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 became an overnight success and millionaire.

The truth was that the business owner was paying herself a small wage after going through a lot of difficulties.

An academic said social media success stories can hide the harsh realities faced by women in business, and they lack a platform to complain about how little money they make for fear of appearing “greedy”.

The Welsh Government said its expert advice service Business Wales is committed to supporting female entrepreneurs.

Zoe, who has two children, started Trigwell Cosmetics in 2020 after her makeup academy business closed during the COVID pandemic.

Initially she bought a few products to sell to friends, family and customers, and funded them by running online makeup tutorials at £2 per ticket.

He said, “I had no idea…investment was a thing, but I didn’t know where to go or who to ask. I don’t think there really was that much information out there on how to get investment for small businesses.”

The 31-year-old said that when a product went viral in 2022, people wrongly assumed he was an overnight success and millionaire.

Zoe said, “I paid myself a small salary so we could live and get by, but I didn’t take any big chunks of the money, especially in the days when we started going viral, because any money earned had to be reinvested to meet demands.”

She said she feels there is a lot of pressure on female founders to be perfect and always make the right decisions – which she tries to challenge online.

“It’s really important, especially for people who want to be entrepreneurs, to show that it’s not all highlights and not everything is great, and you don’t get sold out right away.

“It’s a lot of hard work and with it comes a lot of ups and downs and negatives,” he said.

Entrepreneur Lauren Bell said it took four years for her to be able to take a salary from her business, Kosi Care.

The 33-year-old created a gadget to help her brother deal with the eczema that has plagued him all his life.

Lauren said: “It’s very challenging to get big checks. People don’t support women. People almost don’t believe that 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’s really proud of what she’s achieved as a woman in the STEM industry, but it’s a “shame” she didn’t get more support in the early days.

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

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

Dr Sarah Marks of Swansea University agrees that business owners are under pressure to show themselves as successful online.

“For people to be really successful and really consider themselves a successful entrepreneur, they really need to generate a lot of income, and my research shows that in reality the majority of women are not able to generate income that is on par with the market,” she said.

The management school lecturer said her research showed that entrepreneurship often did not provide women with a sustainable life, with many women giving up.

She said, “Women are really denied a forum where they can complain about how little money they’re making… 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.”

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

The cross-party group of MPs found that although a number of programs have been set up to address the issue, their impact has been limited.

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

“The Invest in Women taskforce has secured over £500 million of funding for women-led businesses over the past 12 months and Investing in Women Entrepreneurs launched in August this year,” she said.

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

“The Development Bank for Wales supports women entrepreneurs through a number of projects, including the Women Angels of Wales Syndicate which increases the activity of female angel investors,” she said.