Quitting your full-time job to start a business seems really daunting! But this is exactly what 28-year-old Rachael Wilde did. At 23, the Aussie business woman left her job to build her skincare company – tbh skincare. Her success has brought her across the ditch, and tbh skincare products can now be bought in New Zealand. But before all the success, Rachael says there’s one thing that helped her take that leap of faith to go all in…
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Ever hit a point in your career where you stumble upon a great business idea? Then you think to yourself, ”Maybe I could quit my job and start a business?!”
Well, this was the case for 28-year-old Aussie Rachael Wilde, who while working in the medical device industry, found a patented treatment for acne.
Having struggled with acne herself, she saw this moment as an opportunity to create a skincare brand. She followed her gut, quit her full-time job and co-founded tbh skincare with her mother at 23.
She says apart from the patented technology she found, there was something else missing in the acne treatment market — sensitivity.
“I felt like I was going through so much mentally but I didn’t really have anyone checking in. It was like,‘You’ve got this blemish on your skin, here’s a pill.’”
Rachael says the one thing that made her take the leap of faith was her own personal battle with acne. In a way, the business was like a tribute to herself – giving her younger self another option that she wished she had.
She says going through the traditional treatment pathways, like seeing a general practitioner and dermatologist, made her feel like the whole process was such a “transactional exchange”.
“It was my obsession with the customer journey… Because I’d lived a 13-year-long battle with acne, and I knew I didn’t like the experience I went through.”
Starting her own business meant that she could speak to a customer in a way they would like to be spoken to, because she knows what it feels like. “It is such a big thing to deal with acne.”
“That experience personally drove me to go all in, and I can see the potential of the brand and the business.
“I can’t just dip my toe in, I got to jump in head first.”
So if there’s one to take away from Rachael’s experience, it’s that finding a solution for a strong personal struggle could help catapult you into starting your own business.
But Rachael also says starting a business as a female can be quite hard, especially when you need capital.
Globally, only two percent of capital funding is given to female founded businesses. She says most private equity or venture capital funds are heavily male-led.
So if you’re seriously thinking of doing it yourself, here’s her advice for female entrepreneurs navigating a male-dominated industry:
- Stand in your power when looking for capital in a world where most investors are male. Female entrepreneurs are often looking for a capital at some point in their journey. What male investors choose to invest in, they will almost want to be able to relate to. So it could make it particularly hard for female-centred spaces, like beauty and wellness. So just keep showing up and don’t diminish your size or your space. Know that you’re worthy.
- Know that a lot of female founded businesses are successful. The spending power of the female customer in a consumer goods industry is massive. That’s who’s spending the money. Ultimately, if you can create a business that’s serving a particular need in the market, you’re going to win.
- Don’t look for it externally. That sounds so easy, but it’s really hard to do. It’s hard to block out the noise sometimes, but finding inner motivation and validation is vital. And at times when that doesn’t work…
- Find female mentors and network. I’ve got such a good female founder community that I lean on all the time. There’s plenty of female entrepreneurs out there that are so successful, you could reach out to them. You could also find them online, follow them and get inspiration from them.
