There are now estimated to be more than 1m female entrepreneurs in the UK, generating a combined turnover of about £4.4 billion. While you might read depressing statistics detailing the sisterhood’s failure to break through the glass ceilings of the corporate world (women still hold only 9% of directorships in FTSE 100 companies), when it comes to setting up their own ventures, they are blazing a trail. And for many, the place to do that is the internet.
Sojin Lee is founder of the new multimedia fashion portal Fashionair.com. Probably best described as an online television channel, it offers everything from videos to shopping tips and comes with the considerable clout of being backed by Simon Fuller.
For Lee, 37, a technologically focused approach to business was always key. “I am Korean, which has a lot to do with my affinity for online. My cousins have been using social networking for 10 years, since before people even knew MySpace was alive.”
After a career in banking that lasted “like, 2½ seconds”, she cut her teeth in fashion, working at Chanel and Bottega Veneta, before heading to Natalie Massenet’s Net-a-porter as a founding member. “The minute I joined, it was the most exciting thing,” she says of the then start-up that quickly became one of the UK’s most famous — and glamorous — internet enterprises. “It was exciting because I had had a glimpse in America of what e-commerce could be, and the fact that it wasn’t being replicated in Europe at the time seemed ridiculous. It was the same with pedicure salons — they took a while to catch on here, too.”
Atelier-Mayer.com
For Carmen Haid, founder of the new online vintage emporium Atelier-Mayer.com, the motivation was less technological than practical. After working “my whole life in fashion” as a PR for brands including Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors and Yves Saint Laurent, Haid, 34, decided she needed to do something for herself. “For years, I’ve been shopping online — as a full-time working mother of two you have to — and collecting vintage fashion, and I thought I could turn it into a business.” So, together with the fashion journalist Alice Kodell, she launched Atelier-Mayer.com at the beginning of the year.
For Haid, the internet aspect was a no-brainer. “Online, you’re flexible in terms of where you base your business. We have a lot of contacts around the world, and we can ship to all of them.” Plus, when it comes to working, it’s possible to own your time a little more. “I wouldn’t say it’s less of a workload — in fact, I think it is more. I was pregnant with my second child when I launched and it was like giving birth to two babies. But you’re your own boss, and that allows some flexibility. For example, when I went to Ibiza on holiday this summer, I set up a pop-up boutique there so I could do some work, too.”
Apart from flexibility, there are other reasons for women entrepreneurs specifically to look to the web. Alexia Inge, 32, and Jessica Moore, 34, are founders of the online beauty e-zine and boutique Cultbeauty.co.uk. “We’ve raised the money to set this up ourselves — a bricks-and-mortar shop would have been a totally different ball game,” says Inge.
The internet is also a place where they don’t have to worry so much about competing with men. “Having come from corporate life,” says Moore, who has a background in management consultancy, “I know that there men promote men and trust men more than they trust women.” On the internet, it is different. “It is less reliant on the old boys’ network,” agrees Inge. “Women can get into this market as easily as men. It’s, like, all the bets are off. There are no predetermined rules.”
