THE FAST TRACK
Leading female businesswomen, including Facebook’s Nicola Mendelsohn, on navigating the road to entrepreneurial success
Facebook’s European head on how to succeed as a female entrepreneur
s the European head of Facebook, Nicola Mendelsohn is one of technology’s most powerful women. We meet straight after her presentation to the CBI’s annual conference, where her announcement of Facebook’s expansion in London was enthusiastically welcomed by Theresa May. Clad in a figurehugging fuchsia dress and matching heels, Mendelsohn exudes dynamism and warmth.
Yet even she has confessed to ‘wobbly moments’ in her stellar career, allowing male colleagues to take the lead in meetings, and being nervous of asking for a pay rise. So perhaps it is not as surprising as it seems at first that research conducted for Facebook found lack of confidence to be the single biggest factor holding women back from launching themselves into entrepreneurial ventures. According to the study, one in 10 women has a business plan that she has not dared to put into action. ‘If even a fifth of them did, that would increase GDP by £10 billion by 2020, which would be 425,000 new jobs,’ Mendelsohn declares.
And this is not just a British problem. Mendelsohn’s position as vice-president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa necessitates constant travel around the region, and she says she sees the same issues wherever she goes. ‘There is commonality of women not putting themselves forward, being fearful perhaps of failure.’
‘I worked for big corporates for years, till I had the guts to go out on my own,’ agrees Louise Oliver, the president of the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs, and founder of her own financialplanning business, Piercefield Oliver. ‘Maybe if I’d had more confidence, I’d have done it sooner.’ Yet according to Polly McMaster, the cofounder of the workwear brand the Fold, ‘that questioning of yourself never really goes away, because as your business grows, you keep moving the goalposts. If I’d known the personal reserves that you need to get to the top, I might never have taken that initial step.’
As we know from our own surveys, Bazaar At Work’s readers are a truly entrepreneurial group, with 40 per cent running their own company. In the wider society, however, that statistic becomes considerably less rosy, to the detriment of all.
Of course, this gap is not purely down to confidence: institutional sexism certainly has a part to play. ‘I know lots of female entrepreneurs who didn’t get support from the banks when they started out,’ says Oliver. ‘Men are still perceived as less of a risk, but in fact, women are a safer bet because they’re generally less happy to lose the money. As Christine Lagarde observed, if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters, it wouldn’t have gone bust.’
Moreover, juggling family life with running a business demands exceptional levels of energy and dedication. ‘I’m not going to lie, I found it incredibly difficult,’ admits the fashion designer Emilia
Wickstead, who has two small children. ‘Both your business and your children are your babies, and require your full, undivided attention. It takes a lot out of you. Now, I always talk to people about making sure they employ someone to help them carry the load.’
A lack of role models is another issue. Facebook’s research found that 72 per cent of women respondents could not name a woman who was running a similar business. The Old Boy network, by contrast, is enough to show would-be male entrepreneurs that they have only to follow a well-trodden path to success.
‘If you can’t see it, you can’t be it,’ says Mendelsohn. ‘I guess I was very lucky, growing up, that my mum and grandma worked. My grandmother had a small haberdashery shop and my parents ran a catering business. So that was my normal. Small businesses are in my blood, without question – but I know with hindsight that was quite unusual.’
Her own experience, along with Facebook’s research, has persuaded Mendelsohn to spearhead the She Means Business campaign. A joint venture between Facebook, the Federation of Small Businesses and the British Chambers of Commerce, it aims to encourage more women to take the leap to becoming entrepreneurs, with a hub offering everything from webinars to networking events and, importantly, case studies of successful female business owners.
‘Take-up has been great,’ says Mendelsohn. ‘I think if more women know about it, we’ll start to bash away at that one in 10 figure and inspire others to go out there and think, “I can do this, and there’s plenty of people here who will support me and show me how.”’
NatWest is another company with specific structures in place to support female entrepreneurs. Customers of its Women in Business initiative are offered specialist support and guidance by dedicated relationship managers, who act both as business mentors and as conduits to other relevant organisations and events, including NatWest’s Everywoman Awards. ‘My relationship manager truly understands my business,’ says Caroline Castigliano, the luxury-bridalwear designer, with genuine enthusiasm. ‘Partnering and networking is critical, and he knows the sort of people I should be networking with.’
Wickstead, meanwhile, recommends the Walpole Committee’s Brands of Tomorrow initiative, which offers innovative companies a mentoring programme from industry leaders. She was paired with Jim Sharp, the co-founder of Sirius Equity. ‘He had been in the business for such a long time and had such wisdom and knowledge – you can’t buy that expertise. I think you need that assistance because knowing how to grow a company doesn’t come naturally.’
In the end, it seems, help is out there for women entrepreneurs with the courage to ask for it, whether that is through established networks or by way of more informal arrangements.
‘I’ve got amazing friends in high places, but I don’t like to bother people,’ says Tamara Salman, who left her post as creative director of Liberty to become a handbag designer. ‘But in the past few months, I’ve started to call on my girlfriends to be there for me, and they’ve all stepped up. There’s nothing more inspirational than the support of other successful women.’ See page 113 for more information about the Bazaar At Work Build
Your Business event.