The Complete Startup Guide for Women Starting a Business
In 2010 Emily Weiss, while working at Teen Vogue as a fashion assistant, decided to start a beauty blog called Into the Gloss. She worked on her blog part time until eventually she left her job to focus on her blog full time. Weiss ended up becoming known as a beauty expert who had tested and reviewed hundreds of beauty products.
Weiss then translated her dedicated millennial blog readership into a set of loyal customers when she launched millennial favourite beauty company Glossier in 2014. Fast forward to 2019 and Glossier is now valued at over $1.2 billion.
Could you be the next Emily Weiss?
If you are thinking about starting your own business there are many questions you need to think about. From understanding your customer’s wants and needs to how you are going to get your first set of customers. This guide has all of the key questions you need to ask yourself to get your entrepreneurial venture off to the right start.
Once you have answered those questions I have provided you with inspiring stories from other female entrepreneurs, business ideas in case you need some more inspiration as well as other helpful resources.
I hope you enjoy the content. I am excited to see you succeed!
This guide includes:
40 questions you need to answer to get your business off to the right start
A. Identify your Passion and Purpose
1. What are you passionate about? Write everything that comes to mind down.
2. As you consider the things you are passionate about what are you good at or have the most potential to be great at?
3. Are there any real-world issues or everyday problems you could solve or add value to? If you need more ideas, try reading the news every week and see if there are any issues you are passionate about solving. Or checkout Section Five of this guide for some inspiration.
4. Based on questions above brainstorm business ideas that will work best for you. Write them down below.
5. Rank the ideas based on which ones you are most excited about.
6. Select one and then proceed to answer the rest of the questions on this list.
B. Refine Your Business Idea
7. What problem does your business idea solve?
8. If you had to describe your business idea to a friend what would you say?
9. Identify three reasons why someone needs your product or your service.
10. Who is working in the space you are attempting to enter that you admire? What do you like about their approach, product or service? What can you learn from them that you can apply to what you are doing?
11. What part of your service offering is distinctive in a way that will drive demand for what you are offering?
12. Write down your long-term vision for your business. What are you hoping to accomplish? Visualize where you could be ten years from now. Think big. What does that look like?
C. Understand Your Target Customer
13. What does your target customer look like? How old are they? What do they do for a living? Are they male or female? What industry do they work in? Do they have an entry level job or do they have an executive level position? What are their likes or dislikes? What are they stressed about?
14. Based on your understanding of your target customer do you need to update or refine your business idea?
D. Profit Generation
15. What sources of revenue do you expect to generate?
16. What will your costs look like?
17. How much are you going to charge for your product or service? What are your competitors charging?
18. If you have chosen to provide a service such as cooking or coaching brainstorm ideas for how you could turn that service into a monetizable product at some point in the future (i.e. create a cookbook).
E. Marketing Your Product or Service
19. Think about your last five purchases excluding day to day items like groceries. Why did you buy the brand selling them? What lessons can you learn for your own marketing efforts?
20. What local and national publications could you leverage to get publicity for your business? List all below.
21. If you need to do networking to drive your business, write down the days of the week you plan on networking and for how many hours.
22. Write down a list of potential businesses you can partner with to drive leads and sales.
23. How will people learn about your offering? Channels to consider include: your website, blog, social media, email, networking, YouTube etc.
24. Within your network who will be most interested in your offering? Write the names of those people down and reach out to them.
25. What additional tactics are you going to use to find customers?
26. List all of the companies that are doing something similar to what you are doing. What can you learn from them about pricing and marketing etc.
F. Managing Your Time
27. When are you going to work on your business? If you are already employed how many hours are you going to dedicate to your business each week?
28. List all of the things you are going to give up to make room for your entrepreneurial venture.
G. Managing Your Finances
29. What kinds of startup costs do you expect to incur? Some common ones include business registration fees, website hosting costs, business card and company logo design, contractors etc.
30. What types of ongoing costs do you expect to have (i.e. Facebook advertising, salaries, rent)
31. If you need startup and ongoing capital where will you get it? Friends, family, savings, a business loan, venture capital?
