Introduction: The Reality of Female Entrepreneurship
Running a business is a little like riding on the most insane roller coaster whilst wearing a blindfold. Successful women in business understand that taking the leap of faith to get on board is daunting, but equally matched with excitement for the experience ahead. Moreover, there will be fantastic highs, for which you will be moving so fast, you might not even get a chance to lift the blindfold and enjoy the view. Furthermore, successful women in business know that no matter how prepared you believe you are for whatever big drop might be on the tracks ahead, they still hit you unexpectedly and make your tummy flip.
The Hidden Challenge: Mental Health in Female Leadership
Preparing Yourself, Not Just Your Business
It is during these unexpected, inevitable dips that you may realise something important. Although you have worked hard to prepare your business for any eventuality, did you prepare yourself? Additionally, you will find a mass of information out there about the tools you need to equip yourself to be a successful business owner. Things such as leadership skills, self-motivation, task prioritisation and financial understanding are often associated with business success.
However, there is one skill set that should be noted as one of the most important and often overlooked. Those are the tools to manage your own mental health. Moreover, successful women in business recognise these skills as vital to running any company. Knowing your limits, understanding your own signals, and having the ability to cope and respond with appropriate actions when the roller coaster drops will be key to your business’s future.
The Unique Journey of Female Entrepreneurs
My story to becoming the founder of a global brand is not unique. Successful women in business who dive in to create start-ups often have stories of personal struggle, challenging work and tough lessons that lead to higher resilience levels. Success, to me, has been about braving difficult choices, embracing challenges, and becoming a better version of myself along the way.
For business owners, success may be about numbers or lifestyle. For me, it is the experiences that have given me strength of mind and an interesting story to tell. These help me almost believe I deserve the title of successful women in business.
Early Adversity: Building the Foundation for Success
When Life Takes an Unexpected Turn
In 2002 I was celebrating my first wedding anniversary with my childhood sweetheart. Additionally, I was enjoying every second with my new-born daughter. Little did I know that I was about to hit a huge speedbump that would change my life plan’s direction. My husband decided that I was not the one for him. Consequently, I was left with a baby and my modest dreams of a loving home and 2.4 children shattered into pieces.
I faced dark days, trying to work out how to create a new dream and regain control of my own life path. My sole focus became being the best parent I could. Moreover, I knew I was responsible for building a future for my daughter that would give her happiness, security and inspire her to live an amazing life.
The First Step Towards Business Success
Not long into my life as a single parent, I was due to return to my job in advertising sales for our city newspaper. Knowing that childcare was going to be an issue and I had a mortgage to cover single-handedly, I had to find an innovative approach to my income. This challenge would become the foundation for my journey among successful women in business.
The newspaper was advertising for the position of editor for the property title. I really enjoyed writing but with no qualifications and zero experience, I knew I would not stand a chance of securing the role through usual channels. Therefore, it was time to think outside the box.
Taking Bold Action: The Entrepreneurial Mindset
Courage in the Face of Uncertainty
I knocked on the editor’s office door, very aware that I was really going to have to sell myself. Additionally, I was prepared to be laughed right back out again. I suggested to him that I was the best person for the job as I had experience with the newspaper. More than anything else, I was an adaptive person and incredibly keen.
The role was currently empty. Consequently, I offered to write without payment on a trial basis until they found someone to fill the position. I pushed him to agree that if he liked my work and published any of my articles, I had to be considered for the role. I was given the job within a week!
Learning Through Necessity
Gaining this position was one of the first lessons that changed me as a person. My motivation for action was born from necessity, driven by a need to take care of my child. Without that motivation, I would have been too far out of my comfort zone to take such a bold step. This experience taught me valuable lessons that successful women in business often learn through adversity.
When my husband requested a divorce, one of the things I struggled with most was that people would think badly of me for being a single parent at an early age. I felt out of control. It took time for me to realise that I was not the sum of my marital status or job title. Moreover, the thing I did have complete control of was who I am as a person.
The Birth of an Entrepreneur: From Employee to Business Owner
When Opportunity Knocks Through Adversity
Unfortunately, my ideal job was short-lived. After less than a year, the editor requested that I be office-based. This changed the job for me and would have involved childcare costs. This was not a possibility at the time. After explaining my position, I was made redundant.
