BLOOM Gin provides support to Women in Travel Retail
Turning passion into project, BLOOM Gin offers a share of £25,000 to fund the passion projects of emerging female entrepreneurs across retail categories and creative industries
BLOOM Gin is giving budding female entrepreneurs the chance to win a share of £25,000, turning their passion projects into business realities, with the help of female business leaders across industries ranging from food and beverage to fashion and lifestyle.
The top winner will receive £20,000 to assist them with developing their passion project, one runner up will win a place on the Future Female Founders Club and £1,000 to assist them with developing their passion project and the four remaining finalists will each receive £1,000 to assist them with developing their business plan. Women in Travel Retail are invited to enter the competition, which is also open to women in the UK and Netherlands on the domestic market.
Hosted by IVT presenter, Ria Heben, this initiative includes a content series on Instagram, which features a weekly interview with a different female business leader. During the Q&A session, each woman will divulge the stories (and secrets) behind her success and offer business tips to those thinking about branching out on their own. The series began with the inspirational duo behind mixers brand, Double Dutch, Raissa and Joyce De Haas, and has since seen Hilary Rowland, founder of the fitness company, Boom Cycle, and Steph Douglas, founder of the gifting website, Don’t Buy Her Flowers, share their experience with the BLOOM Gin audience, which is typically women aged 25+.
A list of other participating speakers
Lauren Dallas: Co-Founder & CEO of Future Females
Orlagh McCloskey and Henrietta Rix: Co-Founders of the global fashion label Rixo
Abi Oyepitan and Liha Okunniwa: Co-Founders of the sustainable beauty brand Liha Beauty
Mercedes Benson – DJ & Founder of Social Fixt, an organization connecting black talent to careers and opportunities within a number of creative industries
BLOOM Gin will also be partnering with Future Females, a global movement with 50,000 members, which exists to increase the success of female entrepreneurs. Together they are hosting “Bloom in Business”, a skills online workshop series to help female entrepreneurs to acquire the key personal and technical skills necessary to start and grow a thriving business. All content is available via the campaign website: www.bloomgin.com/passion-projects.
The final stage of this initiative is the BLOOM Passion Projects contest, with entrants competing to win a share of the £25,000 in funding to create a business from their passion. To be in the mix, entrants must visit www.bloomgin.com/passion-projects and submit their business proposal entry by midnight on December 11, 2020. All valid entries received during the Promotion Period will be independently judged based on four key criteria: creativity, market opportunity, business model and ambition. T&Cs apply and are detailed on the Passion Projects website.
Following an initial judging round, finalists will be announced in January 2021 and will be invited to the grand finale, which will take place in February of next year at The Allbright in Mayfair, London. Finalists will have the opportunity to meet the judging panel including some of the female business leaders involved in the Passion Projects Instagram Series, before pitching their business proposal to the panel.
A snapshot of Elaine Maher, Brand Director, BLOOM Gin at Quintessential Brands, who says BLOOM Passion Projects is all about inspiring women to “go for it”
This initiative from BLOOM follows research undertaken by the all-female BLOOM team, which polled 2,000 UK women aged 25+ and found that while nearly half (45%) of women had considered starting their own business, just under a fifth (18%) had gone on to do so. The research also found that for many women, COVID-19 lockdown has made many reflect and re-adjust their priorities, with nearly half of women (45%) stating they now had more time to focus on themselves and their future ambitions. As a result, a further 45% have started a new hobby or progressed with an existing hobby, with one in ten of these women (10%) turning it into a side business. When respondents were asked why they have not turned this side business into a full-time business, the top reasons given were lack of time due to already having another full-time or part-time job (32%), a lack of confidence (30%) and a lack of financial resource (24%).
“BLOOM Gin came about as a result of our Master Distiller, Joanne Moore’s passion for gin and her desire and determination to make a gin that even non-gin drinkers would appreciate; BLOOM has since gone on to become a much-loved gin brand around the world, which just goes to show what you can do when you believe in yourself. With BLOOM Passion Projects, we’re aiming to inspire other women to go for it, just like Joanne did, and support them to achieve their potential. The women who are joining us on this initiative are truly inspirational and we’re all looking forward to helping the next generation of female entrepreneurs to bloom,” comments Elaine Maher, Brand Director, BLOOM Gin at Quintessential Brands.
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