Almost half of managers in the workforce will be women by 2012, yet there is a scarcity of role models for female entrepreneurs. This is one impetus for the Women Mean Business Awards, which will be announced next week. Michael Kellytalks to five of the nominees
When Anne Heraty, founder of CPL Resources, became the first woman to win the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, last year, it was representative of a broader increase in female entrepreneurship in Ireland. Women still lag behind men when it comes to setting up their own businesses - nearly three times as many men as women are involved in early-stage entrepreneurial activity in Ireland, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.
The general increase in women in the workforce is helping to narrow that gap, however. A recent study published by Fás and the Economic and Social Research Institute forecasted that women will make up the majority of business, financial and legal professionals by 2012 and that almost half of managers in the workforce will be women by that time. It stands to reason that as more women enter the boardrooms, a greater proportion of them will opt to become entrepreneurs, which presumably means more Anne Heratys on the award podiums of the future.
"I do think that a lot more women are gaining the confidence to set up their own business, though we are still under-represented in some sectors," says Rosemary Delaney, managing editor of Women Mean Businessmagazine. "One of the problems for women entrepreneurs is that there are not many role models out there to mentor and encourage them to become entrepreneurs. Businesswomen do not tend to be profiled so much in the media."
It was partly to address this issue that Delaney set up the magazine, in 2006, and the inaugural Women Mean Business Conference and Awards, sponsored by O2, which take place at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin on Monday. Speakers at the conference will include Ann Summers CEO Jacqueline Gold, Danuta Gray of O2 Ireland, the Apprentice finalist Kristina Grimes and Jack Black, founder of Mindstore. As well as honouring the businesswoman, entrepreneur and social entrepreneur of the year, there will also be Breakthrough and Big Idea awards.
The women profiled here have been nominated across these categories, and their stories highlight some of the issues that face women entrepreneurs in Ireland. Clearly there are still sectors of our economy - engineering, science and technology, for example - that still feel like old boys' clubs to women. In addition many businesses do not, or will not, offer women careers that will allow them to juggle the demands of family and work. As a result, women are faced with some tough choices - become a superwoman, deftly managing a high-powered career and raising your children or, if that doesn't work, try any of the following: job share, work part-time, switch careers or leave the workforce altogether. Because of the inflexibility of the workplace, some working mothers become entrepreneurs out of necessity. By and large, however, what is being celebrated at the Women Mean Business Awards is the flare for spotting a niche in a market and moving quickly to fill it. That flare is common to all entrepreneurs - male or female.
NICOLA RATHBONE HandsBan
Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. Halfway through a mechanical engineering degree at Cork Institute of Technology, Nicola Rathbone discovered she was pregnant. "Life happens, but unfortunately engineering is not a great job for a lone parent. They expect you to show up at 7am and leave at 7pm. In the UK there is a higher prevalence of female engineers, so there are more job-shares. But here it's distinctly female-unfriendly."
While she tried to balance looking after her daughter with college life, she spotted a business idea. "Time and again I had problems with child-resistant caps on medicine bottles. There was one instance where I turned around and she had a bottle in her mouth and had managed to get the cap off. I discovered that if a child bites down on those caps they can indeed get them off. That's just bad engineering. The reason that we adults are better at opening those caps is because of our hand span. So I developed a container that can only be opened if you can reach the top and the bottom of it." The idea got an award from the International Federation of Inventors, but, once again, life intervened. "It got pushed to the side for a few years, because my marriage broke up, but last year the SSIA came to the rescue - it meant that I could afford to take a year out and work full time on it." Now at pre-production stage, her fledgling company, HandsBan, is seeking mid-term investment. "The pot at the end of the rainbow is for pharmacies to use it as their standard prescription bottle and for vitamins. One per cent of that market alone would be worth €10 million in revenue."
Rathbone does not see herself as an entrepreneur. "I'm an 'inventrepreneur'. If I can't get someone else to do something for me, I will pull up my sleeves and do it myself. What drives me to succeed is different: it's not about money, success or power; it's about seeing an idea that I created make it to the shelf and make a difference."
TINA ROCHE Business in the Community Ireland
Tina Roche was head of development at the National Gallery from 1994 to 1999, during the crucial planning and fundraising period for the Benson + Forsyth-designed Millennium Wing. Since then the entrepreneurial spirit that saw her raise €20 million for that project has been directed towards promoting philanthropy, community activism and corporate responsibility in Ireland.
In 2000 Roche established two organisations, the Community Foundation for Ireland and Business in the Community Ireland. The Community Foundation is a philanthropic vehicle for donors; Business in the Community promotes the concept of corporate social responsibility in Irish business. The foundation has already built up a €20 million endowment fund.
"There are 33,000 millionaires in Ireland, and we are trying to get them to think strategically about their wealth. I don't think the wealthy in Ireland are stingy - far from it - but all our wealth is young wealth, entrepreneurs in their 30s and 40s who are only now starting to think about their legacy. We are not just looking for money; we are looking for them to direct the same drive to solving a social problem as they did to generating their wealth."
The second organisation, Business in the Community, was established to challenge and support business in improving its impact on the community, environment, marketplace and workplace. "Corporate social responsibility is about more than being involved in the community. It's an ethos. It's about how companies treat their employees, customers, suppliers, the environment. It's about all-round sustainability of business."
The organisation encourages business to extend employment opportunities to ex-offenders, the parents of Irish-born children and the homeless. "We had a target of 30 placements in terms of ex-offenders in our first year, but since then we have placed more than 2,500 people in jobs. The response from business has been phenomenal."
Roche is well aware of scepticism when corporate social responsibility is discussed.
