Episode Transcript

This transcript was AI generated.
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00:00:07:13 - 00:00:08:00

Vinisha

Hi everyone! I'm the founder and managing director of P3 studio, which stands for People of Purpose and Partnerships. And I help scale companies to be great.

And I'm also writing a book at the moment, all about personal branding is how do you partner with the world the best version of yourself? Instead of feel like I'm fighting to live here, I'm working with it.

00:00:28:08 - 00:00:31:20

Rebecca

I'm Rebecca Saunders. I am the founder of a virtual, lounge, the champagne lounge for female solopreneurs who live remotely and regionally. Giving them a space to connect and have conversations with like minded businesswomen who are also in the same boat building businesses by themselves. Aside to that, I run the local magazine of the multi-region Midwestern living, and I run a video production company that operates across Australia and New Zealand that I started back in 2012 when I moved to Australia.

00:00:58:03 - 00:01:13:11

Samantha

Name is Samantha Sutherland. And my ambition is to create a world that works for working women. I support women to thrive in the workplace and workplaces, to be somewhere women can thrive. I ran workshops, training, coaching. I have advisory services. And I have a podcast called Women at Work.

00:01:13:11 - 00:01:26:22

Lucy

Hi, everyone. Welcome to today's episode of Python, where we're diving into the stories of working mums who are navigating the exciting yet challenging journey of building their own business from the ground up. I'm really thrilled to bring you today's panel style conversation featuring three phenomenal women. Vanessa Rathod of P3 Studios, Rebecca Saunders of The Champagne Lounge and Samantha Sutherland, who is the host of the Brilliant Women at Work podcast. All three have built businesses from scratch, some in multiple times, and they're here to share their invaluable insights on everything from the gender pay gap, setting your business up for success, and most importantly, putting yourself front and center while doing it. Welcome, everyone. I'm so excited to get stuck into this conversation. So when we start a business, it always feels like there's something to do. Like, how do you put in a process from the very beginning in terms of prioritising tasks, especially when probably at the beginning, you're juggling a lot of different roles? Rebecca, I'm going to start with you on this question.

00:02:25:18 - 00:02:52:10

Rebecca

Oh, I love this one because my brain flips multiple ways. Just then, as you said the question, because, I my gut is always on. I always believe the gut over what I'm thinking. But the gut for me is focused on sales. Like, it's so easy to build all the shiny stuff, build a website, do a logo, do the landing page, do all the things and build the outside world of, so, you know, the window, I should say, of a brand or a business. But it's not a business unless you've got someone buying whatever it is you're trying to sell. Focusing on the sales. For me, when I started the video business, all those years ago, I walked into networking rooms, going “I run a nationwide video production company. I knew one videographer, like, in the whole country.” And so, like, it wasn't a fake it til you make it thing, but it was very much for me. Well, I can't go. It's chicken and egg, but I'd rather have the sales and then find out how to deliver on that. So, I think people can spend a lot of time and a lot of money. Crucially, the money factor in doing all the bright, shiny stuff before actually finding someone that's going to buy that product.

00:03:32:09 - 00:03:37:10

Vinisha or Lucy

Sensational advice. I absolutely love that. Sam, how would you answer that question?

00:03:38:04 - 00:03:42:05

Samantha

Focus on the actual things that bring in money. And then my other thing would be to be in conversation with people, because often when we start a business, we feel really nervous about it. We have to put in sales, and then we hit all of our upper limit blocks. And so we do all the things that we can hide behind, build a website, do lots of social media posts because it feels like we don't feel that can feel less scary, but you actually need to be talking to people to find out whether they're going to buy your thing, not just sending stuff out into the void. So that would be my other advice. Things are making money and conversations.