H. Learning and Mentorship
32. What are the names of people that could act as mentors as you take on this venture?
33. What books will you read to ensure that you have deep enough knowledge of the area that you are providing a product or service in. If you need to go back to school write down which courses you will take.
34. Who has done something similar to what you are doing either in or outside of your network (i.e 2nd degree LinkedIn connections) that you can approach for help and advice?
35. What news sources including industry publications are you going to read each week to ensure you are on top of the latest developments and trends in your industry?
I. Selfcare and Personal Development
36. List all of the selfcare activities you are going to undertake to ensure you are properly taking care of yourself during your entrepreneurial journey.
37. How are you going to motivate yourself to keep on going when you face setbacks?
38. What is your biggest personal development area (i.e lack of confidence, patience etc.) and what steps are you going to take to overcome it (i.e read books, get a mentor)
39. How are you going to celebrate all of the small milestones you achieve along the way?
40. Since entrepreneurship can be lonely at times what are you going to do to stay healthy and connected with others?
Three inspiring stories from female entrepreneurs who have made it
1. Jennifer Hyman, CEO and Co-Founder of Rent the Runway
One day Jennifer Hyman’s sister told her about how she paid $2,000 for a dress to wear to a wedding that left her sister with credit card debt. That led to Jennifer’s big idea that wouldn’t it be great to rent clothing instead of having to buy it? To see if the idea had legs Hyman teamed up with Jennifer Fleiss, her Co-Founder and they set up a pop up shop on campus at Harvard where they were attending business school. The duo offered 100 dresses they bought from Bloomingdales for rent.
The pop up did really well. Reflecting on the experience Hyman says: “[we thought] this can be a business that isn’t just about offering her [women] a rational or smart choice, but it can also be a business delivering something emotional to her, making her feel beautiful every single day.”
When starting the business they famously cold emailed Diane VonFurstenberg to get advice on their business idea and got a meeting. Their big idea turned into Rent the Runway which launched in 2009. It is a platform where customers can rent clothing, accessories and even home decor items. By the spring of 2019 Rent the Runway was valued at $1 billion.
Hyman is now one of less than 20 females that run a private company that is worth more than $1 billion. But she didn’t get there without any bumps along the way. At a Recode conference Hyman said: “the major penalty that exists for female CEOs is that: “I have to waste 25 percent of my time explaining what my business does.” Hyman also said that male investors often make industry assessments using an “audiences of one”, such as their wife to provide perspective if they cannot test the product themselves.
2. Sara Blakely, CEO and Founder of Spanx
After graduating university, unable to get into law school, Sara Blakely took a job in sales. For seven years she undertook the challenging and surely at times mundane task of selling fax machines door-to-door. Speaking about that time in her life Blakely said: “during my fax-selling stint, I would spend much of my free time trying to figure out what I really wanted out of life and what my strengths were.” “I knew I was good at selling and that I eventually wanted to be self-employed. I thought, instead of fax machines, I’d love to sell something that I created and actually care about.”
One night the beginnings of Blakely’s dream would come true while she was getting ready to go to a party. Speaking about that time Blakely says: “in the hopes of looking better in my fitted white pants, I cut the feet out of a pair of pantyhose and substituted them for my underwear.” “This allowed me to benefit from the slimming effects of the pantyhose’s ‘control top’ while allowing my feet to go bare in my cute sandals. The moment I saw how good my butt looked, I was like, ‘Thank you, God, this is my opportunity!’”
Blakely then launched Spanx her shapewear company in 1998. She worked hard to get her shapewear product to take off and after two years she decided to quit her job and dedicate herself to the business full time. Two weeks after she quit her job she made it onto Oprah Winfrey’s list of “favourite things” TV episode to show off her Spanx. Needless to say the rest is history.
For all of you struggling or aspiring entrepreneurs Blakely has said: “I didn’t realize that selling fax machines door-to-door was really laying the groundwork for me to be able to be an inventor and create a product that had never been done before and bring it to market, because doing something like that requires hearing the word ‘no’ a lot.” “The cold-calling to sell fax machines was an amazing training ground for hearing ‘no.’ I just learned that there’s a formula, you have to go through a certain number of ‘no’s to get to a ‘yes,’ so don’t let it discourage you.”
