Northampton business woman is shortlisted as Young Entrepreneur of the Year in UK awards

A Northampton business woman appeared as a finalist at the Federation of Small Business (FSB) awards in the Young Entrepreneur of the Year category.

Founder of social media marketing agency, ‘Girl About Social’, Karina Scott, appeared at the FSB awards ceremony in Leicester on Wednesday, April 6 along with three other finalists shortlisted from many applications across the East Midlands.

Karina, 29, from Upton, said: “This is a huge achievement and a massive career high for me. The fact it was for the entire East Midlands, I thought ‘oh my god, I can’t believe it’ and I felt so proud of myself.

"I was so happy and overwhelmed with it. I had a great time and it was such a great opportunity to meet other small businesses that started during the pandemic and see many inspiring faces in the room.”

The Federation of Small Businesses is a national organisation that represents SMEs. The Federation is made up of more than 3,000 members in the UK, who together run around 100,000 small businesses.

The Young Entrepreneur of the Year award category recognises the contribution of entrepreneurs under 30 who have seized the opportunity to establish their own business and have made rapid progress in their chosen field.

The event came just a day after Karina had hosted an online masterclass for more than 200 FSB members across the country.

Girl About Social was born from the challenges presented by Covid-19.

Karina previously worked as a freelance marketer for a technology company but, two weeks into the first national lockdown, she was told her contract would be terminated as the company could not afford to keep freelancers on.

She applied to more than 200 jobs from March to July and was invited to just two job interviews.

As the effects of the coronavirus pandemic began to take hold, Karina saw businesses struggle to move their marketing and their services online without the skills or the budget to hire a full-time marketer.

This prompted Karina to create a solution; she wanted to offer marketing and social media support to any business in need of it.

Karina launched ‘Girl About Social’ in July 2020 and she has since worked with more than 30 brands and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to build their dream businesses online.

The influencer marketing expert additionally hosts tailor-made masterclasses in a bid to provide businesses with the necessary tools, knowledge and resources to thrive on social media.

Karina told the Chronicle & Echo that the proudest achievement for her business was reaching the one year milestone.

She said: “Many businesses don’t survive that first year. It was just a great moment of self reflection. That one year milestone is the fire that pushes me to keep going forward.”

Karina attributes her success to her determination after she lost the “safety net” of a secure job, her passion for her work and forming good relationships with her clients, who she tailors her services to with no set prices.

She added: “A dream of mine is to host a TED Talk. I love speaking to bigger audiences.”

To find out more about Karina’s business, visit girlaboutsocial.co.uk.