The rise of the Female Entrepreneur

This is a very inspiring article by Marianne Curphey of moneymarket.com

The rise of the Female Entrepreneur

Rising numbers of women are forging successful careers as business owners and entrepreneurs, despite – or perhaps because of – the recession.

Some are “Mumpreneurs” – women who combine family and business in order to achieve a better work-life balance, while others are launching successful companies based on ethical and female-based working practices.

Robin Bradley began working in the sales department of The Times and later at Dorling Kindersley books. However after having her first child, Robin struggled with the work life balance, as she wanted to earn an income but also be a hands-on parent. She decided to set up her own company, called Phoenix Trading, which creates greetings cards sold through a network of traders.

Robin started completely from scratch and initially invested £10. She never borrowed money for her business and the company is now one of the top 10 UK greeting card publishers and in 2009 saw a turnover of £10 million. There are now 11,000 traders across the UK, 99 per cent of whom are women. Due to the flexibility of the working schedule, mothers don’t have to spend time working away from their family and instead can enjoy the many benefits of working for themselves.

She has two children aged 24 and 21 and set up the business 15 years ago when the children were still at school. She says:

“I have enjoyed almost every moment of the business and it has been great fun. When things have been hard I have seen them as interesting and challenging. The key to success is recognizing your strengths and playing to them, and recognizing your weaknesses and seeking help. People love to help.

“We have built organically, so that we didn’t have any debt. We decided that we would only commit to things that we had the money for.”

Susannah Simpson, founder of Limelight PR, says she knew when she was about eight that she wanted to run her own business. She says: “You have to really believe in what you are doing, and be prepared for a lot of people to say “no” to you. “

What about you? Have you considered starting a business of your own; maybe on the side, starting small and growing into something substantial (From Little Acorns…)?  Comment below and let us know…