In 2012. at the age of 41, Spanx founder Sara Blakely was named the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world by Forbes. All of this due to figuring out how to make a woman’s but look better in a pair of white jeans.
3. Katrina Lake, CEO and Founder of Stitch Fix
While at Harvard Business School, as part of a class project Katrina Lake studied ways to make it easier for women to access a range of brands while at the same time catering to their time starved needs. Her idea was to leverage data to make recommendations on what women wanted to wear.
To test out the concept Lake decided to see if she could accurately select the clothing that 20 of her friends would like based on data gathered via a style quiz that each of her friends had to complete. Based on the data from the quizzes Lake bought clothing she thought her friends would like and if they liked what she picked out they could keep the items. The idea took off and in the early days after Lake launched Stitch Fix in 2011 there were hundreds of people that wanted to use the service and the company didn’t even have a website at the time.
Lake recalls that before starting Stitch Fix she worked at a venturing capital firm thinking that one day she might join one of the ventures she interacted with. Reflecting on that experience she said: “ultimately, I didn’t quite find the company I wanted to join, but I met more than 100 entrepreneurs and realized that all these entrepreneurs were just as unqualified as I was.” “If I wanted to be this retailer of the future, or if I wanted to join the retailer of the future, I could just start it.”
No one at Harvard Business School was overly impressed with her idea and Lake thought: “when you are doing something no one else is doing, you are either the smartest person in the room or the dumbest..” “For years, I didn’t know which one I was.”
Clearly she was the smart one. When Lake took Stitch Fix public at 34 years of age she was the youngest female founder ever to take a company public. Stitch Fix, the personal styling company she founded is now valued at over $3 billion.
Two podcast recommendations to learn about the start up phase from other founders
1. Luke's Lobster: Luke Holden and Ben Conniff
On a How I Built This podcast the story of how Luke’s Lobster, which has 40 locations in the United States and Asia is told. The podcast is really funny and if you are looking for ideas for how to find a co-founder this podcast is for you. It talks about how the founders found each other on Craigslist!
One of my favourite quotes from this podcast is when one of the founders says: “the strength of your network especially when resources are limited and times are challenging is so incredibly important.”
You can listen to the podcast here.
2. LÄRABAR: Lara Merriken
Have you ever tried a LÄRABAR? It is one of the largest energy bar brands in the United States. On a How I Built This podcast the founder of LÄRABAR, Lara Merriken, talks about how she came up with the idea and then started making the bars at home using only a Cuisinart.
One of my favourite quotes from this podcast is when Lara is speaking about the struggles she faced getting her business off the ground after all of her original investors had backed out. Her dad, who was helping to make her vision a reality, started to get discouraged and Lara then told him: “I believe this is going to workout. I really have faith. I think the right people will come along at the right time.” Lara ended up getting a new set of investors and the capital required to launch the business. And the rest is history.
You can listen to the podcast here
Seven book recommendations that will help you master marketing, time management & overall business success
1. Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
This is a book about human behaviour. It discusses six principles that provide great insight into what motivates us to make the decisions that we make on a daily basis. One of the six principles the author discusses is the principle of liking. Not surprisingly we prefer to say yes to requests from people we know and like.
One of my favourite quotes from this book is when the author says: “the strength of..[the] social bond is twice as likely to determine product purchase as is preference for the product itself”. The author provides this insight as he discusses the success of Tupperware parties. Tupperware parties became extremely successful by arranging for a friend to introduce the product to potential customers rather than using an unknown salesperson.
Buy it here.
2. Perennial Seller, The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts by Ryan Holiday
This book is about how to create perennial sellers – products and services that last forever. The book provides a frank look into the creative process and what it really takes to create a hit. According to Holiday great creative insight does not appear like a lightning bolt, instead the creative process is non-linear with many detours along the way.
One of the key pieces of advice Holiday offers for marketing a product in a way that will guarantee its success is to invest in building an email list. According to Holiday, what if suddenly you had no access to social media, publishers, retailers, investors or distributors. If this were to happen the only way to survive would be to go directly to your customers. To do this you need an email list. Holiday also provides lots of great strategies for how to build a large email list and how to successfully launch a new product or service.
