Hip Girl Of The Month: Karren Brady

This week, I heard one of the UK's most-celebrated entrepreneurial women, Karren Brady, talk on opportunity and ideas in business. Karren took on Birmingham City FC and the rest of the football world in 1993 with with 'big-hair', and an even bigger ambition that made her the UK's youngest managing director of a PLC when she floated the club in 1997. Karren is driven, bubbly, and inexplicably inspiring. And she's also very likeable.

Hailed the 'First Lady' of football, but turned down by Waitrose 'for being too glamorous' Karren is arguably responsible for closing much behind-the-scenes segregation in football management. Once told 'you might not have a dick, but you have balls', she's unwilling to see herself as anomolous 'woman in a man's world', preferring to be professional first and formeost: though 75% of her management at Birmingham FC are women, this is 'only because they are the best'. Now also a non executive director of Channel 4 and Mothercare, Karren also makes an inspiring speaker - doing the business speaking circuit in the UK (next due to appear in Cambridge at EEDA's 'Playing to Win', Newmarket, March 4th).

So what are Karren's secrets to success? And where did she find her balls? She's blessed with 'having an inner confidence' she says, but preparation is key: 'fail to prepare, and you prepare to fail'. Equally essential to company success is staff-motivation: nurturing their dreams, and personal ambitions; taking their passion, hearts, and not just their minds with you. Every new employee at Birmingham FC spends their first day working alongside Karren, and job-swapping is common, promoting a real sense of mutual understanding and value in the company's staff. 'I have one 18 year old who works for me on 12K a year, and another 18 year old working on 12K a week. Both are equally valued, and equally motivated'.

Most telling of all, is her attitude. 'The really strong entrepreneurs are the ones who carry on', she says. 'If ever asked to do something out of your comfort zone - say yes. You don't know where it may lead you'. Ambition and inner pride really are key. And if you really can't change something? 'Change your attitude'. Be positive. Ask yourself 'what is the worst thing that could happen to you if you make this decision?'

Wise words from a woman once turned down from journalism school, now regularly filling column inches in some of the UK's leading papers. So: follow your heart, or go for money and status? 'If you can find something you love, far greater rewards will come.

'But if you add entrepreneurial spirit, then money and status will come, anyway'.

Entrepreneurs: 'Don't Give Up'

Today, I met an incredibly driven female entrepreneur completely by chance, in a coffee shop. She carried a business plan on her that included supportive letters written on behalf of high-ranking royalty. Entrepreneurship was in her blood. She was fiercely intelligent, sharp, and passionate about her work. Determined and totally focussed. And she was a nun. A nun running a fledgeling not for profit company geared towards spreading peace and reconciliation on planet earth. Sweet.

For me, this is what The Hip Girl's Guide to Being an Entrepreneur is all about. Highlighting those girls and women that totaly break the mould of what being an entrepreneur is perceived to be. Celebrating their successes. Inspiring more.

There's been much talk of this new breed of female entrepreneur - documenting her rise through the ranks of the businessworld, as she challenges the glass ceiling with a juggernaught zeal to rival even Alan Sugar's. Yet how many female start-ups really want to be some kind of Apprentice? How many start-ups actually want to take over the world according to 'traditional' singularly profit-driven business models, anyhow? Yes, quite a few! But, with social enterprise, creative entrepreneurship amongst artists and cultural entrepreneurs, mumpreneurs, the rise and rise of values and ethics within business, the run-away success of companies like Innocent, the growth of the freelance economy - all these things mark a genuine shift within the contemporary commercial world. With increasing kudos and momentum, value-driven business is at the forefront of innovation and change.


Featured in the Hip Girl's Guide to Being an Entrepreneur are stories from some of the world's most inspiring entrepreneurial women. Over the past three months alone, I've heard first-hand some of these stories from a few of the UK's leading entrepreneurs: male and female. Jacqueline Gold, CEO of Anne Summers talking candidly on the need for courage, passion and confidence in your convictions. Author and inventor Anne Miller at her book launch (http://www.themythofthemousetrap.org), on the importance of self belief in the face of negativity. Brothers Nico and Alex van Somervan of N Cypher on the entrepreneur's need for self discipline, optimism, and the ability to deal with failure.

All these people were ordinary, brilliant, individuals who have run with their dreams. And not given up.

The truth is, entrepreneurs are often romanticised as maverick, risk-taking outlaws -cult figures with an uncanny ability to gamble - and win. Yet some even argue that they're made only in hindsight: while they're still struggling to 'make it', they're wrongly perceived as 'flaky' crackpots, or dreamers. And by the time they do - they're so accepted by the business community that they're no longer the 'true' entrepreneurs they once were. They might go on to successfully create enterprise after enterprise, but this is relatively low-risk - with newly increased access to capital, confidence, and kudos, this is a different breed of entrepreneur altogether.

Perhaps this is the one trait that unites all entrepreneurs, then - female and male -the ability to keep going despite failure, defeat, mistakes. The art of resilience. More glamorous, of course, than just turning over and giving up.