Konichiwa Agency LTD
Gather Round Brunswick
15-16 Brunswick Square
Bristol, BS2 8NX
The 22 of September is Business Women’s Day and we have decided to not only celebrate it – but dedicate a whole week to it.
As an all-female creative team, that champion women in business, we want to celebrate by showcasing 8 inspirational woman and their stories of being and launching brand as a solo-prenuer or part of a small team.
There is obviously so much that still needs to be done to achieve full equality for women in the workplace, but that isn’t to say that massive change hasn’t already been made. We are going to discuss some of the amazing progress that has been made and also some of the ways we can help make more changes, and also create a solution that gives women in the UK the confidence to launch. With the medium term goal to launch some new resources and programmes for women specifically. The short term goal – to raise awareness of women in business and encourage more women to break into the business world.
In response to our findings, we wanted to create a resource that would empower and help women who want to launch a brand. We have created a special resource just for women that can be found under the services section of our website. Our bitesized services are built to give all entrepreneurs the time to build their brand in their own time and pace. We’ve designed accessible tools, such as worksheets and tool kits, designed to empower you to work independently, with the option to work alongside our team with our consultancy packages. We’ve even dedicated a specific consultancy package (find link at the bottom of the page), with a 35% discount on our power hour session to help woman or non binary entrepreneurs wanting to take the leap with their business.
In a recent study conducted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it showed that 2.7 million women would be up to starting their own business but lack the confidence to do so. In the UK, only 1 in 3 entrepreneurs are female. This means that there are about 1.1 million missing female-led businesses in the UK. On top of that, men in the UK are five times more likely than women to build a business of £1 million+ turnover but this isn’t due to lack of ability. IMF explains that “Only 39% of women are confident in their capabilities to start a business compared to 55% of men. This is a perceived gap in ability, rather than an actual gap in skill sets. In addition, many of the women we interviewed often credited other people for their success and dismissed their own achievements.”
Reading out these statistics left us asking ourselves some questions like; where are all these missing businesses? How can we improve confidence in women wanting to become entrepreneurs? Why is it that statistically men are more successful when starting a business? And why are women more likely to credit others for their own achievements?
It turns out that there are three main barriers that stop women from becoming successful entrepreneurs: funding, family responsibilities and cultural barriers.
Access to and awareness of funding was highlighted as the number one issue for female entrepreneurs across the entire entrepreneurial journey, from intention to scale-up.
As with funding, we found disproportionate primary/family care responsibilities affect female entrepreneurs throughout the entrepreneurial journey. Women are twice as likely as men to mention family responsibilities as a barrier to starting a business.
Women typically have higher risk-awareness than men. Women are less likely to believe they possess entrepreneurial skills. Women are less likely than men to know other entrepreneurs or to have access to sponsors, mentors or professional support networks. IMF also found that women from minority ethnic groups experience all the same barriers, but to a greater extent than for other women.
To gain a deeper understanding of how these barriers have affected women starting their own businesses, we spoke to some of our female clients and friends to listen to their opinion.
Firstly, we asked our group of female entrepreneurs if confidence had been an issue for them, and if it was still something they struggled with. Every single one of the women we talked to agreed that confidence was something they struggled with when starting out and still struggle with now from time to time. All of the women have some way of coping with this stress though, whether that is reassuring yourself that your business idea is strong, investing time in books and courses to improve their skill-set or finding strength from other women in the same position. The founded of Ultimate You, Lauren Ashcroft, explains that she tries to limit her ‘scroll’ time to “avoid some of this comparison which leads to self-doubt. I also regularly check-in with myself and remind myself of the importance of celebrating all of my achievements.”
Lauren shared with her a useful insight to confidence that she has carried with her throughout her career. “…when we want to expand our capabilities, we need to first commit to doing something, take the courage to jump in and do it, we then learn a new capability which ultimately gives us confidence.”
We wanted to ask a question that we think is often not mentioned in the business world, but could be a massive factor in entrepreneur life. How do you balance work and family? Women often find that in the time of their life where their career is going through the most progression, their bodies are also at the most suitable point for having children. Starting a family can pull you away from the business industry, and the task of raising a child has historically been given to the women. We wanted to find out how running your own business has impacted our female entrepreneurs family life.
For many of these women, having a supportive partner and family means they can share their time between home life and work. For some, being their own boss actually helps them juggle their time as they’re not committed to any fixed location. Running your own business can allow you to choose your own holiday, and work from anywhere that suits you. Entrepreneurs often don’t need to stick to the usual 9-5 and can create their own, more flexible, working schedule. Charmaine runs two businesses, one with the support with her husband Mark. As well as being a female business owner, Charmaine has two small children which she explains can be difficult to balance, “some days, I wish my business could come first but it just doesn’t, this is often frustrating but I am learning to play the long game, I realise businesses are built on the back of marathons not sprints.
When interviewing our group of female entrepreneurs, it was amazing to hear that many of them had not struggled with being a female in the business world or had been made hyper aware of their gender. We found that many of the women who had a target audience of females, found it empowering to be constantly surrounded by such a supportive group of females. For example, Lauren Ashcroft and Laura Briggs have a yearly planner and fashion brand respectively, and find that their interactions are mainly with other women as that is their main clientele. Both of these entrepreneurs mentioned how they rarely struggled with being a female in the entrepreneur world, due to the support of their communities and families.
