6 lessons female founders wish they knew earlier

There’s a whole community of female founders out there ready to support one another, so tap into it.

By Maxine Bremner, co-founder of Hive19

Starting a business as a woman comes with its own set of challenges. The business world hasn’t always been set up with women in mind, which can make it harder to find the right advice or support.

The good news is that, over the years, I’ve found that the hurdles we face do have solutions, and the sooner you know them, the better.

So, in the spirit of paying it forward, I’m sharing six lessons from my five-year journey as co-founder of Hive19, the Brighton-based digital marketing agency.

1. You (probably) already know your first customers

Rather than spending months marketing your new business to your ideal client, use the connections you have. Chances are, your first customers are already in your network.

Start by sharing your business idea with friends and family, and encourage referrals to reach a wider audience. Gather feedback, refine your offerings over time, and build your confidence before marketing to your wider target customers.

2. Setting boundaries to avoid burnout is a must

As a female founder, it’s been a challenge for me to draw a clear line between when I stop work and when to carve out time to spend with loved ones.

However, if you want your business to be a success, boundaries are a must to avoid burnout. You’ll find that you can give more to your business when you take the time to rest and reset.

A few of the boundaries I’ve found super useful over the years include:

• Be proactive and arrange days out, meet ups and social events on weekends ahead of time.
  
  

• Avoid saying “yes” to every new client or business opportunity. If it doesn’t align with your long term goals, it may not be worth taking up your resources and brain space.
  
  

• Block out specific time blocks or entire days where nobody can book meetings with you. This becomes your hyper-focus time when you’re most productive.

3. Learn how to access funding and support

There’s a whole community of female founders out there ready to support one another, so tap into it! Alongside this wonderful community at The Female Lead, resources I recommend checking out include:

• Female Founders Fund

• Invest in Women Taskforce

• Female Founder Finance

• Her Biz

• Wyseminds

• Cherie Blair Foundation for Women

Young female entrepreneurs should also explore youth business grants, like The King’s Trust Enterprise Programme.

4. Invest in financial systems early

I’m lucky that Louisa Delpy, one of Hive19’s fellow co-founders, is a machine when it comes to our agency’s finances. We built our agency with financial systems set into the foundations, and I’ll always be grateful that we did.

By investing in the right tech, we tracked our cash flow from day one, and we have systems and automation in place that flag any outstanding invoices. This helped us price our services correctly and ensure financial sustainability long-term.

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Female leaders and CEOs on the one piece of advice they would give young women

Presenting at work made me a wreck, until I learnt not to undersell myself

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As you start your business, I’d highly recommend doing the same.

Explore tech that makes tracking your money automatic, so that you don’t have to worry about spreadsheets and receipts. Open a business account that connects to your financial hardware, like your card reader, and records all of your incoming and outgoing payments in one place.

5. You can (and should) pay yourself straight away

While it’s great to reinvest in your business, you deserve to take a salary from your profits, and to do so from day one.

Be smart with your finances and factor your salary into pricing and revenue goals from day one, with a clear budget that ensures good cash flow and long-term sustainability.

This cultivates healthier financial practices and ensures you can put in enough time to grow your startup without sacrificing your personal life.

For me, paying myself a salary was one of those boundaries that ensured I had a life outside of work, too, which is super important for my positive mental wellbeing as a founder.

6. Always test before you scale

One of the smartest moves we made at Hive19 early on was piloting services before scaling them - and we still do this today. It gives us room to learn, improve, and be agile in pivoting our approach to link building and content marketing.

Start small, working in iterations to introduce a simpler version of your product or service to a small pool of clients.

Gather feedback, make decisions on data rather than biases and use it to refine your idea, all while avoiding costly mistakes. When the time comes to scale, you’ll already know what works and why, creating a strategy rooted in experience.

Final Thoughts

If you’re a woman thinking about starting a business, go for it. The world could do with more female founders, and there’s a whole community of supportive, like-minded women waiting for you to join.

Maxine Bremner is Cofounder and Head of Content at Hive19, a marketing agency that services global SaaS and fintechs. She works with fast-growing eCommerce businesses, innovative fintech startups, and scaling SaaS brands, supporting their efforts to build trust and visibility within their niche through creative content and targeted marketing strategies.