Women in business ‘scraping by’ despite viral online success

After one of her makeup products went viral on social media, people assumed that Zoe Trigwell had become an overnight success and a millionaire.

The truth was that the business owner was paying himself a small fee to get through many bad situations.

Success stories on social media can mask the harsh realities faced by women in business and that they lack a platform to complain about how little money they make for fear of appearing “greedy”, an academic has said.

The Welsh government has said specialist consultancy Business Wales is committed to supporting female entrepreneurs.

Zoe, who has two children, started Trigwell Cosmetics in 2020 after her make-up academy business closed during the Covid pandemic.

She initially bought a few products to sell to friends, family and clients, and funded them by offering make-up tutorials online for £2 per ticket.

“I had no idea…investment was a big deal but I had no idea where to apply or who to ask. I don’t think there was a lot of information out there on how to actually get investment for small businesses,” he said.

The 31-year-old actor said that when a product goes viral in 2022, people mistakenly assume that he became an overnight success and millionaire.

“I paid myself a small wage to live and get by, but I didn’t take a huge amount of money, especially in those days when we started going viral, because every penny earned had to be reinvested to meet the demands,” Zoe said.

She said she feels there is a lot of pressure on female founders to be perfect and make perfect decisions all the time; That’s something he’s trying to challenge online.

“It’s really important, especially for people who want to be entrepreneurs, to show that not everything is about the highlights, not everything is rosy and sold instantly.

“There’s a lot of hard work and a lot of adversity and negativity that comes with that,” he said.

Entrepreneur Lauren Bell said it took four years for her to receive a salary from her business, Cosi Care.

The 33-year-old man created a device to help his brother deal with eczema, which he has been suffering from all his life.

Lauren said: “It’s so hard to get the big checks. People don’t support women. People almost don’t believe women can achieve what men can achieve.”

“They see me in a pink suit with a nice Welsh accent and they don’t believe you can reach those levels.”

The entrepreneur said she was really proud of what she had achieved as a woman in STEM, but said it was “a shame” that she didn’t get more support in the early days.

Lauren, a design graduate, has recently won a million-pound investment and will soon move the entire business to the US.

“I’m moving all our employees there. I’m manufacturing in America and moving everything to America, which is a real shame because I’ve really tried and tried to do that in the UK, but there wasn’t the same scale of support for women-owned businesses,” she said.

Dr Sarah Marks, from Swansea University, agreed that business owners are under pressure to present themselves as successful online.

“For people to be truly successful and to see themselves as a truly successful entrepreneur, they need to earn quite a bit of income, and my research shows that the vast majority of women are actually not earning anywhere near a market-equivalent income for themselves,” she said.

The business school lecturer said his research showed that entrepreneurship often did not provide women with a sustainable living and many gave up.

“Women are denied a platform to complain about how little money they actually make… they don’t want to be seen as greedy; they don’t want to be seen as ungrateful, and that can be a real pressure and a real burden for women,” she said.

A report published by the Women and Equality Committee last month found that female entrepreneurs face significant disadvantages in accessing finance, investment networks and support systems.

The cross-party group of MPs found that although numerous programs had been created to address the issue, their impact was limited.

A spokesperson for the UK government said it was “putting women at the center of its growing agenda to make the UK the best place for women-led businesses by breaking down barriers and unlocking opportunities for them.”

“The Investing in Women Working Group has raised over £500 million for women-led businesses in the last 12 months, and investment in female entrepreneurs began in August this year,” they said.

The Welsh government said that since May 2021, Business Wales has supported 2,301 start-ups led by women, which is “56% of all start-ups supported”.

“The Development Bank of Wales supports women entrepreneurs through many projects, including the Women Angel of Wales union, which increases the activity of female angel investors,” they added.