Help The Female AdVANtage

Who are we?

 

Hello! We're Hilary and Rachel and together we run The Female Advantage. We started our business back in the summer of 2020 with just the two of us and a van. Since then, we’ve built up a huge family of wonderful clients and colleagues over the years. We’ve had a great deal of love and support from the LGBTQIA+ community in particular, a community which we are incredibly proud to be a part of and to serve in the best way we can. A central part of our mission has always been to ensure people feel comfortable during their home moves, especially those of us from marginalised communities who aren’t always used to feeling totally at ease in the world and like our identities are understood and respected. We believe home removals, and moving through the world generally, requires sensitivity, respect and understanding which we are 100% committed to delivering.

 

Why are we raising money?

 

Soon after we started our business, we joined forces with business partners who had a well established home removals operation in place and were excited about our idea for a home removals company run by women - us! With their financial and structural backing, we were able to expand our business fairly quickly, accepting much larger jobs and building our community of clients and colleagues even more. Their pre-existing structure allowed for us to run the business very profitably with low overheads, back up, van support, business support and a stable safety net. At the beginning, it seemed as though our values were aligned and we worked well together, however, over time, we realised there were many conversations we wish we’d had before entering into a business partnership. We tried our best to call our business partners in for these conversations and educate them patiently, compassionately and respectfully but eventually realised, with heavy hearts, that if we wanted to stay true to our values, we would have to break ties. We’re very clear that we did this to better serve the community and ensure the money people spend on their removals goes back into the community they’re apart of, not into the pockets of people who’s values didn’t align with the support, respect and dignity of the LGBTQIA+ community.

 

As a result of this, we have lost the majority of our business support network and faced a huge blow which affects the sustainability of our business as well as our community of clients and colleagues BUT we’re not giving up! We believe that it should be possible to make a living, serve a community you love AND stay true to your values! So we’re coming to you now to help us keep this business alive and thriving. The more we can raise, the better but we’re initially trying to raise enough to cover the deposit of our very own Luton van (and have this sign written with our logo!) so we don’t have to keep renting them. This would reduce our running costs massively so we can pour our profits right back into the business and keep serving our beautiful community!

 

For us, it is massively important to be able to have our brand on the van we drive around everyday! Currently, the majority of our marketing happens through Instagram & word of mouth, but for those more vulnerable members of the community and those from older generations - the internet is not always accessible, so with hope we will be more visible on the road.

 

Every little helps!

 

We completely appreciate its a tough time for every one right now and not everyone can afford to contribute. We so appreciate every donation made - however big or small! To give you an idea, if every one of our Instagram followers donated £2.29, we’d be able to cover the cost of the van deposit AND have it branded! Please share our story and donate, if you can!

 

 

Heaps of queer love and solidarity,

 

Rachel and Hilary xxx