3 lessons learnt from the first 3 rounds of SPARK Women in Business Grants.
It's been 9 months, 3 rounds and $40,000 into the hands of 5 epic female led businesses. So I thought it might be time to reflect on some of the things I've observed over that time. Internally there have certainly been logistical changes to listen to applicants feedback and help each round run smoother... but that was something I expected. As a business owner for the last 12 years I am acutely aware that you never get it right out of the gate, it's your willingness to adapt and listen to your community that creates longevity.
But that's not what I wanted to share. I wanted to share my observations of the women who have (and haven't) applied for the grant, in the hope that it shines a light on anyone holding themselves back. You are not alone.
1. They self reject.
After hundreds of conversations with women in business, self-rejection was a common thread that I never expected. What do I mean by ‘self-rejection’? I mean inventing obstacles and eligibilty criteria that simply don’t exist as a way to opt themselves out without looking further. Such as:
“Oh I live in Adelaide.”
“Oh I’m not a tech business”
Oh I’m a NFP”
These are all real statements female founders have said to me, before they even looked at the information. (By the way, if you are any of those things, you are still eligible!) And don’t get me wrong I absolutely know the SPARK grant program will not be for everyone. But this was a total shock to me. And I put it down to one of two potential reasons.
Firstly, they’ve been burnt by other grant programs in the past. Preach, sister!! The SPARK Women in Business Grants were born to be the antidote to all of those government grants you weren’t quite eligible for. Over the last decade of building my first business Scrunch, I’ve been deemed ineligible for grants because I wasn’t living in the right state, I wasn’t innovative enough and at one point because of my male shareholders I wasn’t even female enough anymore. I mean seriously, WHY are we making it so hard to get more money in the hands of women-led businesses??!! OK I’ll stop.
Secondly, a mad case of imposter syndrome.
Imposter syndrome in women in business refers to the pervasive feeling of self-doubt and fear of being exposed as a fraud, despite evident success and qualifications. Many women in professional settings struggle with the belief that they are not truly competent and that their achievements are due to luck, timing, or deceiving others into thinking they are more capable than they actually are. This psychological phenomenon can lead to stress, reduced confidence, and hindered career progression.
So because they don’t feel worthy, they self-reject by stating what they believe they are not. Without even investigating.
How many opportunities do you think we self-reject from in our businesses because of imposter syndrome?
If this is you. Please know you are not alone.
Sheryl Sandberg, the former COO of Facebook, discussed imposter syndrome in her book "Lean In":
"Every time I was called on in class, I was sure that I was about to embarrass myself. Every time I took a test, I was sure that it had gone badly. And every time I didn’t embarrass myself—or even excelled—I believed that I had fooled everyone yet again. One day soon, the jig would be up."
How much can we accomplish as women in business if we say yes, despite our doubts?
And for anyone still wondering, it has been our intention from the start to keep eligibility for the grants as broad as possible.
The business owner identifies as a female.
The business is located in Australia, New Zealand or Singapore.
The business has been registered for 12 months or more.
You are currently a SPARK member or SPARK alumni.
That’s it.
2. The 2 minute video is the biggest hurdle.
When designing the SPARK grant application process we wanted to make it as simple as possible. Again, reflecting on my personal experience with applying for other grants, I would always leave it until the last minute then find out I had to have letters of support, quotes and complete a million pages of questions. Sorry, I am a very busy business owner, this is ridiculous.
So we landed on 3 questions and a video entry. The questions are:
Tell us about your business - who you serve, what you do, why you do it, etc.
How would $5k or $10k enable you to create more profit & impact in your business?
Please itemise what you would spend the $5k or $10k on.
But then, the goddamn video!!
The most impressive business women, creating the biggest impact in their communities, again passing up an opportunity because they didn’t want to be in front of the camera.
So why do we do it?
There are a few reasons actually. And pushing business owners out of their comfort zone is one of them. (This is going to come up again in the next point too!) When both our community votes for your application AND when the judges judge them we have a mix of written and video format to help you put your best foot forward. Different people are more articulate in the written form, and some on video. Similarly some people consume content better in the written form and others in auditory/video. So by having both options available your chances of connecting with a voter or judge are increased.
The added benefit of pushing outside your comfort zone and achieving the milestone of creating the video and submitting your application ALSO increases your confidence to jump on the next opportunity that comes your businesses way. If I could conquer that, what else could I do?
Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, has shared insights that reflect the relationship between action and confidence. She said:
"I think failure is nothing more than life’s way of nudging you that you are off course. My advice to young women is that you have to start, and you have to fail, because failure is the only way to build a successful business, or a successful anything."
3. They worry about asking their community to vote.
First things first, in the spirit of listening to our community, in Round Two we added an additional $5k grant that was judged by an external party. So if you wanted to apply without garnering votes from your community, you can.
But I want to challenge anyone reading this article one last time.
Because something else unexpected happened over the past three rounds.
When applicants pushed themselves outside their comfort zone and started sharing their story and why they wanted their communities vote…. they started landing more sales.
Hold on a second… you’re tell me that when you tell more people about the value you bring… they buy more??
(Sorry I just couldn’t help myself!)
Having their business visible to the SPARK community and beyond, and showing up telling more people about they do has had the awesome side affect of increased sales and business growth. F*ck yeah.
Barbara Corcoran, a successful real estate entrepreneur and a star on the US TV show "Shark Tank." put it’s simply:
"If you don’t tell people about your success, they probably won’t know about it."
My hope today is that by sharing the experience of past applicants, is that anyone who has held them selves back based on these same thoughts might see that they are not alone. And you can succeed in spite of these feelings. You just need to take action.
Round Four of the SPARK Women in Business Grants open up on the 1st of May, will we see you there?
