THE f-word - finance - was bandied around at a regional women's business event.

The event, at The Ark Conference Centre, in Basingstoke, was organised by Finance South East - a not-for-profit organisation and subsidiary of the South East England Development Agency - and reported on its Funding Enterprising Women project (FEW).

Local businesswomen had a chance to join workshops and view the FEW DVD featuring facts, research findings into barriers to finance, and success stories of how FSE has helped women move their businesses forward.

Welcoming delegates, FSE chief executive Sally Goodsell said: "Finance - the f-word - is a bit of a blind spot for female entrepreneurs and what we really want to do is demystify the world of finance.

"At the end of the day, it is a language like any other. You have to learn the language and the rules and gain an increased understanding and awareness of what banks, business angels and other finance providers are looking for.

"That will make it easier to start and to grow your businesses, and that is what we have tried to do over the last year."

Mrs Goodsell noted the discrepency in numbers between American and European women business owners and added: "If women started businesses at the same rate as they did in the US, we'd have 150,000 more businesses a year.

"We have to make sure that the policies and support put in place don't just address 50 per cent of the population but 100 per cent of the population - and that's women as well."

Mrs Goodsell acknowledged there was a lot of support available to help people move into self- employment and start a business.

"We want to make sure that when people want to make that important step towards growing, there is support there - and that is really what our Funding Enterprise Women project was all about," she said.

In the past year, FSE has raised more than £1million for women-owned businesses, doubling the number of such firms in the fund.