However, for some of the female entrepreneurs, being a woman in a male dominated environment has certainly been at the forefront of their minds on a few occasions. Some of our females have entered into industries that are traditionally male dominated. Maria Torres, from Sakura Artists, explains how she has found it difficult to grow her business in the music industry due to the massive imbalance of females to men. From speaking with Laura Lewis-Paul who also works in the music industry (Saffron Music) we found out that the music tech industry is currently composed of just 5% women.
Maria told us that “working at a management company, I felt like there was a glass ceiling due to my gender, hence working for myself has been very eye-opening as I have seized the opportunities that I didn’t think were possible a few years back. Women need to stick together and support each other within this business, and I feel there is a change on the horizon which is exciting.”
Once we got all our serious questions out of the way, we wanted to find out what was the best tip these entrepreneurs had to give. All of the women that we interviewed have built their businesses up from the start and they are all doing amazingly well. As well as trying to grow a brand, these entrepreneurs had to deal with the global pandemic that led to the closure of everything. Many businesses struggled during the pandemic but for startups, this difficult time of uncertainty was even more difficult as their businesses didn’t have the strongest foundations to rely on, Saying that, all of these women have created amazing businesses and we want to share some of their top tips, so you can too!
“One thing that I’m still learning, is that everything will have a solution.” – Lauren Ashcroft, Ultimate You
“Understand the importance of being resilient.” – Charmaine Beneyto, Biddie / Dreamers
“Show your face. This was the best tip I ever received, and it’s made such a difference to my business. I speak on Instagram stories and share my journey once a week, and I can’t exaggerate how much it impacts your business.” – Laura Briggs, The Shortlist
“Keep persevering, no matter how you are feeling.” – Maria Torres, Sakura Artists
“Carve out time for yourself (before you burn out) value your time and as soon as you can start outsourcing things.” – Sally Manners, Manners London
“You really don’t have to do it alone. My biggest tip would be to surround yourself with cheerleaders and a network of supportive women (and/or men) who can be there for you when you’re experiencing self-doubt.” – Lara Sheldrake, Found & Flourish
“I think it is to look at your strengths and weaknesses and really not be afraid to ask for support.” – Laura Lewis-Paul
When we did research for Women’s Business Week, we found that one of the main barriers for female entrepreneurs wanting to start a new business is access to resources. We wanted to help create some new resources that will give women the confidence to launch their own brands. So lastly, we asked our female entrepreneurs what the best resource was for them, or what would they have liked as a resource when they were starting out. We have put together a list of useful resources at the end from our own research and any specific resources that the entrepreneurs mentioned.
The most desired resources and support:
“Reading! I can’t stress this enough: read everything you can. There are thousands of books out there from other entrepreneurs who will share their experiences and failures with you. Learn from other people and it will mean you have to make fewer mistakes along the way.” – Lauren Ashcroft, Ultimate You
“Learn to build an audience first. Social media is an amazing resource for this, you can literally find a tribe with the same interests as you and then put out organic, educational and/ or entertaining content that speaks to the audience. Build the tribe, win fans then test the ideas out before committing to any long term projects or spending any money.” – Charmaine Beneyto, Biddie / Dreamers
“Podcasts have been my most invaluable tool. They got me through the nerve-wracking planning and research stages of the business, kept me company during tough times (it’s easy to feel alone on your raft when running a business) and the knowledge and expertise they provide free of charge is incredible.” – Laura Briggs, The Shortlist
“A mentoring scheme with other female independent business owners, to discuss struggles and challenges faced during this time. It’s difficult when you’re launching something on your own, so having someone to bounce ideas off of would be amazing.” – Maria Torres, Sakura Artists
“A good mentor. It’s not something I have had but defiantly something I hope to be to other women starting up!” – Sally Manners, Manners London
“Community. Having a support network around you when you are setting up a business is more valuable than any amount of resources. Through connections you can literally find everything you need from tech support to experienced founders’ advice and whenever you have a moment of despair or self doubt you simply turn to your community for the pick-me-up you need to keep going.” – Lara Sheldrake, Found & Flourish
“When I set up Saffron, it was at the same time that Bristol Women in Music were also setting up which was impeccable timing as that meant that there were 11 other women in Bristol that were in the music industry (on a local, national and international scale) that all had the same ethos as Saffrons. They felt like a group of experienced older sisters that could hold my hand in the early stages and create meaningful relationship.” – Laura Lewis-Paul, Saffron Music
We have put together a list of resource recommendations for women wanting to gain more knowledge around being a female in the workplace.
In response to our findings, we wanted to create a resource that would empower and help women who want to launch a brand. We have created a special resource just for women that can be found under the services section of our website. Our bitesized services are built to give all entrepreneurs the time to build their brand in their own time and pace.
#WomensBusinessWeek
Konichiwa Agency LTD
Gather Round Brunswick
15-16 Brunswick Square
Bristol, BS2 8NX
