Insider Media Limited

The lack of funding available for start-up businesses and growing sectors such as social enterprise is becoming a major concern. That's the view of Advantage West Midlands (AWM) board member and entrepreneur Angela Maxwell, who spoke to Insider. But despite a funding shortfall, she predicted that the healthcare and arts sectors would become "big players" in the social enterprise field.

Maxwell said the social enterprise sector which she champions was undergoing "a period of repositioning" in the West Midlands.

"The coalition government wants the sector to grow and is really keen on creating more opportunities. I think people are realising the place that social enterprise has in our society. Healthcare will grow in popularity, as will arts, which has always had a strong foothold.

"I think women will become big players as well, as they have been hard hit by the public sector cuts," she said.

Maxwell, who received an OBE last year, is currently managing director of Acuwomen, the UK’s first company to comprise an all-female management team, and ambassador for the Women’s Enterprise Network.

She is also commercial director of Birmingham-based Fracino, the UK's only manufacturer of espresso and cappuccino coffee machines.

But despite backing the growth of social enterprise, she admits there are challenges ahead.

"There are no dedicated means of funding," she said. "It is definitely a worry – the government has no money and organisations like AWM and Business Link are being closed down. There needs to be an alternative source of funding. For now, as there's nothing in front of us, start-ups are having to go for bank funding as there's very little alternative.

"But I think that as access to funding continues to present a problem, people will bide their time when it comes to setting up a business, and be more conscientious than ever."

Despite her seat on the board of the soon-to-be obsolete regional development agency AWM, Maxwell insisted that the regional replacement, LEPs, should be given "a fair chance".

"The LEPs need to be given time, they can't really be judged yet. They're playing in an entirely different field to the other organisations; they're not statutory bodies and as yet, have no funding resources. They need to be given a fair chance to succeed."

Maxwell will remain on the AWM board alongside four other representatives until the agency closes its doors in April 2012.