AN ONLINE group helping thousands of women in Hampshire develop their businesses has launched an awards scheme.

The Hampshire Women’s Business Group on Facebook has doubled in size in the past four months and now has more than 2,000 members who run a wide range of businesses from legal services to web design to corporate photography to cafes and restaurants.

The group was set up by Trudy Simmons in April 2017 after she organised two business networking sessions in Winchester.

In February this year the group reached 1,000 members but it is in the last four months that has seen the biggest rise in new members and in the last month alone there have been more than 23,000 posts, comments and reactions in the group.

To celebrate the success of the group Trudy has launched the first Hampshire Women’s Business Awards, which will take place in November.

Nominations are open until July 22 and within the first 10 days of the awards going live, more than 300 nominations were received.

To find out more about the awards scheme, search for the Hampshire Women’s Business Group on Facebook.

“Women in business needs to be celebrated,” Trudy said. “Women in general rarely shout about their achievements and I want to try and change that. The awards will be a big celebration of all the hard work that is being put into business in Hampshire and a great opportunity to showcase the diversity of our group. I am thrilled to have received so many nominations already – it’s going to be a great event in November.”