When it comes to owning and operating a business, there are unique challenges that Australian women face every day. According to 2021 research by Pinstripe Media and Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN), these very particular hurdles include finding a work-life balance, a lack of confidence in business and limited access to funding.
Despite these challenges, more women than ever are choosing to take the female founder journey – perhaps because the lure of bringing something of their own to life and being their own boss is an idea so attractive that it’s hard to resist.
Recently, Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with DWEN, invited three successful female founders to share their personal experiences, insights and advice at our panel event, Building Brave Businesses: Female Founders On Leadership With Purpose.
Speaking on a wide range of topics were Amanda Rose, founder of six businesses including Western Sydney Women; Narelle Anderson, founder and managing director of Envirobank Recycling; and Anaita Sarkar, founder of Hero Packaging and author of Sell Anything Online.
Here’s what they had to say:
Finding the entrepreneurial spark
While it’s true that not everyone has the Boss Lady fire burning in their belly, each of these women has walked their own path to founder status.
What set native Western Sydneysider Amanda on her journey was witnessing the bias the people of Western Sydney faced every day because of where they live.
“I think the people of Western Sydney have grit. They are passionate, they’re hardworking, and they’re underestimated time and time again. They’re also mocked and belittled a lot of times too. I wanted to change that, especially for women and for girls,” Amanda explains. “I created Western Sydney Women because I wanted girls and women to have financial literacy, financial confidence, and confidence in general, to be able to pick and choose what they wanted in life, and then to have the resources, the access and the opportunities to be able to do that.”
For Narelle, her entrepreneurial journey started long before she began her career in waste management – in fact, her first taste of running a business involved holding kissing classes for the neighbourhood kids. And from there, Narelle has continued to create opportunities for herself.
“I left home when I was 16. I didn’t finish school and I have gotten ahead in life just because I’ve had this unbelievable self-belief that I can do whatever it is that I put my mind to,” she explains.
And for Anaita, stepping away from an unsatisfying career due to motherhood gave her the opportunity to launch her own business and finally find her happy place.
“I started my business and suddenly the amount of satisfaction and happiness that I got – even though I was making one order every few weeks – that amount of happiness I had never felt before,” she says.
Watch Building Brave Businesses:
Watch this mentoring space
With 95 per cent of surveyed women considering having a mentor important, it’s clear that one of the best ways to build self-confidence in business is through mentoring and finding networking opportunities.
Amanda is a keen advocate for mentorship, giving this advice: “Go and find people, like a mentor, that are going to help you. That’s where confidence will boost, when you find the right people. There’s structured mentoring programs – we run them at Western Sydney Women – and they’re great; but I like the casual mentoring. So … listening to advice, something is going to gravitate towards you. Take it, apply it, test it, see if it works and also ask, ‘How did you do that?’ I think we’re not asking this enough as women. ”
Anaita suggests that removing the doubters from your life is the best first step to building self-confidence and making the right connections.
“Focus on that core group of people who are really there to push you forward. I think for me, that’s a really good mentor,” Anaita shares. “But I think keeping your mind open as well for any mentorship opportunities and anyone who can come into your life at any given point and help you in a way that you didn’t expect.”
While Narelle has participated in a number of formal mentoring programs in the past – and mostly found them helpful – she thinks that casual mentoring can be as valuable especially when time is in short supply.
“We all have knowledge, we all have lived experience, we all have things to learn, and we all have things to teach.”
Narelle goes further with a suggestion on how to get started: “I am a DWEN member and I have been to a number of their international conferences. There are a lot of different networking groups, but I can tell you, that is an exceptional networking organisation. So if you are wanting to make connections and find other casual mentors, that is an exceptional organisation.”
For more than a decade, DWEN has brought women entrepreneurs together from around the world to help them connect with each other, scale their businesses, and ultimately succeed. Join DWEN today for free access to a global network of women entrepreneurs and valuable resources to grow your business.
Want to be at our next Kochie’s Business Business and DWEN event for female founders? Find out more here.
This article is brought to you by Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with DWEN.
Feature image: (Left to right) Amanda Rose, Narelle Anderson, Kochie’s Business Builders editor Cec Busby, Anaita Sarkar.
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