A CHARACTERISTIC MODEL OF SUCCESSFUL WOM- EN ENTREPRENEURS IN THE UK The United Kingdom currently ranks at the bottom of the list compared to other high income countries with it’s percentages of female entrepreneurs. Because of this it loses out on valuable turnover and employment. The overall conclusion on the matter is that there is an overwhelming fear of failure by UK women. To counter this signiicant resources have been put in the market to encourage wom- en to start their own companies. However all these resources focus on the irst, six to eighteen months of start up and do not offer information on the resources needed to grow and sustain businesses. By introducing women with ways to be successful entrepreneur in the United Kingdom, this paper can provide them with the conidence they need to start, grow, and sustain a new venture. Mohammed Shahedul Quader Journal of Services Research, Volume 12, Number 1 (April - September 2012) ©2012 by Institute for International Management and Technology. All Rights Reserved. INTRODUCTION F emale entrepreneurs are widely discussed in the United Kingdom. Surveys show that while a large percentage of UK women express a desire to start their own business only a small fraction of these actually go ahead (Brooksbank et-al., 2006). This puts the UK’s female entrepreneurs existence and growth rates, at the bottom of the list compared to other high income countries (Brooksbank et-al., 2006). As a result the UK loses out on thousands of small business start-ups which could bring in turnover, employment opportunities, and taxable proits. There has been a great deal of research done on this subject, speciically by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (Brooksbank et-al., 2006; Harding, 2004; Harding, 2003). The overall conclusion on the matter is that there is a greater sense of fear and failure by UK women that prevents them from pursuing their own start-ups (Brooksbank et-al., 2006). Initial research showed that there are an abundant resources throughout the United Kingdom available to women to get their own businesses started. JUSTIFICATIONS OF THE STUDY There currently exists a large gap in the research concerning successful female entrepreneurs as the information that is available lacks depth and longevity. A women interested in starting up a business can ind advice on inancing, distribution, suppliers, and marketing just to name a few. However, there is no readily available information for women proprietors on growing a business, ensuring its proitability, strategy and exiting. There is an obvious need therefore for research to be completed in this area.