General Assembly’s ‘How She Got There’: Shining a Spotlight on Entrepreneurial Women
When the General Assembly invite for ‘how she got there’ landed in our inboxes, we knew that we had to go. A talk that focused solely on entrepreneurial women and how they started their businesses felt like an event made for us.
From left to right: Emma Sexton, Louise Broni-Mensah, Bosola Ajeniguja
From left to right: Lacey Hunter-Felton, Emily Forbes, Saijia Mahon
The panel of entrepreneurial women consisted of Emma Sexton, founder of Flock and one-third of the bad-ass women hour, Louise Broni-Mensah, founder of Snoobs, Bosola Ajeniguja, co-founder of Stokki, Lacey Hunter-Felton, founder of Hunter Collective, Emily Forbes, founder of Seen It, and Saija Mahon, founder of Mahon Digital Marketing.
The talk started with introductions to each woman and their business ventures. Hearing each of their individual journeys was very interesting, as everyone had such a unique start to their business journey. Whilst Saija started her business whilst pregnant, Louise started hers through frustration and Bosola actually took over when her friend sadly passed away.
Becoming Resilient
They then spoke about how they had personally changed since starting their own companies, and one of the most overwhelming responses was how they had all become much more resilient. Learning not to get caught up and fixated on the little things is key. It’s all about learning to not take everything so personally, and to keep driving your business forward.
“When something bad happens, grab the silver lining, run with it, and don’t look back”
And along with that new-found resilience, you become more fearless. With each day you become less afraid, and you become more aware of what your focus is. You learn to trust yourself more, and as your business grows you lose that initial ‘start-up’ fear.
Another point that was made, was that a lot of the panellists felt as though they were actually happier and more relaxed since starting their own businesses. Being in control of your time, and pouring your heart and soul into something that you’re truly passionate about is exponentially rewarding.
“I’ve learnt to let go of the stress, and enjoy the journey. The more relaxed I am, the more things naturally happen. I’ve changed from being anxious and stressed, to focused and invested myself and my efforts to growing the business in the right way.”
Something else that really stood out, was how relatable these women and some of the words they were saying really resonated with me and made me feel more determined to succeed in pushing our business forward.
The one thing they did stress was building a business is not easy, it takes time to nurture and grow. You need to believe in it, otherwise how do you expect people to buy into your business when you don't believe in it yourself?