00:04:11:10 - 00:04:27:05

Vinisha or Lucy

I love that two very excellent pieces of advice. Vinisha, over to you now. I'd love to hear what you would like to say about that. Yeah, so I started my own business last year, and I think the biggest thing I say is if you're going to start and go completely on your own, know what your financial runway is. I think it's just knowing how long can I go if there's no sales or something that doesn't go through how like what of my expenses and my operating costs for my home or my business? Or what do I need? How much runway do I have? How much can I give this to go? Or do I have something on the side while I give this a go? Because a lot of people, I think, think that they could be business owners and there's a lot of glam, but there's not. It's not glamorous. Look, it's a lot of hard work to do. I mean, business, you think you can go out on the weekend and just go chill Then then be really clear on why you do what you do, because that's going to get you through the hard days. I mean, really similar these phenomenal women I'm with. I want to live in a world where there's no gender pay gap and there's no sexual abuse at work, and that's by creating great places to work and empowering women to do that with my expertise and empowering diverse founders and people to do that with my work. So I cut through the noise because I'm really clear on what I do, and that resonates with a wider group. I love that, I love that and you very aligned in terms of that purpose as well. Thank you all for sharing.

00:05:34:19 - 00:05:52:08

Rebecca

I think just on the only see, I'm just gonna add one thing that none of us have touched on. We're talking about sales, having these conversations, having that financial runway as if you're getting money in. Please put money aside for tax and all these sensible things so you don't end up with a horrible tax bill that you've spent all the money for. I see so many people do that and get into real strife.

00:05:55:15 - 00:06:17:12

Lucy

I love it, and it's so important. And we're not trying to kill the excitement around ideas here, but that that practical foundation, if you can set it up. And in a conversation I was having the other day, someone was saying that their business accountant was their most favorite human in the whole world. And, you know, maybe that's not what we dreamed of when we were first dreaming up our business idea, but that person will be so important. But they really are. So it's that foundational stuff. Taking that to the next level in a way, what we are prioritising now, we've got the foundation in place and we kind of know what we're prioritising.

00:06:29:16 - 00:06:32:06

Vinisha or Lucy

Keeping in mind we probably don't have a huge budget. I mean, that's a really open ended question. Probably depends on the type of business you're running. But does anything stand out to you? Like, don't waste your time doing this manually every day.

00:06:42:09 - 00:06:51:23

Rebecca

Individual quotes. Oh my gosh, the number of times I see people try and do like bespoke stuff for every single client and spend so much time like packages are your friend not the right fit for all businesses, but packages definitely have. I've been a friend and you can tweak them for for different clients, but you know the time it takes to do a bespoke proposal. It sounds luscious, doesn't it? If I spoke to a client, when you know you you need the sales in the door. So I would be packaging stuff up and making myself easy to buy. So one of the best things that I got taught when I was early on in business, and I think we touched on this when we, before we hit record, allow payments on credit card like make people make it easy for you, for people to buy you, you know, no  backwards and forwards when they're ready to buy. Let them. Yeah. Absolutely.

00:07:35:09 - 00:07:53:06

Samantha

So it's a little bit different. And what came to my mind, it was like, don't get stuck in perfectionism. So what, you know, when you start a business, is that the only thing you definitely know is that it will change. And so you don't need to get anything perfect, because in six months and 12 months and 18 months, it'll look different to how it does now. And I think you can get very caught up in making it all be totally perfect before you take the next step, but it just won't ever be. So take a step, figure it out.

00:08:02:19 - 00:08:08:11

Lucy

So important. Progress over perfection. That is one of my favorite phrases. Thank you for sharing that, Venetia. How about you? What would you add to this?

00:08:11:20 - 00:08:14:19

Vinisha

One of the first things I did was get Xero, and so like you say, if anybody wants to pay, they can they can go straight in that and that connected to all my accounts. And then accountant makes it life easier for the accountant as well when they're consolidating because the system just works. I also have opus clips, which is, you know, and there's a lot of content says depending if you're a solopreneur, what kind of business you're going for, but you will be doing a lot more content creation. You know, if this is just you upload a video, it cuts it and it will have all the edits saying, you know, TikTok is amazing for that to like. It creates videos for you. You just put on like you just click like seven photos or however many photos makes a video. And I had one the other day. Random where I posted about what do you do with consulting work? And it gave me an option to have a man voice, and I just did it because it was funny and got that was automated within seconds where mum's like, what the? So you can use the tools that are free on hand to actually have the impact that you want.