When the letter of redundancy arrived, my world shattered for the second time. My life had stabilised, and this was quite a shock. Another rapid change of direction had occurred not through my own choice.
The Moment of Truth
At the time, my parents were on a trip around the world. As a close family, my first action was to call my mum. In floods of tears and at a loss to know what to do next, my mum’s response was typical of her calming character. “You said you wanted to work for yourself one day. This is fate.”
She was right. I had often talked about setting up my own business. However, with a reliable income, leaving to work for myself seemed like a risky move that was far too frightening to take. That choice had now been made for me. By the end of that day, I had registered my first company, Fate Promotions, and gained my first customer.
This moment marked the beginning of my journey to join the ranks of successful women in business. According to Women’s Enterprise Scotland, female entrepreneurs often start businesses out of necessity, which drives their determination to succeed.
Building Business Skills: Learning Through Action
Growing Through Adaptability
I started by offering copywriting services to contacts I had made during my time at the newspaper. This was a wonderful place to start. Moreover, it was not long before I was ready to try and add to my skill set.
The estate agents I had been writing for had experienced difficulties creating artwork for their adverts. They asked if I could help. Initially, I created a property advert just to help and was surprised at my natural level of creativity. I really enjoyed the level of detail involved and communicating the brand message to their potential customers.
That night I spent hours online learning about graphic design. I began playing with different software and flicking through newspapers and magazines critiquing the ad creatives. My skills improved rapidly. Consequently, I quickly began to offer a whole spectrum of marketing opportunities across multiple industries.
Achieving Business Success
With just three of us in the team, Fate Promotions turned over more than £7m during its time trading. Additionally, we built strong relationships with the companies we represented. I had the ability to create my own wealth whilst constantly learning and still getting time with my daughter. There were challenging times, but I loved running my own company. Moreover, I knew this was exactly what I was meant to do.
This success demonstrated that successful women in business can achieve remarkable results through determination and adaptability. Research from Enterprise Nation shows that women-led businesses often outperform their male counterparts in terms of revenue growth and employee satisfaction.
Personal Challenges: The Road to Second Business Success
Love, Loss, and Perseverance
In 2007, I married for the second time and life seemed almost complete. The business was successful, and my husband and I had begun talking about having a child together. We agreed that as Lauren was already five and we did not want the age gap to be too large, we would plan to have a baby quickly.
Mother Nature had different ideas. Although we had no problem conceiving, my body was not happy about carrying a pregnancy. Our first pregnancy was lost at only six weeks. Although we were both disappointed, we knew it was more common than most would know. Therefore, we tried again.
Building Resilience Through Adversity
The heartbreak of miscarriage was going to be recurring. We experienced five over a period of four years. Moreover, it was only through my incessant research that I came across the condition known as ‘elevated natural killer cells.’ We were able to understand that the babies we had lost had been chromosomally normal. Therefore, there must have been a reason my body was unable to continue the pregnancy.
I began treatment, and just a year later, my seventh pregnancy resulted in the arrival of an incredibly special baby girl. This experience reinforced the resilience that successful women in business often develop through personal challenges.
Innovation Born from Necessity: The Zip Us In Story
The Lightbulb Moment
During this journey, I had focused on getting my body as healthy as possible. This made me feel like I was doing all I could to achieve the goal. I began running, took spin classes, went swimming, and paid special attention to my diet. This focus continued throughout my pregnancy. Moreover, I enjoyed outdoor exercise right up until birth.
It was on a beach walking in Weymouth that I had the lightbulb moment for my second business. This moment would eventually cement my place among successful women in business who solve real-world problems through innovation.
Identifying a Market Gap
I had bought an expensive technical jacket as I had been spending more time outdoors. At eight months pregnant, I could not zip it up anymore. Additionally, I was not prepared to waste money on a maternity coat that would be used for such a brief time.
Standing on the windy beach, I commented to my husband that you must be able to buy an extender for a jacket. However, when Google turned up no results, I was surprised. I started drawing up a design that I thought would provide a simple solution to my problem.
From Idea to Reality: Building the Second Business
Turning Concept into Product
Despite the intense level of exhaustion that comes with a new baby, I had never felt more invincible. Specialists had concluded that my reason for recurrent miscarriage was unknown and untreatable. Through sheer determination, I knew differently. I had found a solution to the most heartbreaking problem I had ever faced. Moreover, I had eventually achieved the second most important thing in my life.
