the most determined are those who go on to do great things. Alexandra's perseverance to succeed is prevalent in the winners of last week's NatWest everywoman awards...

On Wednesday 3rd December we hosted the annual NatWest everywoman awards, the highlight of our year. As always, despite the usual stresses and strains that accompany such a big event, the day was a huge success. With such a fantastic line up of finalists in this year's awards it couldn't have failed to do so...

Last week, on Women's Enterprise Day, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform officially launched its Aspire Investment Fund, where £12.5 million of funding is to be made available to female entrepreneurs...

Research shows that female entrepreneurs may be the 'shot in the arm' that the UK economy needs - with 88% of women predicting their businesses will grow over the next five years, significantly higher than the number of men...