00:09:20:18 - 00:09:33:20

Lucy

Yeah, that's such good advice. And it links to my next question, but I'm going to say I think I need to get, give opus a call and ask them to be a sponsor of this podcast, because that's how many people mentioned it is a podcast. So, fabulous recommendation. And also something I was talking earlier to someone about is the fact that now that has that basically there's never been a better time to have an idea because there's so many tools available to us at so many different price points. I mean, I just blink and you've missed like ten iterations of something that you probably supposed to be kept up on. But the point is, it's never been easier to to try and like back yourself onto something. But on the flip side of that, is there anything you just wouldn't spend money on that we're kind of told would be a good idea if it were going down, like the Orthodox sort of business route? There's something that just seems like a waste of money, particularly for the early stage person.

00:10:19:01 - 00:10:42:01

Rebecca

That’s a tough one because that would depend on the business. But it's very easy to be in groups where someone's like, oh, I've tried this, let's try this one new audience. And that's like with the squirrel syndrome of, oh, I'll try that, I platform, oh, I'll try this, CRM system. And you're constantly jumping around. So this comes up in conversations, you know, with friends of mine regularly. We always come back to a boring business is a profitable business. Like when you find something that works, like keep it and make it work. So I think, from that you're just starting obviously you're have chats with people and see what they're using. But give it a chance. Like if you're if you're buying into something or using a product or using a platform, you know, give it a chance because these subscriptions really start to add up.

Would be it would be a big thing. And then, you know, just slightly back on what we were just talking about in terms of one of the great hacks that I learned early on is use the tech that you've got, you know, like most of us are using the G suite or anything like that. You know, I don't use zoom anymore. Because I use Google Mate. It's free. It's included in what and what I've got. I don't use Typeform because that's Google Forms, you know, there's templates within Google mail that if you're sending the same thing or similar things to clients on a regular basis, create a template for it. Why you want to get out all the time.

My email signature includes the words thanks, Rebecca, kiss on the end of it, because how many times do you want your name? That end of an email. So stick it in the signature. So I think there's things that you can do that if you are constantly doing it and you're repeating a task, you can find a way to automate it easily.

00:11:55:22 - 00:12:02:11

Lucy

Yeah. For free, as you're saying. That's so clever because I think you're right. I think part of the. I don't want. Hesitations the wrong word, but I think sometimes we can sit on pursuing the next step of something because we feel. Like we have to have all ducks in a row, and all ducks need to be shiny and therefore expensive and then fall away. And then we put a weight to the budget to buy the all the expensive ducks in a row. So that's a really excellent point, taking advantage of the tools you already have, and are using. Sam what would you add to that?

00:12:25:05 - 00:12:45:11

Samantha

I see a lot of people spend a lot of money on business coaches where it's very smoke and mirrors. And I think that you need to be pretty, just really careful about where you're investing with somebody who's making big promises about what they can help you make your business do, and whether that's actually realistic.

Like, nobody likes the story of, you know, like Vinisha said, it's hot work. Having a business. You work really hard and you have to do a lot. And if someone's offering you a promise of here's how to do it, where you just create a passive income and it's going to be really easy. Well, it's a lie. So I would say be careful of that because especially because often at the beginning, like you might feel nervous, it needs like support is useful.

Coaching can definitely be useful, but just really interrogate the promises that they're making here and don't believe somebody who's offering you something that just seems too good to be true. It always takes some time. It always takes some effort to build up a profitable business.

00:13:20:23 - 00:13:37:11

Vinisha or Lucy

That is such a sensible piece of advice and so needed in this time of Instagram. Like as you were talking, I'm just thinking about, you know, those ads that flash up and the woman sitting by the pool and she says, I don't know. You know, I'm just like doing my business. I mean, sure, there's elements of that, but that's not real life.