My energy was high. Additionally, the idea I had months before about a jacket expander panel kept popping back into my mind. This persistence in pursuing innovative solutions is characteristic of successful women in business.
Real-World Testing and Validation
During my daughter’s first few months, she spent a great deal of time in a carrier. I loved having her close to me. Moreover, it made life so much easier to get work done or go out for a walk.
I have a vivid memory of walking to the Post Office when she was still quite tiny. It was about a ten-minute job to get ready to leave the house. I had popped my coat on, then placed the carrier on, put my daughter in her coat and into the carrier. When we arrived at the Post Office, there was a short queue. I realised very quickly that she was at risk of overheating.
Rapid Growth and Major Opportunities
From Kitchen Table to High Street
I brought fabric and took my idea to the person I knew who was most capable of putting this item together – my mum. My dad took my design and cut a pattern out of the newspapers he had just finished reading. My mum cut the fabric. Moreover, in a matter of hours, I had the first ever jacket expander panel zipped into my favourite jacket.
In October 2013, I took the train to Brighton. Having fallen in love with babywearing, I did not want to have to take a pushchair. Additionally, I knew we would both need to be comfortable for the day. With my baby zipped snug inside my jacket and my backpack on, I boarded the train.
The Breakthrough Moment
Just six months after creating Zip Us In, whilst selling around ten units a week, a friend tagged me in a post on Facebook from the high street pharmacy Boots. They were looking for ‘Mumpreneurs’ – mums who had created a product to solve a problem they faced during their own parenting journey.
After being tagged in the post, Boots got in touch. I was offered a place to pitch to their buying team at their head office in Nottingham. This felt huge! This opportunity exemplified how successful women in business often achieve breakthrough moments through networking and visibility.
According to StartUp Britain, female entrepreneurs who gain major retail partnerships early in their journey often see exponential growth in brand recognition and sales.
Scaling Challenges: The Reality of Rapid Growth
Learning to Say Yes and Figure It Out Later
When my turn came to pitch to the team, my nerves dissipated, and my focus kicked in. I told the team all about that day on the beach in Weymouth and my lightbulb moment. I talked in detail about why babywearing had been so important to me. Moreover, I explained how wonderful it felt to be helping other parents in the same situation.
After rambling for about fifteen minutes, I was asked to wait outside. After a couple of (long) minutes, I was invited back in again. I had expected that I would be told it was a nice little idea. Instead, they asked just one question: “How quickly can you get them on our shelves?” My jaw must have hit the table. Moreover, I was not too sure what to say.
The Manufacturing Challenge
“Always say yes and work out the details later” became a theme in my life! How naïve I had been. While my husband drove us from Nottingham back to the New Forest, I made a stream of phone calls. My tailor certainly was not going to be able to put together one thousand products in just two weeks. Therefore, I needed to look for a commercial manufacturer.
This experience taught me that successful women in business must be willing to stretch beyond their comfort zones and find solutions to seemingly impossible challenges. The Federation of Small Businesses reports that scaling challenges are among the most common hurdles female entrepreneurs face when transitioning from small-scale to commercial production.
Perseverance Through Crisis: The Christmas 2018 Story
Innovation Under Pressure
The most memorable crisis was Christmas 2018. We had launched our latest product, the patented Universal Jacket Expander Panel. This clever innovation enabled customers to connect the expander panel to any zip type.
The method of connection had been in development from day one of the company starting. I was aware that picking the right product to match the zipper on your jacket could be difficult. Therefore, bringing customers a product that could fit ANY zip would be the ultimate solution.
When Everything Goes Wrong
When the sample product arrived from the manufacturer, I was overwhelmed. The product worked exactly how I had anticipated. Moreover, we were ready to roll it out. We opened the listing on our website for pre-order with delivery expected in eight weeks, in time for pre-Christmas delivery.
To my absolute amazement, every one of the five hundred we made had sold before the shipment was even due to land. Then we hit a huge problem. The factory had issues with our tool. Additionally, they had spent so much time trying to resolve it that they had run out of time before the Christmas holiday closure to add clips to two hundred of the remaining products.
