Do female founders save their way to success?

There is nothing like a good deal!

That feeling of picking up a pair of jeans half price or having the liberty to grab another book from the bookstore shelf - that you will probably never read – simply because today is “Buy one, get one free”. What about all those “free” extra helpings you loaded onto your plate at an all-you-can-eat buffet, despite your stomach being about to burst?

As humans, it’s been wired into our brains to get the best possible value for our money.

It feels good.

What doesn’t feel good, is to hear the common misconception that when women earn more, it’s only because they save money. It’s been said that instead of reinvesting profits for future business growth, women take the backseat and avoid risk. It’s been said that saving is the superpower of women.

Myths like these underpin and, in turn, support unconscious gender bias.

This gender bias has a knock-on effect on investment. Women-led businesses have disproportionate difficulty in securing investment, which is especially apparent when compared to male-led businesses of comparable size, credibility, and financial figure projections. But perhaps most importantly, investors, male and female alike, miss out on gold mines.

How could this stereotype have been born?

The data holds the answers: women do tend to make more deliberate, careful a,nd risk-averse financial decisions, their business competence is by far not limited by this (Powell & Ansic, 1997).

While men and women do adopt different strategies when making financial decisions, these different strategies have no significant effect on the ability to perform.

In fact, these different strategies are easily identified in day-to-day business settings and so have been shown to play a role in the reinforcement of gender stereotypes, a prime example being the skewed perception that women are worse financial managers (Powell & Ansic, 1997).

So yes, women aim to spread the pound (dollar, euro, etc.) further, but this is only one tool in their entrepreneurial toolkit.

The truth is…

1. Private tech companies led by women achieve 35% higher ROI (Forbes, 2020)

2. Female-founded teams are more likely to exit & have a higher IRR — 112% (compared to 48% with Male-founded & led teams) (Fundera, 2021)

3. Gender-balanced boards are more successful than mono-cultural boards on every measure. (McKinsey & Co., 2020).

These numbers aren’t achieved by simply saving money. These women had more on their minds than clipping coupons, trust me.

These milestones are achieved through fostering an engaging and innovative climate at work, that empowers your employees to refuse settling for less.

Steve Siebold, a self-made millionaire businessman himself, studied over one thousand of the world’s wealthiest people and found that “successful people focus on earning, while average people focus on saving” (Elkins, K. Business Insider). You’re welcome: you can think about that next time you draw up your monthly budget.

The focus for any successful business leader should be on what to do with the money to make it multiply, not on how much they can squirrel away into some dark and dingy corner of the savings account.

The decisions we make involving money: how to allocate profits, which deals to close, which supplier to go with, are the ones that can make or break a business. When these decisions are made, the fate of the company has more than likely already been decided.

So, when choosing a business to invest in, there are parameters you may not have considered. These are just some of the areas where women-led businesses have been shown to excel… Higher employee engagement

Diversity broadly, including gender diversity, has been shown to correlate with employee engagement. Interestingly, there seems to be a statistically significant relationship between diversity practices and employee engagement for all employees, not just women. Happy workers deliver better quality services, products, and ideas. Plus, it’s more cost-efficient to keep talented employees than spending precious money and time screening for replacements, thus keeping your workforce on cloud nine can improve a company’s bottom line.

Promoting innovation

With more women at the top, companies are granted more diverse perspectives, which manifests in improved team decision-making. Think about it like this: if everyone sitting around a board room has similar experiences and ideas, that could create unintentional blind spots and lead to psychological phenomena such as “Groupthink” or conformity. Not to mention, innovative products and services that arise from the collision of diverse perspectives can allow companies to tap into new markets, adding new revenue sources.

Elevated market reputation

Companies often suffer when they experience controversies over issues such as big pay gaps, wage disputes, sexual harassment litigation, and equal-opportunity litigation. While these issues can happen even in diverse workplaces, many investors do well in seeking to avoid these reputational risks.

… and you can see for yourself; these strengths have nothing to do with saving pennies.

The Global Collective is the ecosystem that can propel your business into the sweet spot of collective competitive advantage and healthy, sustainable working climates for both men and women. Email enquiries@globalcollective.global to learn more.