00:13:37:15 - 00:13:44:00

Rebecca

Totally. My laptop is set on a suitcase balanced on something else.

Lucy

I shared a picture on LinkedIn last year with my podcast set up, which I've actually got now. I've tried every room in my house, but it's the kitchen table where I'm happiest, you know, it's like everything's there and then the washing there, and then the laptop. So it is whatever works for you. And business coaches absolutely have their place. But that word discerning, it's so important. It's actually becoming a theme in this podcast series that would, be discerning, know do you research, have chats with people and kind of feel them out? Trust your gut with that kind of thing.

00:14:15:03 - 00:14:30:03

Rebecca

You also really work hard for the money that you're about to spend on whatever it is, whether it's a coach or a platform or a product or so like, it's okay to keep that money for you as well. I see some people go, oh, I've got this pot of money. I can now reinvest back in, it's okay to have that money into live a nice life with it. It doesn't have to be what other people are creating as well, I think. Yeah. You'll be proud of what you've earnt and just be mindful of how you spend it.

00:14:40:18 - 00:14:44:14

Lucy

Yeah, very salient advice. Vinisha, would you add anything to this?

00:14:44:14 - 00:14:55:10

Vinisha

You know, we talk a lot. About what not to give up, what not to spend. I would say a massive one is look at your energy and your time as a budget. So your energy budget and your people pleasing. I know about you, but I've wasted a lot of time wasting my good vibes, wasting my energy on people. They give me nothing. And I go, this is not paying the bills. You just want my company and you just want my network and you want my social thing. So it's like, I think it like that word you said before discerning, just also knowing that your time is also part of your money. Like time is money, as they say as well. So being really clear on what that is for you and don't you don't need to people please everyone.

00:15:26:16 - 00:15:29:06

Vinisha or Lucy

Thank you all for sharing that so much. Let's now talk about the balance. Gosh, I can never get away from this word, but it exists. It's a words in the dictionary. We all know what it means and what we're trying to aim for. But how do you guys structure your business and your personal life? This is a really broad question and just feel free to weigh in at any point that feels comfortable to you. But what I'm really looking at is what I wanted this season to look at that I feel a lot of podcast don't really explore is the real nitty gritty stuff, like how are you? Like, you know, the part of the day that fascinates me the most is you start your day now, you may or may not have kids and you've dropped them off to school.

00:16:07:13 - 00:16:24:18

Vinisha or Lucy

And then there's this like weird, period. After you start your day, where before you sit down to work, like, what are you doing in that moment? Are you playing? Are you going for a walk? Are you procrastinating? Like what helps you in that moment of your day just to get stuck right into it?

00:16:24:18 - 00:16:38:10

Samantha

If you're doing busywork, of course it's easy to procrastinate because you know it doesn't actually really matter. And so you need like, but if I have a deliverable to sit down and get it done, like it's fine, there's no delay with that kind of thing. But I mean, one of the this is not quite the answer to what you're just talking about, but one of the things that I find kind of interesting, like in my work, I did a series of listening conversations with women who work in corporate to find out what kind of support they're getting from their workplaces, where they're not supported, what would they like to see, how they like to see things changing. And in every conversation I had, really quickly, the conversation turned to what's happening at home and what support they do or don't get from their partner. And there's a piece around that, I think, for women who is starting businesses where it can be easy to drop the kids off to school and then be like, I'll just quickly tidy up the kitchen after breakfast. I'll just get some lunch prepared and I'll just, you know what? I'll just quickly pop to the shops and make sure that we've got enough stuff for dinner, and then I'll do it. And the same as what I was talking about before. Like, you need to be responsible for putting your dreams first and your dream is probably not to clean up the kitchen after breakfast. Your dream is to have a business that has an impact, to have a career that has an impact. And to do that, you have to face into “It's hard to do that because what if you fail and maybe you never get to live up to your dreams and it's never going to happen, right?” You have to face that fear to do it.

But if you're constantly finding something to stop you sitting down and doing it will then question that and if that is what's happening as well, then put some structure in place. Like every day I actually drop that this know what I do as an example or drop the kid. And then you go to the coffee shop and you work there and you have a thing that you're going to do and be clear on what it is that you're trying to like, achieve each day. Like, do you have even a task list or are you just starting the day and being like, oh, maybe I'll work on this today, and especially when you don't have clients yet. Often that's hard, right? Because there's no deliverables that anybody cares about. So if you but actually have some discipline around what it is you're trying to do some discipline around holding on to your dream. That's where I think it's really important.

00:18:34:08 - 00:18:49:15

Lucy

I love that advice. And some people do. I'm actually a big fan of the to do list the night before. I write my to do list, and I've got my frog. You know how that expression of eating a frog like the thing I really don't want to do, but I do that first. I think that's really good.

So I'm to point that out like it is your responsibility. And it is your dream, I love that. Who would like to bring it?

00:18:57:19 - 00:18:59:17

Rebecca

I've got a few things I've put in place so I’ll bounce across them. I didn't do anything before 10 a.m.. You won't get me in a meeting you won't like. And every time I do say yes to something, I immediately regret it on the day. Yeah. Then I feel stressed and rushed and like I live in a country town. The coffee shop is literally two minutes down the road. But that just that stress of, oh, it's 9:00 and I haven't got stuff done really stresses me out because I enjoy a lazy get up. I have a chat with my husband, we walk the dogs, and just it's nice just to potter almost sounds, but potter and just be in my own head. Like with anything of putting boundaries and I'll put in those processes and when you're living with someone you've got family. If you've got to take them along for the ride as to why you're doing what you're doing and, and get there by and it will take time because you'll change things that they need to come, you know, on board with essentially.

00:19:50:19 - 00:20:12:02

Lucy

Great tips. Fantastic. Thank you so much, Vinisha I love that. So I have no meeting Mondays, so no, ultimately I break that. But I try and just leave Monday as a deep thinking free flow day. So if I will like next Monday, I'm meeting someone at 4 p.m. to try. But I try and I've got, you know, call at 3:30. But I really keep that day free. Just because I find I just get into a flow state, I do all the follow ups, I prep for the week, but I really love that. No meeting Monday, so I know that it's something for myself. And then I also have day for me and Friday. So half day or full day on Friday if I know I'm super stressed because I work Saturday, Sunday doesn't matter. I work every day. So if on Friday I knew when I was losing it I'd go to the beach because I live in Sydney, Surrey Hills, I'll go to the beach or I'll go do something fun and enjoyable even half the day. It's like, no, this is something for me to enjoy my life. Otherwise, why am I working for myself if I'm not even having fun? So I go hug my friend's baby, go hug someone's dog. I'm having lunch this weekend. I mean, this Friday with a bunch of girls and then going to go out so, you know, for half the day. So I think it's stuff like that. And then I dopamine hack not my life. So I mean the, you know, I tried to exercise 4 or 5 times a week in the morning around eight ish. I was a lot earlier, but I sleep a lot later now. So I started at 8, for that. And then I have really pretty nails that I look at and I dress up and, you know, I really try and find a lot of joy in the everyday little things that I have to wait for this big thing.

00:21:28:05 - 00:21:37:15

Rebecca

And oh, I love that so much. Especially for coming into winter now and recording this podcast. And I cannot wait to crack open the winter wardrobe watching you in that coat. Wait till I start dressing up this way. Oh, it's kind of so exciting because I'm with you like it's the dressing up in it. You know, I remember saying to people, you know, ages ago on podcast, it was like I even down like, matching underwear every day for me is a big thing. It makes me feel good. Love that.

00:21:53:18 - 00:22:20:16

Lucy

I love that. I heard an affirmation yesterday and it was something I hope butcher it, but it was something like I make money while pursuing joy and self-care. And I thought that that's a fantastic affirmation, like all women should be saying that to ourselves when we wake up in the morning. Because it gets so easy when you overthink and when things get very overwhelming, joy falls off the radar so quickly. So I love, love, love, love that.

00:22:23:11 - 00:22:45:05

Rebecca

It does fall off the radar. At least one of your points and, you know, like prompting questions, that was, you know, we've all talked about how we do our lives and how very structured lives, what we do. But, you know, in terms of household divisions of things, you know, so who cleans, who cooks, who does whatever, if it's causing friction, outsource it. We'll work out how much it's going to cost to outsource, like, I've got friends. And this blew my mind because we were having a conversation within the champagne lounge. And I always thought that someone who had someone, someone who would have a private chef in the house would be like multimillionaires, right? Yeah. Just bougie as. Now, just having a husband and wife and just there's a lady down the road that just comes and cooks in the kitchen on a Sunday. So she does all the groceries for them. She cooks it all and puts in little boxes that that's amazing because I don't like cooking and neither does my husband. And this lady loves it. So yeah, I know, and it wasn't overly expensive. I'm not lady enjoys the. And you're supporting someone else. So you know down to cleaning I hate cleaning. That conversation comes up in our house a lot. Never done it. Never want to. I’ll pay for a cleaner. If my husband wants to clean something, clean it. But I’ll pay someone to do it. Work out what you can. Take off your plate if it's causing contention in the family household as well.

00:23:38:12 - 00:23:56:13

Lucy

Yeah. That's wonderful. Kate Christie, who's one of our expert, she's a time management expert. And she talks about when you're when you're sitting down, which is going to be one of my questions. But I just incorporate it this way. When you're sitting down to look at what can I outsource. Like if I'm sitting down to start my business, I'm like all the time doesn't work with the outcome. So I'm not I don't have enough time to do everything. She advises that she's like, don't just look at what you're outsourcing in the business, perhaps look at your life and work out what your value is per hour and then work out. Is it worth my time to be cleaning the house for two hours or cooking for two hours, or walking it, or whatever the thing is, versus am I going to make more money? Actually working in that time versus doing those things? So I hope haven't watched that, Kate, if you're listening. But it's that kind of theory. It's like looking at life and business as a continuum. They aren’t separate things. And when you're running something yourself, they intersect and they can intersect beautifully as you guys are showing. But they can also block you if you don't think about them as a holistic kind of thing.

00:24:44:02 - 00:25:06:00

Samantha

I started my business in 2018, and then in 2020 I got Covid and I remember going, oh, I get to just lie on the couch all day for like two weeks, and I don't have to do anything to do any work. And I was like, okay, so you don't have to get sick to have a day on the couch. You're allowed to do that without getting Covid. And I was like, oh, a bit of a wake up call is like, I can't. I've obviously been like really putting too much pressure on myself to go, go go go go.

00:25:14:16 - 00:25:25:20

Lucy

Also incorporating like what is your vision of success because everybody's vision is totally different. And that does it. It does come in incremental success. It doesn't always come at once for everyone.

00:25:25:20 - 00:25:44:09

Vinisha

I was at Business Women Australia yesterday at their breakfast. Amazing. And they were talking about how much there's less women in senior leadership positions, and there's been quite a decline of that. And a lot of that is due to women vying to start their own business. Like it was insane. The majority of us that were sitting in the forum yesterday, we're all our own business owners, and Australia has one of the highest gig economies in the world, which I didn't realise. And that's because I think a lot of women don't like the way that businesses have set up. They set up by a certain group for them to thrive.

It didn't consider so many others. And if I'm being really honest, when I become a mother one day, I'm building the blocks of my business now with the book, with everything else. So I've become so popular, that when I have my own children, it's on my terms. I don't have to navigate the Goliath over there to do that. And so now we're seeing a huge rise of women in going into gig economy, not chasing that, you know, that corporate structure, although we do need, definitely need women and other diverse groups in these corporate structures. There's a lot of people that are like, I don't want to do that and participate in like that anymore. I want to be more balanced and more things like that. And I just thought that was really fascinating, that the decline may not be in those leadership roles because, you know, women aren't capable. It's just that we're all fucking tired. Yes, I mean, so true. And yeah, thank you for sharing that.

Sam, I feel like you have a good response to this without me to and yeah.

00:27:01:23 - 00:27:05:12

Samantha

In workplaces. How do you build a workplace where women can thrive? I also work with women who are trying to navigate those, those, structure those systems of institutions. And so I offer coaching, training, workshops, advisory services to organisations on how do you reduce your gender pay gap. And very often gender pay gap, It's more nuanced than this, but it's driven by having lots of men in senior roles and lots of women in junior roles. So it's the that's the general reason. And there's lots of reasons why that can happen. And there's lots of levers you can pull in response to it. And so women are leaving the workforce to women at the highest rate of new business staters and the highest earners of micro businesses in Australia as well. But there are barriers within that too. So like 2% of VC funding goes to female founders. So women are funding. I mean, I love the language of this. It's like so diminutive. But we're in a founding what they're called lifestyle businesses, which is where it's a business on your terms, where you get to run it and make money as well, hopefully. One of the costs of that is financial security and financial stability. And so I also think it's really important to do things like if you're if you decide to step out of a corporate role to start your business, please make sure you continue to pay yourself super. The super gap is widening constantly. Women step out of the workforce, start small business, have kids, don't pay themselves any super and end up with a huge super pay gap or a super gender gap at the end of their career, and it has such a knock on effect because of the way it works and focus on the lifestyle and stability like lifestyle and financial security in taking that step. That has to be part of the equation of what successful business looks like. Because women over the age of 55, the fastest growing cohort of homeless people in Australia, and a lot of that has to do with reduced earnings when they went out to be carers and reduced super. And now we're adding to that, women who hop out for 5 or 10 years and try and start a business and then try and hop back in and in that 5 to 10 years weren’t like overly responsible with what their financial situation looked like. And so, you know, Lucy and I had another conversation for a podcast about, you know, a lot of women step out because they want flexibility. Right? So you have I see this all the time where women have kids, and then they go back to work full time or maybe four days, but they're still doing a full time work, and they're being paid 80% instead of 100%. And they get overworked. Right. So then when they're kids five or 7 or 10, they want to take a step out and, move away. And but within that decision, please also pays yourself super.

00:29:45:03 - 00:29:56:08

Rebecca

Absolutely the number people that don't pay superannuation is the same but the same bucket of people that you know, for me it's you don't put the money aside for tax and go and how do I pay a five grand five figure tax bill.

00:29:57:15 - 00:30:16:09

Samantha

But it's you know, the thing is as well, when it comes to changing structures like these are structural problems, which means they need structural responses individually. We can sidestep things and sometimes make things work for ourselves. And choosing to step out and start a business is one way of individually trying to sidestep structural barriers, not problem to do that, I have done that. But we also need people within the structures who are trying to make change within it. The people who are going to benefit by making the change, are the ones who are going to be most able to help drive that forward. And so my work does that from outside of it, kind of, but working with people who are within to try and drive those changes. And so, you know, starting our business isn't the only way to get flexibility. There are other avenues as well. It just might not feel like it from where you're sitting right now. So explore that. And if you have some power to change the structures or then use it responsibly.

00:30:52:19 - 00:31:12:01

Lucy

That's wise words. Such wise words. I'm so glad we're recording this. So good. Thank you so much for sharing. We have come to the end, and I want to give you all an opportunity to share something. Is there something I forgot to ask you that feels really pertinent to this conversation, or just something that you want to share with the community?

00:31:13:07 - 00:31:37:13

Vinisha

I would just share, like the book I'm writing. It's called The Briefcase Effect because I physically have a briefcase, which I'm bringing back, which is quite great because it's a capital male symbol now, making it a fun female startup fairy one. And what I have on there is, I think it can get really overwhelmed with the way that the world is, but my whole way that I've personal branding is, how does the best version of you partner with the world? And people really resonate with that. And strong men and strong women are attracted to other strong people like you. It's not that you're the best version of your sleeve means you're only allowed for women. It's actually strong. Men really resonate to so. And women tend to feel like we can build in collaboration instead of competition. So I think, you know, as you're building whatever you decide to do, whether it's building your own business or building within a company, I mean, just don't think the only way is has to be through this awful competition. It actually be done with a lot of the great aspects of being a woman. And I think the world needs that more than anything right now. So I think that's the, the thing,

Lucy

Beautifully put, beautifully put and all the very best with your work. Please keep us updated with the your book.

00:32:29:03 - 00:32:31:20

Vinisha

In July!

Lucy

Oh, wow. It's very close. Fantastic. Thank you so much. Rebecca? Sam?

00:32:32:11 - 00:33:05:14

Rebecca

I think I've probably got two wrap ups. One would be given everything that we've talked about in terms of what to watch for, what to budget for, work all out and price your product or service accordingly to really work it out. Work it out from a what you're wanting to earn, whether it's whether it's just replacing your current job or whether you want to do it more like do the maths and sit down and work out what that looks like and what that looks like with the tax and what that looks like, allowing you to have the holidays you want, you know, allowing you to pay the super because all of that does need to be paid, you know, workers, comp insurances, subscriptions, it will seem like a lot. But if you don't work that stuff out first, you're going to be under pricing your products and service and it's far easier, to put your prices, what what's the right way around? It's far easier to go down with your prices afterwards if you press them too high, then to start somewhere down the bottom and then try and double or triple it because you've realised you've priced it wrong and you can't actually sustain running your business financially. So that would be sort of the one thing I would look at. And then the second thing for me is put yourself in a room, whether that's a virtual room, whether it's, you know, mums and co community like what we're in now, whether it's a group of girlfriends who are running businesses, that will support you and what you're trying to do and will help you navigate those challenges.

But importantly, that will also call you on your bullshit. If you're not doing the jobs that will move the dial or you're, you know, stuck on the same problem month in, month out, like, because they'll stop supporting you and stop wanting to help you if you don't do the work for yourself. So you get yourself a little pod. I call it a pod, but you know, to try, you know, a task or whatever you want to call it. It can be two people. It can be ten people, who will just have your back, whether it's good or bad

00:34:21:19 - 00:34:23:07

Lucy

Absolutely love that. Thank you so much for sharing. Sam?

00:34:25:21 - 00:34:41:06

Samantha

Couple of things that I'd like to say. You know, when we don't understand that there are structural problems and structural barriers that we're facing, we end up feeling like it's our own personal efficiency. Right? Like I was saying before, if I was just smarter, worked hard ahead of it to do list whatever, then I would be able to navigate it. And actually the system is bigger than any one of us individuals. And so we really need to drive structural change, not just as an individual feel like we need to change to be able navigate it. And then additionally following on to what Rebecca just said, research actually shows that women who have a women's inner circle at the centre of their network have higher likelihood of promotion and more positive well-being, and they have leadership positions two and a half times higher in authority and pay. So if you're currently in the workplace thinking about what you might do, gather together the women in your workplace. Create that women's inner circle. If you've already made the leap and you have your own business, gather your women's inner circle like find your pod like Rebecca said, because that really has a measurable impact on your wellbeing and on your success. So gather together with women. You don't have to do it all alone.

00:35:30:20 - 00:35:38:03

Lucy

Beautiful. What an absolute treasure trove of wisdom. Thank you all so, so much for joining us today. I really appreciate your time. I really appreciate it. All your wisdom. You're all amazing. And this is the best job in the world. Like, if I could just do interviews all day, I think I would just learn so much. So thank you.

00:35:50:16 - 00:36:06:02

Carrie

Thanks for listening to today's episode. Don't forget to subscribe via Spotify or Apple Podcast. Mums and Co is a network helping business learning women to start, connect and grow. Join us today at Mumsandco.com.au

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