A BASINGSTOKE-based businesswoman has made it to the finals of an awards scheme.

Little Boo Learning, which is owned by Katie Meade and based in Basingstoke, has been named as a finalist in the Phenomenal Product category of the first Hampshire Women’s Business Awards.

Little Boo Learning sells personalised learning resources, flashcards and educational gifts aimed at toddlers and pre-school children.

Katie is a former teacher who set up the company in August 2017 while on maternity leave with her second baby.

Prior to starting the business, she had been looking for some flashcards for her daughter. Not being able to find any she liked, she decided to design and make her own.

She shared these with her followers on Instagram who encouraged her to start selling them.

Katie believes success of the business has been down to the online ‘mum community’ on the Instagram. The company boasts over 8,000 followers in just a little over a year in business.

Katie said: “I am absolutely over the moon about making it to the finals of the Hampshire Women’s Business awards. I set some goals at the start of the year, one of which was to be nominated for my very first business award so to be named as a finalist is just incredible.

"Thank you so much to all my followers, customers, friends and family for voting for me”.

The Awards are being organised by Trudy Simmons who runs the Hampshire Women’s Business Facebook group.

Trudy set up the Facebook group last year to provide business women across Hampshire a place to receive support and guidance to expand their businesses.

Trudy said: “Female entrepreneurs need to be celebrated – as women we do not shout about our achievements enough. I would like to congratulate all our finalists.

"Each one of them demonstrates exceptional work ethic, excellent service and a great business mind. I have been

so pleased with how many entries we received and how many votes were cast.

"It just shows the number of amazing business women we have across Hampshire and the amount of support and community there is among female entrepreneurs. It’s going to be very exciting to see who wins each award.”

The awards night, which is a sold-out event, will take place on Saturday, 17 November.