"We all work in business in some shape or form, so it's a question of what type of
company you want to work for. You should see some of the work that these companies do. They won't talk about it, because they are terrified that people will say they are only doing it for publicity. If one can park the cynicism you can see that people are doing some unbelievable work."
LAURA THORP Laura's Bakery
On her 21st birthday Laura Thorp signed a lease for her first business premises, and now, at the grand old age of 23, she runs a wholesale bakery that employs four people and supplies food halls, cafes and health-food stores in Ireland and Britain.
Thorp did a year and a half of a science degree at Trinity College in Dublin before discovering she didn't like science. "It wasn't for me. I was looking for a job and couldn't find anything, so I took a stall at Blackrock Market, selling cookies and biscuits that I baked at home. There was enough interest that I figured there was a business in it, but with food production there are lots of regulations; you can't do it out of your bedroom. At that stage I had decided to leave college, so I talked to Wicklow County Enterprise Board about funding. They gave me a mentor, and I started working on a business plan."
Like most entrepreneurial ideas, Thorp's came from spotting a niche in the market. "I love eating, and I've always baked cakes and biscuits. At the same time my family are pretty health-conscious - I was off dairy as a child, and my sister was off wheat. We always thought that there wasn't much out there by way of treats for people like us."
The solution, she felt, was spelt flour. "It's an alternative to wheat flour, so it is suitable for people who have wheat allergies or intolerances. It was used in ancient Rome and known for its restorative qualities. The gluten in it is easier to digest than in regular flour, and it's higher in vitamins, protein and fibre."
Thorp started trading out of Kilcoole Industrial Estate, in Co Wicklow, in 2004 under the name Laura's Bakery. "With manufacturing you immediately have staff, rent and suppliers, so straight away you have massive overheads. We are just about breaking even, but you need to be doing more than that, really."
The classic entrepreneurial motive lies behind her business venture. "I've always loved creating things, and I love the idea of creating something that didn't exist before. The business has given me the type of lifestyle that I want. I have time and flexibility. I like the idea that it's up to me if I want to increase sales, that I have control."
MICHELLE POWER Boozeberries
Twelve years ago Michelle Power and her husband moved to Tullow, in Co Carlow, from Bray, in Co Wicklow. With an acre of land at their new home, and a commute to a catering job in Dublin wearing her down, Power turned her attention to home-grown business ventures. "We started with organic herbs, and before I knew it I was supplying 30 restaurants, but the growing season was so short it was very hard to make it a decent living."
... Using an old family recipe to preserve fruits, Power happened across the idea for Boozeberries. "Instead of adding a little alcohol to fruit we did it the other way around, so what you get is a naturally flavoured berry liqueur, which you can drink on its own or as a cocktail."
Boozeberries liqueurs - available in blackcurrant, blueberry and cranberry flavours - are stocked by Superquinn, Tesco and O'Briens off-licences. "I outsourced the bottling from the start, so basically the company is just my husband and me. He's a musician, so he has a lot of free time on his hands. The first two years I spent the whole time looking at our bank balance and waiting for cash flow to improve. I don't get so many palpitations now, and I enjoy it more. When you get positive feedback, that gives you all the reassurance you need. It's like, wow, someone else thinks this is good, too."
The company is starting to sell abroad, notably in Iceland, The Netherlands, Finland and Morocco. Next stop world domination? "It will always be a niche-market product, and for the moment we are focused on giving it a steady footing. It's very much slowly-slowly and growing within our means."
Power has been surprised by the paucity of female executives in the industry and by the extent of the challenge that has faced her. "At trade shows people assume that I am working the stand, and I get funny looks when I tell them that I am the owner. I suppose there's a lot of travel involved, and it wouldn't suit some women. I was lucky enough to be able to be at home for my kids when they were babies, so I have some flexibility now. I'm a grafter, but if I had known all the obstacles that would be thrown my way, I wouldn't have done it. I was really naive."
NIKKI EVANS Perfect Card
Nikki Evans worked as an IT project manager for five years before returning to college to do an MBA at London Business School. Her degree complete, Evans became a management consultant, and it was this role that encouraged her to set up on her own.
"Basically my job was to go into big, blue-chip corporates and fix a particular problem for them. You start to think, goodness, if I have the expertise to help companies like these sort their problems, maybe I have what it takes to set up on my own."
The opportunity to do so came soon after. "One of the big Dublin shopping centres was looking to launch an in-house gift card, but they didn't want to have separate terminals at the checkouts. This meant we had to find a way for the card to work with existing credit- or debit-card terminals." The result, PerfectCard, is branded with the shopping centre's logo, allows customers to purchase items in any of the centre's stores and can be processed at a standard card terminal.
Her company has also developed a generic gift card. "AOL Broadband and Dell are clients of ours. They give them out to call-centre employees as bonuses, and the employees can buy anything they wish with them, in retail stores or online - anywhere Mastercard is accepted."
She accepts that the technology industry is something of a man's world but believes her relative youth causes more problems. "Definitely, there's a bigger issue with my age than my gender. I have to focus on looking older for meetings, because invariably the people that I am dealing with are 10-15 years older than me. I usually bring someone along who has grey hair! When I am networking at events I do feel that the technology sector is a man's world, but when you get talking to people it's fine."
Evans believes that the flexibility of owning her own business may come in handy should she look to start a family later on. For the moment, however, it is more traditional entrepreneurial motivation that drives her. "I saw the opportunity to set something up from scratch and control it myself. Maybe I'm a control freak. Every minute you put into it benefits you, as opposed to someone else. Having said that, financially it's chronic, but you hope that it won't always be chronic."
See www.womenmeanbusiness.com/awards