My favourite quote in this book is: “building an email list is a move toward self-sufficiency for any creator. By forming a direct and regular line of communication with your supporters, you avoid ever being disintermediated.”
Buy it here.
3. Contagious, Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
This book is about why things catch on. While advertising is still beneficial strong word of mouth is often the key to success. One of the reasons strong word of mouth about a product or service is so effective is that it is often directed to people that are most likely to be interested in the product or service. You are not going to recommend a product to your best friend that you do not think he or she is likely to use.
After analyzing hundreds of contagious products the author outlines six principles that cause products and services to be talked about, shared and initiated. One of those principles is using stories in your marketing messages. People tend to tell stories instead of sharing facts and figures. Therefore it is important to embed products and ideas in stories that people want to tell.
One of my favourite quotes from this book is: "word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20% to 50% of all purchasing decisions."
Buy it here.
4. The Go-Giver by John David Mann and Bob Burg
This book is about the 5 key laws for success and it’s my favourite book on the list. My favourite law discussed in the book is the Law of Compensation which states that you are compensated in life based on the number of people you impact. This is one of the reasons companies like Facebook are so successful, it has a reach of over 2 billion people.
It’s a short book, I read it in only two hours but it has had a lasting impact on me.
One of my favourite quotes from the book is: "if you want more success, find a way to serve more people."
Buy it here.
5. Blue Ocean Shift by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
This is one of the best strategy books I have read. It is the follow up book to the author’s widely popular book Blue Ocean Strategy. The book provides useful insight into how organizations have created new markets even when the opportunities were not readily apparent. For example, the authors recommend targeting "non customers". These are customers that your organization turns away for a variety of reasons (i.e they are too expensive to serve).
Square, which was founded by Jack Dorsey is a company that is profiled in this book. Before Square there was an entire market of small businesses and entrepreneurs that did not allow customers to pay by debit or credit card. Square comes along and starts offering an inexpensive way for individuals, small businesses and even large organizations to accept credit and debit card payments on their iPhones, Android phones, or iPads simply by adding a Square reader.
One of my favourite quotes from the book is: a “blue ocean shift is a systematic process to move your organization from cutthroat markets with bloody competition…red oceans full of sharks – to wide open blue oceans, or new markets devoid of competition”.
Buy it here.
6. 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management by Kevin Kruse
This book is a comprehensive guide to managing your time better. It covers many areas including how to efficiently manage your inbox, reduce time in meetings and how to create a morning routine that will help you to get a great start to a more productive day.
Some of Kruse's email best practices involve setting up a few times during the day when you process email and those are the only times during the day when you attend to email. He is also an advocate for turning off all email notifications and sending less email if you want to receive less email.
One of my favourite quotes from this book is: “if a task can be done in five minutes do it immediately”. You lose a lot of time if you return to the same item (i.e. an email) over and over without taking action.
Buy it here.
7. Mindset, The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
Dweck writes about the two types of mindsets that exist within people: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. People with a fixed mindset believe that if they have failed at something (i.e. a project at work or they didn’t get a job they wanted) they will never achieve their goals. With a growth mindset failure doesn’t define you. It’s a problem to be faced, dealt with, and learned from. If you are struggling to achieve a personal or professional goal or learn something new this book can get you moving in the right direction.
One of my favourite quotes from the book is: "in the fixed mindset, everything is about the outcome. If you fail – or if you’re not the best – it’s all been wasted. The growth mindset allows people to value what they’re doing regardless of the outcome. They’re tackling problems, charting new courses, working on important issues."
Buy it here.
The top 10 business ideas for women
1. Become a Life Coach
We all need a bit of life advice from time to time don’t we? It seems as if more and more people are finding life difficult to manage. Are you that someone that people turn to for advice? Are you a good listener who is adept at seeing what lies beneath the surface of your best friend’s problems? Have you overcome adversity in your own life and now you have strategies and remedies to help people with similar problems? If you are answering yes then becoming a life coach could be a path for you.
