Three of Australia’s most successful women entrepreneurs have shed light on how they’ve managed to become successful businesswomen and make millions in their male-dominated industries.
Natalie Goldman is the CEO of Flex Careers—a company to connect skilled women with flexible employers after a career gap—and says fellow businesswomen should set the bar high when starting out.
Noga Edelstein of Urban You—an on-demand online booking platform for screened cleaners and gardeners—advises women to train themselves to speak the language of money when pitching ideas to men.
CEO Natalie Goldman (pictured) has led Flex Careers into amassing $1.7m in capital to date since 2015
Tessa Court of Intelligence Bank— a process management company designed to help businesses reduce costs and risks—says women should learn about venture capital funding as it could make all the difference in a business going to distance.
As the CEO of training and employment service for ‘career mums’, Ms Goldman said she’s all too familiar with the doubts that plagues the minds of women pursuing a business venture, which often renders them with unnecessarily low goals.
But she recommends women ‘recognise their capabilities’ as a top priority and says confidence is key when entering any market.
Banishing fear and taking risks is her next biggest tip: ‘In business, as an entrepreneur, you need to think big. The best way to do it is just to aim really high,’ she said.
Ms Goldman stresses the importance of having the confidence and perseverance to seek investment when launching a startup, given that men typically found it easier to source funding- even before they begin their business.
FlexCareers has engineered game-changing technology to connect qualified women with progressive employers offering flexible work
She also encouraged women to not feel obliged to venture down a feminine-focused path, or become a ‘mumtrepreneur’; a label automatically given to many women in business.
‘In reality, many female entrepreneurs actually do something in the many other fields, such as engineering, the environment, technology and many more,’ she explained.
Co-founder of Urban You, an on-demand cleaning and tradesperson platform, Ms Edelstein, suggested women re-evaluate their business investment pitches to let male lenders know how exactly they’re going to make them money.
Director and co-founder of Urban You, Noga Edelstein (pictured), alongside Elke Keeley, has led her business into raising $2million of funding since it started in 2014
UrbanYou is an online platform for connecting busy people with top-quality, pre-screened independent cleaning and gardening professionals
She explained how after reformulating her pitch from detailing how hard she’d worked as a busy mother, to how much money she was going to make: her response rate changed radically.
She said there was no place for modesty when seeking funds either and encouraged women to eradicate fear of being classed as vain.
Most senior business leaders being male often made it hard for women to gain access to influencial decision makers, but Ms Edelstein said it was crucial that women immersed themselves in as many networks of investors possible.
As the CEO of Intelligence Bank, a business process management company, Tessa Court says women need a solid foundation of just two things when starting out: access to plenty of financial capital, and ample amounts of confidence.
‘When presenting investment opportunities to investors, women need to exude confidence to assure investors that as a founder or CEO, they can make it happen,’ she explained.
‘You need money to make money and many women are not aware of the process of raising seed or venture funding.’
UrbanYou and intelligencebank.com are Alumnae of the Springboard Enterprises Australia Accelerator, which is run by SBE Australia, a not-for-profit organisation that supports female technology entrepreneurs with growing and scaling their businesses.
CEO of Intelligence Bank, Tessa Court (pictured), has helped the company raise $3million in venture capital funding since 2009
IntelligenceBank is a business process management company, delivering niche applications designed to help teams reduce costs and risk