Her Biz May 2023 Winner
Owner of Unstoppable Girls, Sarah Gaunt, wins £500 to jumpstart her business which aims to support and inspire females with ADHD through the NatWest funded Her Biz business programme
With a devotion to empowering teenage and young adult females with ADHD to create the life they choose, Sarah Gaunt has created ‘Unstoppable Girls’ to help with learning about ADHD, understand how it may affect them as well as gaining confidence through a range of courses and community groups.
Sarah won £500 towards her start-up costs for Unstoppable Girls after taking part in the NatWest funded Her Biz start-up workshop programme in May 2023, and submitting her winning business plan to the following optional competition, which is open to all participants.
The Her Biz programme, which is delivered by Let’s Do Business Group and supported by NatWest bank, consists of 4 x 2-hour workshops over 4 weeks, and aims to increase entrepreneurship by breaking down the barriers between women and starting or growing a business. Delivered virtually over Zoom by expert business coaches, the programme has been a long running success since it launched over 3 years ago.
What is Unstoppable Girls?
Unstoppable Girls is a service targeted towards women who struggle with ADHD to learn how to cope. Having worked as a youth worker for the past 30 years, with the last 20 years as a professionally qualified youth worker, Sarah has managed a variety of street-based projects, school-based youth work teams and large youth centres. Her success of working closely with partners including local authorities, schools, young people and other VCSE organisations, in addition to raising funds to ensure projects have run, has allowed her to previously deliver training.
In the UK, girls are three times less likely than boys to be diagnosed with ADHD and supported. For Sarah, she was someone that didn’t receive a diagnosis of ADHD until later in life. Knowing this statistic, she set out to create a business to help them understand why they may feel different and isolated, reassuring girls that they’re not broken, just neurodivergent. Unstoppable Girls is available to the community whether you are someone that has or haven’t received a diagnosis.
“Data shows that females with undiagnosed ADHD are significantly more likely to have anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation and eating disorders. It also shows they leave school early with fewer qualifications and are more likely to have unhealthy relationships. I wanted to challenge this. I want females with ADHD to feel part of a supportive community and know they are capable.”
Having done research through speaking to parents and carers with a want for these services for their daughters along with early help and social services staff who know there is a need for their clients, Sarah plans to achieve her mission through three strands of the business.
The first strand is online courses, classes, and workshops for clients to participate in, and this will enable them to learn about ADHD, understand how their ADHD affects them and gain confidence and self-esteem to create the life they choose.
The second strand will be coaching to help them on a 1:1 basis to create the confidence, knowledge and understanding they need to create the life they choose.
The third strand is groups run in the community for free for teenage and young adult women with ADHD.
Her main goal for clients who attend sessions is for them to achieve results such as: meeting and socialising with others, sharing experiences, gaining a better understanding and knowledge of ADHD, and finally improving confidence and self-esteem. One of Sarah’s long-term goals for the business that she hopes to achieve is demonstrating the impact of Unstoppable Girls CIC in improving the wellbeing and life chances of the young women who attend.
Finding the Her Biz programme
Sarah joined the Her Biz Start Up Business Workshop to gain some clarity on the practicalities of starting her own business, and how she could set about making her ideas for Unstoppable Girls a success.
The Her Biz Women’s Start Up Business Workshops, delivered through 4 x 2-hour sessions, covers everything from sales, marketing, finance, and business planning; and from this, Sarah was able to create her plan of making Unstoppable Girls official, and how she could turn her hobby into a full-time business. After completing series of workshops, Sarah submitted her business plan to the subsequent competition, which is open to all attendees, and won the £500 prize towards her start-up costs.
“The course gave me the confidence to sit down and actually create a business plan. It gave me the motivation to actually do the research and put it together. The course enabled me to meet other female business owners and hear about their businesses and ideas which inspired me with my own business. I’m really pleased I did the course as I now have a really clear business plan that I can follow for Unstoppable Girls CIC.”
Having completed the Her Biz programme with a renewed motivation for moving Unstoppable Girls forward, Sarah is now hoping to launch online by getting her website up, as well as future plans to create a safe space in Ashford Town Centre where she can run the online and in-person courses from. She is also hoping to continue the expansion of Unstoppable Girls by taking on full and part-time staff who can help with running the groups amongst other responsibilities.
“It was great getting to know Sarah when she took part in the Her Biz programme, the support she provides to young women and highlighting ADHD is admirable. I know that winning Her Biz is just the start for Sarah and I wish her the very best for the future in being an advocate for young women in Kent and beyond.”
All the team at Let’s Do Business Group wish Sarah and Unstoppable Girls the best of luck!