{"id":50714,"date":"2019-11-13T18:40:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T18:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=50714"},"modified":"2022-10-31T05:44:57","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T12:44:57","slug":"7-leading-entrepreneurs-share-their-business-building-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/au\/blog\/7-leading-entrepreneurs-share-their-business-building-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"7 leading entrepreneurs share their business-building advice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s much easier to be something when you can see it \u2013 and at the Small Business Brilliance Masterclasses we ran in partnership with marie claire in Sydney and Melbourne in early October, seven founders who\u2019ve built successful businesses shared their successes, failures, advice and insights: Expert360\u2019s Bridget Loudon, PE Nation\u2019s Pip Edwards, Sally Obermeder and Maha Corbett of Swiish, St Kilda Mums\u2019 Jessica Macpherson, Code Like a Girl\u2019s Ally Watson, and Adore Beauty\u2019s Kate Morris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For small business owners, any time away from the business is hard, so to see 300+ women at these breakfast events is inspiring and hammers home just how important it is to show up for the community. There’s never been a more important time for us to invest in and support women, to help them start, scale and succeed. Women don’t get enough venture capital funding \u2013 despite recent increases and a spotlight on the issue, that’s still clear. Female entrepreneurs still rate access to capital as their single biggest constraint while men cite hiring the right talent<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women see nowhere near enough funding to fuel the great innovation we can bring. Just 1% of respondents to our recent Women in Business research<\/a>, in partnership with marie claire<\/i>, report venture capital as a source of initial funding, while 83% personally invested in the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crunchbase\u2019s recent \u2018Diversity Report\u2019 found that USD $5 billion of venture capital has gone to companies led by a female founder in the first three quarters of 2019, with another USD $15 billion going to companies with male and female founding teams. Sounds great? Sure, but that $5 billion represents just 3% of VC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We know that diverse thinking reshapes products, services and experiences to better serve our markets<\/a>, and when women are absent from the table, bad things happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bad things like a disproportionate number of women and children being injured in car crashes in the early days of airbags \u2013 as Salesforce ANZ CEO Pip Marlow shared at the Sydney event, the all-male design team had used a dummy the size of the average male body and ended up designing a product fit for use by the average-sized male. We need women at the table when we’re starting businesses, innovating and designing products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, here are my favourite four key takeaways for female entrepreneurs from the Salesforce x marie claire<\/i> Small Business Brilliance masterclasses in Sydney and Melbourne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The reality is very different<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI definitely had visions of sitting in a cafe and being a blogger and traveling the world. I mean, none of that happened,\u201d says Maha Corbett, who co-founded Swiish with her sister Sally Obermeder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe didn’t even get to a cafe!\u201d Obermeder said.\u201cThe early days were pretty brutal. It was just me, in the garage with my cat. And look, it was pretty lonely. It was pretty depressing,\u201d said Kate Morris, destroying what was left of the Insta-worthy illusion of SMB life \u2013 working in cute cafes, popping decals up on the walls of a small office, drinking champagne with a rotating crowd of glamorous business chicks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome days I’d get maybe one or two orders, and I’d pack them up myself and walk them down to the post office at the end of the day in my little granny shopping cart.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Morris went to Tasmania \u2013 \u201chome for a bit\u201d \u2013 and spoke with her mum about packing it all in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMum said, \u2018Well look, you could give up, but what would you lose if you stuck at it for a little bit longer? What’s the worst thing that could happen?\u2019. And I said, \u2018Well, I could be 25 and have no money and no job\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018Honey, you’re studying an arts degree. So what’s the most logical outcome here?\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jokes aside, Morris did stick with it despite having both good and difficult days. Over the past 20 years, she has built an incredible business in Adore Beauty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Inspiration can come from anywhere<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was destined for art school,\u201d says Code Like a Girl\u2019s Ally Watson. Unfortunately for destiny, but fortunately for women in STEM, she was rejected by every art school in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember having to just bear that, having to see that rejection and just redirect it,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I chose computer science, not because it was something that I was born to do or, you know, my mum was at NASA as an engineer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was nothing that drew me to computer science other than the fact that they had leftover spaces.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

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I was like a fish out of water.<\/p>Ally Watson, Code Like a Girl<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n