During my two years as Small Business Minister, I encountered numerous successful female small business owners, many of who have built their businesses from the ground up. Many of these women have not only established a successful business on home turf, but have gone on to expand overseas and achieve international success.
Travelling around the country and meeting these inspirational women allowed me to develop a greater understanding of the challenges female entrepreneurs face, and the common traits of those who succeed.
There are three key traits I observed in many of the female exporters I encountered.
They have big ambitions
Many of the female exporters I encountered set out in business with a vision to take on the world. While their business operations may have started small, their aspirations were big. Having confidence and belief that you can scale and expand your business in new markets is important when setting out to build an export business.
According to Women in Global Business 2015, a report published by the Australian, State and Territory Governments, 42 per cent of women entrepreneurs expand into new markets within their first year of trading, while 81 per cent set up export operations within their first five years of trading. A third of these organisations earn more than half of their sales revenue internationally.
Anna Fisher, managing director of South Australian wine exporter, Zonte's Footstep, is a great example of this ability to aim far and wide in her export strategy. Since 2009, Zonte's has increased its sales five-fold, primarily through international expansion.
"At the moment our largest export market is Canada, followed by Sweden. We also export to the USA, UK, Singapore, Thailand and China. Our exports make up about 60 per cent of our revenue. Ultimately, we'd like to see ourselves 80 per cent export-focused," Ms Fisher reflected.
They draw on life experience to navigate new markets
I found that many of the female exporters I've met had already gained significant life and business experience in different careers before branching out internationally. This is borne out by the Women in Global Business report which shows that 62 per cent of female exporters are baby boomers (50+ years of age), with 78 per cent holding a bachelor degree or higher. Half of these women have also worked overseas in previous organisations, so have experience of operating in foreign markets.
Dee-Ann Prather had significant business experience before founding her NSW-based export business, Down Under Enterprises. Ms Prather, a former management consultant and Macquarie banker, founded the business in 2001 to distribute the tea tree essential oil from her family's plantations in NSW.
After rapid acquisition of a number of new customers, Down Under now exports and distributes a wide range of oils including eucalyptus, sandalwood and lavender oils to the US and Asia.
All of its products are 100 per cent pure oils and native to Australia.
They persevere to overcome barriers
Exporting can be challenging. Operating in different cultures and languages, managing currency fluctuations and understanding new legal and regulatory requirements can all be barriers to overcome.
The Australian businesswomen I have met have experienced many of these challenges and more. In particular, many female entrepreneurs face difficulty in accessing finance for export. The Women in Global Business report found that 39 per cent of female exporters felt that gender made a difference to their access to finance. An inability to access finance can be a significant impediment to overseas growth, as Zoi Vafias, Director of Brisbane-based fashion designer and wholesaler discovered.
"Finding capital for growth was a challenge we faced. We were in a strong position to grow our agreements with a few international stores, but we were worried about selling more product in case we couldn't deliver", Ms Vafias recalled.
Perseverance to overcome these barriers, such as seeking alternative sources of finance, is a common trait of the business women that succeed overseas.
I'm delighted to see the number of female entrepreneurs making waves overseas. I hope that female exporters will continue to break down barriers and grow and scale their businesses to showcase some of Australia's very best products and services in international markets.
Bruce Billson is the former Minister for Small Business and is a brand ambassador for Efic, the Australian Government's export credit agency. Efic provides finance for small business exporters.
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