The All-Nighter Solution
They arrived at our warehouse on December 21st. Two hundred products, each missing twenty clips, meant that I had to stitch four thousand clips into place. Moreover, I had to despatch the orders within 48 hours to ensure they reached our customers before Christmas, as promised.
This job was going to require help. By 3pm I was sat at my kitchen table with my eldest daughter, three willing neighbours and an impressive production line in place. We sewed, chatted, and ate vast amounts of chocolate and mince pies, with short nap breaks on rotation.
By a small miracle, we managed to get all four thousand clips attached, packaged up and every order sent in time for delivery on Christmas Eve. This experience exemplified how successful women in business often rely on community support and sheer determination to overcome seemingly impossible challenges.
The Psychology of Success: Embracing Resilience
Learning from Failure Statistics
This certainly was not the only time that I sacrificed sleep, needed help from my support team or faced what seemed like impossible problems. However, we managed to come through the other side, almost unscathed.
It is not difficult to understand why the estimated failure rate of start-ups is 90%. According to research, small business owners list the following reasons for failure: running out of money, entering the wrong market, inadequate research, bad partnerships, ineffective marketing, and not being an industry expert. The most important thing missing from that list is resilience.
The Power of Adaptability
Every business can work to overcome the challenges noted above if the founding team is willing to constantly learn and adapt. Without resilience, it would have been easy to scream to get off the roller coaster ride on more occasions than I can count. This resilience is what separates successful women in business from those who give up when faced with adversity.
Research from Harvard Business Review shows that women often score higher than men in resilience and adaptability, key traits for business success.
Embracing Trauma as Growth
The Unexpected Gift of Adversity
When I look back over the difficulties I have faced, both in business and throughout life, I can honestly say I am equally grateful for the tough experiences as I am for the good times. It is a strange thing to say, I know. However, each challenge I have faced has given me a valuable opportunity to gain experience, grow and become a better version of myself.
Without having to pick myself up off the floor and come back fighting, how would I have ever built the level of resilience needed to achieve my goals? Moreover, realising that trauma can be embraced has been one of the most valuable lessons I have experienced. This mindset is common among successful women in business who transform challenges into growth opportunities.
Choosing Your Response
We always have the choice of whether we let traumatic experiences consume us. Alternatively, we can take a positive from that experience, adapt and move forward. This ability to reframe adversity is a defining characteristic of successful women in business.
For additional insights into female entrepreneurship, explore our women in business leadership guide or discover strategies for building business resilience.
Lessons for Aspiring Female Entrepreneurs
The Power of Authentic Storytelling
How interesting would my story be for you if everything had gone to plan with no mistakes, no lessons, and no mountains to climb? My life so far has been an incredible adventure. Moreover, I have no doubt there will be more obstacles to overcome. The one thing I do know is that I will always strive to live an authentic and full life.
I will never be afraid of taking risks if there is opportunity for greater happiness. I now feel more prepared. Additionally, I have the tools to manage whatever comes next. This authentic approach to sharing both successes and failures helps other aspiring successful women in business understand the real journey of entrepreneurship.
Building Your Support Network
Throughout my journey, the support of family, friends, and fellow entrepreneurs has been crucial. Successful women in business understand the importance of building strong networks and asking for help when needed. The Women’s Business Network provides valuable resources and connections for female entrepreneurs at all stages of their journey.
Conclusion: Defining Success on Your Own Terms
My journey from single mother to successful entrepreneur demonstrates that successful women in business come from all backgrounds and overcome diverse challenges. Success isn’t just about financial achievement – it’s about resilience, growth, and the impact you have on others.
The path of successful women in business is rarely linear. Moreover, it’s often marked by setbacks, pivots, and moments of doubt. However, those who persist, learn from failures, and maintain their vision ultimately create not just successful businesses, but meaningful legacies.
Most importantly, successful women in business understand that their success paves the way for others. By sharing our stories, supporting other women, and demonstrating what’s possible, we contribute to a more inclusive and diverse business landscape.
Therefore, whether you’re just starting your entrepreneurial journey or facing challenges in your existing business, remember that resilience, authenticity, and determination are your greatest assets. The ranks of successful women in business are always open to those willing to embrace the adventure.