You can get started by letting your friends and families know that you are available for coaching sessions. Or you could build up a following on YouTube as life coach Stephanie Lyn has. This could prove to be a rewarding course of action if you love helping people.
Additional listening:
Another successful entrepreneur who started her career as a life coach is Marie Forleo. You can learn more about how she got started by listening to this podcast where she is interviewed by Business Insider.
2. Write a Book
Writing and publishing your own book is a great way to reach a broader audience and cement your status as an expert in an area. It is best to write a book on a topic you are passionate about that focuses on a particular area, if you go too broad your book may easily get lost in the sea of existing titles.
Once you have written your book you can seek out a traditional publishing house or you can self-publish and sell your book on your website or through Kindle Direct Publishing (owned by Amazon), Writing Life (owned by Rakuten) or iBooks Author (owned by Apple).
Self-publishing may be the best option for you if you want a bigger cut per book sale. Authors that self-publish keep between 50% - 70% of sales vs. 15% to 25% royalties for publishing a book in a traditional manner. Keep in mind that while you will generate more revenue per book through self-publishing you may easily spend the difference in marketing fees especially if you are relatively unknown and are trying to build a following.
Additional reading:
Tips on How to be a Writer from J.K. Rowling, Author of Harry Potter
3. Start Blogging
Is there something you are passionate about? Cooking? Tech products? Health and wellness? If you have a passion and a point of view you could start a blog where you provide insight and wisdom on a topic of your choice.
Gone are the days when you need to learn how to code to build a website. Using online website builders like Squarespace or Wix you can build a website to host your blog quickly and easily.
To generate revenue from your blog you can sign up for Google AdSense. Google AdSense allows you to display targeted ads from a wide range of advertisers on your website. You are paid by Google typically on a cost per impression or cost per click basis. Or you can reach out to brands/marketers directly and sell them advertising space.
Many people also add affiliate links to their blog posts. If you are recommending products you believe your readers will benefit from you can also include affiliate links within your blog posts. Affiliate links are simply the digital equivalent of commissions and referrals. These links are pay-per-action; they require your blog audience to click the link and make a purchase of a product (let’s say for a product that you are recommending).
Income generation is dependent on traffic to your blog and it can take up to 12-18 months before you see a meaningful level of traffic. Becoming proficient in SEO (search engine optimization) and learning how to market your blog are also important keys to success.
Additional reading:
How to Make Money From Your Blog With 4 Effective Strategies
4. Create Online Courses
It is fairly easy to create and sell an online course through online training platforms such as Udemy, Thinkific and Teachable.
Udemy’s platform which I have used myself to create my own online course allows you to easily upload video, slides and basically everything you need to create a great course. As a novice in this space I found the entire process of creating a course on Udemy very smooth which was a relief after spending several months developing the content for my course.
As with all of these opportunities, the work does not stop with content creation. You have to market your online course in order to drive course enrollment.
Additional reading:
Popular and Trending Online Course Topics
5. Become a YouTuber
You may have already thought about creating your own YouTube videos or wondered how people make money from it. Becoming a YouTuber can serve as a lucrative form of passive income if you do it right. Start by figuring out your target market. Do you want to do DIY videos for new moms? Or do you want to focus fitness videos?
Once you have identified your audience and value proposition start making videos. Frequency and consistency are the keys to success on YouTube and for blogging as well. Try to post a video at least once a week on the same day. That will create a habit as your subscribers tune into your channel each week to watch your latest video.
In the same way that Google AdSense can be used to display ads on blogs you can also use Google AdSense to display ads on your YouTube videos.
Additional reading:
YouTube is Adding More Ways for Creators to Make Money
6. Become a Merchandise Reseller
Reselling is a big business which has led to the growth of many online sites where you can easily sell merchandise. Some of the popular ones are Poshmark, Amazon and ebay. The benefits of selling on these platforms is that they give you exposure to millions of potential customers.
Poshmark
Poshmark is an online resale site that primarily sells clothing and home décor items. You can get started on Poshmark by selling what you already have in your closet. If you are struggling with what to get rid of you can always seek Marie Kondo’s words of wisdom in her book the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.
