Channel some CEO-inspiration into your business venture
In September, the government became so worried about the lack of female entrepreneurs in the UK that the treasury launched a review into the matter.
photo: Getty images
In September, the government became so worried about the lack of female entrepreneurs in the UK that the treasury launched a review into the matter.
Women are half as likely as men to start a business and only one third of UK entrepreneurs are women. The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Robert Jenrick, announced the review, saying there was a need to identify the barriers which are ‘hampering entrepreneurial women from securing the backing that businessmen have taken for granted.’ We want to see more female entrepreneurs in the UK!
Women are bombarded with messages about how to behave, succeed and achieve autonomy in business. From Sheryl Sandberg instructing us to ‘Lean In’ and then changing her mind and later cautioning us that it’s actually ok not to lean in all the time, through to Sophia Amoruso’s coining of the phrase ‘Girl Boss’ and the need to be ‘fierce,’ we’ve spent the last decade invited to a buffet of options for ‘having it all’ without, often, a core of practical advice.
A popular phrase it might have become, but the ‘have it all’ mantra isn’t always realistic. Some would argue that it’s an impossibility. So instead of the hyperbole and the rousing calls for us to be superwomen, where do you go for practical advice about how to ‘have enough?’
Well, for a start, you can talk to a few real women who have tried to do what you want to do and examining their journeys to success. And then also examining the idea of success itself and recalibrating it to suit your personal vision of a happy, achievement-filled life.
ELLE UK rounded up five kickass women who, despite the odds stacked against them, have launched their own successful businesses, become CEOs and reaped plenty of benefits in the process.
Here’s the advice they wanted to pay forward to future budding entrepreneurs: