(Image: NQ Archive)
Women building businesses without outside investment will be offered free advice in Scotland on reaching £1 million turnover.
The Bootstrappers’ Breakfast series will hold its first Scottish events in Edinburgh and Glasgow on Wednesday November 4.
Each event will have 60 places for women who run a business and are working towards their first £1 million in annual turnover without investment from venture capital firms or angel investors.
The Edinburgh event will take place at the Royal Bank of Scotland Accelerator Hub, 142-144 Princes Street, from 8.30am to 10.30am. The Glasgow event will be held at Atera Bathhouse and Spa on Oswald Street from 12.30pm to 2.30pm.
Bootstrapping means growing a company using its own cashflow. The founder keeps the shares in the business, rather than giving part ownership to outside investors.
The series was created by Geeta Sidhu-Robb, a coach, growth adviser and entrepreneur. She also founded Seven Rungs. The events are designed to connect women who are building companies with founders who have already passed £1 million, £5 million and £150 million in turnover.
Figures cited by the series say only 1.3% of UK venture capital goes to all-female founding teams. It says this leaves an untapped value of £310 billion in female-founded businesses.
Each event will focus on what Sidhu-Robb calls the Bootstrap Bargain. This is the trade involved in growing a company from cashflow rather than investment. Founders may grow more slowly and carry more risk, but keep control of their business and its profits.
Geeta Sidhu-Robb said: “Women get told that if they’re serious about growth they need to raise money. I’ve spent years working with founders who’ve built profitable seven-plus-figure companies on nothing but their own cashflow.
"The bargain you make when you bootstrap is real. You may grow more slowly and you carry more of the risk yourself. What you get back is the company, all of it, and the freedom to run it the way you want. I want the women in these rooms to understand that trade and make it with their eyes open.”
Darina Garland, co-founder of Scottish pizza oven company Ooni, will give the keynote speech at both events. She will also join panel discussions.
Ooni was founded by Garland and Kristian Tapaninaho in 2012. The company sells portable pizza ovens for home use around the world. Garland was recently appointed to the Scottish Government’s National Council for Economic Growth.
Nathalie Agnew, who founded PR agency Muckle Media in 2012, will host the Edinburgh event. She will join Garland, Emma Macdonald, founder and chief executive of apparel company TBCo., and Kirsty MacCormick, chief executive of bbspa UK, on the panel.
Nathalie Agnew said: “Every business story you read seems to start with a funding round. That’s not how most of the women I know have built their companies. I started Muckle Media in 2012 and grew it on cashflow, one client and one hire at a time, and plenty of founders across Scotland are doing the same with great results.
"There’s a lot to be said for that route, and this is a chance to hear from women who’ve got well past the million mark and are happy to talk about how.”
In Glasgow, MacCormick will host the event and join Garland and Agnew on the panel. Sidhu-Robb will chair the discussion.
Atera opened its doors on Oswald Street this month. It is close to Glasgow Central Station and includes a hydrotherapy pool, a hammam, Rhassoul mud rituals, Aufguss sauna ceremonies, seven treatment rooms, a gym and a wellness café.
MacCormick said: “Beauty and wellness is an industry run largely by women, yet when I set up my own consultancy in 2021, after nearly 40 years in spas, I found very little out there for people like me who wanted to grow a sustainable business. Atera has only just opened and I can’t think of a better first group to show round than 60 women trying to build something of their own in Scotland.”