You can try selling just a few items at first to understand how the platform works. Once you have some experience and results under your belt you can try buying items in bulk from your local thrift store. See what sells, what doesn’t and if you start to make an income over time you can decide if this might be a pursuit that you want to do on a full-time basis.
Additional reading:
Poshmark: How to Make Thousands of Dollars by Selling What’s in Your Closet
Amazon
There are two ways of selling on Amazon. Either Amazon purchases your inventory and resells it (first party sales) or you sell your products on Amazon’s marketplace directly to customers and Amazon takes a cut of the sale (third party sales).
First party sales are by invitation only. In this case Amazon purchases your goods at wholesale prices. Amazon owns the inventory, warehouses it, sets pricing, fulfills orders including shipping and handles customer care.
Third party sellers on Amazon are independent sellers that sell a range of new and used merchandise. Amazon has the largest marketplace for third party sellers in the US and 58% of Amazon’s eCommerce sales volume are from third party sellers.
Additional reading:
The Ultimate Guide to Selling on Amazon in 2019
The Top Ten Categories That Amazon is Winning In
eBay
You can sell almost anything on ebay from electronics, to clothing to shoes. In terms of online retail spending, Amazon comes in first place with a 47% share versus eBay that comes in a distant second-place with a 6.1% share.
Amazon’s marketplace focuses more on selling new merchandise rather than used while eBay has a greater focus on secondhand goods. eBay is also be a good platform if you are looking to source merchandise that you want to resell. Many merchants that sell on ebay also sell on Amazon.
Additional reading:
How to Sell Successfully on eBay
7. Become a Personal Chef
Are you one of those people that loves trying new recipes and cooking for your family? Most people feel like they are time started with the average person spending two hours commuting every day. That means people have less time to cook. And if someone is looking for healthy options it can be even harder to eat the right foods when time for food preparation is limited.
If food is your passion why not try cooking for others. What is more important than what we put into our bodies each and everyday? And the best part is that the need for healthy and wholesome cooked meals will never go away.
Additional reading:
Personal Chefs for Everyone: Bespoke House Calls in the Digital Age
8. Sell Arts and Crafts on Etsy
Do you have a hobby that involves your creative side? If your weekends and nights are filled with pottery classes, oil painting lessons and DIY jewellery projects you may want to consider making that your side hustle. If you are concerned that you are only a beginner and don’t have what it takes you will never know unless you try.
Sites like Etsy make it incredibly easy to sell arts and crafts. On Etsy’s website it says: “if it’s handcrafted, vintage, custom or unique, it’s on Etsy.” If that sounds like you, what are you waiting for? Plan and complete your next project and list it for sale on Etsy. Over time you will get a good sense of what items are selling well and which ones are not a great fit for the platform.
Additional reading:
Here’s What it is Really Like to Make a Living Selling on Etsy
9. Become an Online Tutor
Is there a subject such as English or math that you have always excelled in? If there is you may want to consider becoming a tutor. You can offer after school programs for children in your neighborhood. There are also a lot of options to provide a service like this online but setting up an in person service may offer the best value to students. Popular subjects to tutor include math, English, sciences and English as a second language.
To get started determine what subjects you will teach and for what ages.
Additional Reading:
The 10 Best Online Tutoring Websites Have Thousands of Experts Available for Round-the-Clock Help
10. Become a Personal Stylist
Do you have great style? Does everyone wish they had your wardrobe? Then why don’t you help others to look as good as you do. You could help to style other women that work in professional settings that want to look great while they climb the corporate ladder. Or you could help men find their weekend style.
One thing that will never go out of fashion is the need to look great. As online shopping continues to grow it offers a lot more choice but at the same time that choice is often overwhelming. There will be a growing need from people that just want someone else to make sense of all of the clothing and outfit options. The person that does that could be you.
Additional reading:
Inside the World of Personal Styling for Non-Celebrities
Bonus*
11. Do Something You are Passionate About
The last idea on this list is the idea inside of you. It is something that you have been thinking about for a very long time. It’s going to solve a problem that someone you know has. And you are really excited about it. Most great business ideas are formed this way.
What business idea do you have? It might have more potential than you realize.