The Women’s Index has been a labour of love at Financy HQ for a good year now, which in business speak means; little money in the door and a lot of work getting it out the door.
Securing funding and investors who believe in your vision is probably one of the hardest things you can do in business, especially when you are a female led start-up – it’s tough!
So here’s five tips I’ve learned through success and failure in business.
- I’m a firm believer in not giving up, ignoring the naysayers
- Taking on board constructive feedback and tweaking your business model are also a must, even if it pains you.
- The timing for women in business is here. So if you are thinking of starting, do it! If you are chugging along – keep going!
- The other important thing to note is that every business needs a champion from outside the circle, so network, network and network some more. Don’t underestimate how important non-financial backers with business clout or mentor guidance can be.
- Put yourself out there. Remember no one will know about you, if you don’t tell them you exist. Say it once, and keep reminding them.
I’m raising all of these tips and insights because the Association of Financial Advisers Inspire community, which represents women in financial advice, has just become the newest supporter and bronze partner of the Financy Women’s Index.
The Index is also supported by fintech firm OneVue.
AFA Inspire’s support of the Index will ensure the future growth of the economic measure, which is aimed at benchmarking and tracking the economic progress of Australian women.
Until recently the Women’s Index has been entirely self-funded, so to gain a new supporter in the AFA is fantastic.
It allows us to keep delivering the Index to business, government, media and consumers.The latest Financy Women’s Index covering the December 2017 quarter, was released March 7 and was extremely well received. It was published in Fairfax Media as well as featured on Channel Ten’s The Project.
Funding of the Index helps us to grow its reach and hopefully attract even more partners to further enrich the scope of the data and the insights we are able to gather on women and their financial wellbeing.
AFA CEO, Philip Kewin said, “The Financy Women’s Index gives us the opportunity to measure how we are tracking towards positive and meaningful cultural change and in so doing, continually highlight areas for ongoing improvement in the financial wellbeing of women in Australia. The AFA is proud to support this progressive and potentially game-changing initiative.”
AFA Inspire National Chair, Dianne Charman said AFA Inspire’s support of the Index provides a mechanism to track how progress is being made, or not being made, for specific measures relating to women.
“This is the first index to specifically measure trends for working women and with this data we can better understand how we are tracking.
“We’ll also be able to tailor our initiatives to areas which need more support and understand the Australian landscape from a female perspective. The tools the Index provides will also more broadly inform government, business and women to make decisions and check on progress.”
The latest Index found that more Australian women are taking advantage of opportunities to progress in the economy by engaging in the workforce in record numbers and making educational decisions that align with higher paying careers.
The Financy Women’s Index improved 0.8 percentage points to 111.7 points in the three months to December 31, compared to a revised 0.2 percentage point gain in the September quarter.
But the annual pace of female economic progress slowed as the country’s biggest listed companies did not improve on the number of women on boards.
