In a recent episode of Mumbition The Podcast (brought to you by DWEN the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network), we chatted with two business owning women who have put technology at the forefront of what they do.  Karen Joyce, founder of She Maps and Geo Nadir and a member of DWEN, the Dell women’s entrepreneur network. And Tracy Sheen, Mums & Co technology expert and founder of The Digital Guide.

Women might be starting more businesses than ever before, but  lack of access to capital is the #1 reason they can struggle to stay in business. That’s according to data from the Dell Technologies 2023 WE Cities Index report that measures the “fuel” behind the most successful global female founders.  

At Mums & Co we refer to that “fuel” as livelihood, the systems and processes you have put in place to protect your money and time, so you can focus on the parts of the business you love, while continuing to grow. For most business owners, technology plays a very big role here. 

Lucy Kippist:

Technology is a huge part of what you do and it's a huge part of the success of your businesses too. And we know, Karen, that you actually won the DWEN DREAM TECH COMPETITION. Can you share a little bit with us about what you won in the competition and what's happened with your business since?

Karen Joyce:

Yeah, for sure. So we were super lucky to win the competition. I know some of the other entries were amazing as well, so I was pretty stoked that my business was selected for this one. For the listeners, we won AUD$40,000 worth of Dell Technology product, which is phenomenal. And for us, what that has allowed us to do is to make sure that all of our staff are equipped with really high end Dell laptops, which if you're thinking about software development, this is a really critical thing. We also got a server workstation, which is our big data cruncher. And so that's super helpful. It is processing data right now. It's always processing data. 24/7 it's crunching, which is cool. And my personal favourite is my beautiful 75 inch Dell touch screen monitor so that it plugs into a computer. And I use it for looking at designing our platform.I use it for giving presentations, looking at the maps we're creating and lots of communication pieces as well. So I have loads of fun with that one. And I guess for us as a business, you know, the technology is core. It's something that helps us on a day to day basis. In terms of where we're at now, we're sitting around a 30% month on month growth of our active users, which we're really excited about and continuing to grow that and just about to head over to San Francisco to work with a number of customers and clients and starting to look at getting investment in the states as well.

So pretty exciting time for us and it's really great to have had some of the support that's helped to get us there.

Lucy Kippist:

Wow, that's an incredible achievement. So congratulations on that.

And how exciting that an injection of support in that technology space, basically pushing your business to that next evolution.

Karen Joyce:

Yeah, absolutely. And I think it is not just the hardware, I mean it's being able to have the conversations with the marketing team at Dell as well, that's always really helpful and really supportive too. So really grateful for that support through the DWEN network.

Carrie Kwan:

Now, greater business growth means lots of good things, but it also means that you inherit a greater responsibility of risk and being mindful of that risk. Karen, what are some of the processes that you've used to successfully incorporate risk management into your business?

Karen Joyce:

Yeah, it's a scary one. I think that with risk management, the first thing is just understanding what all the risks are. And we do risk assessments all the time in our daily life, whether you're going to cross the road or not, you do that risk assessment. But in a business sense it can really make or break for your business. I'm really lucky that my co-founder is my husband and this is part of our business that he really shines in as well. I work on the technical side, so I'm involved in making sure that all of our data is secure and our processes work and things don't break on our platform. But then we have all the other aspects in terms of making sure that our terms of service, our privacy policy, our legal, our copyrights and all of those types of things are all in place. Even down to the HR contracts, how we hire people. There's so much that goes into it and it's definitely not something that I could do by myself.

Carrie Kwan:

A shout-out to your co here and great to have that sort of process and systems in place and just that awareness of that risk. I think risk doesn't necessarily have to be scary if you understand it and you make the best informed decision at that point in time. I think we have to be comfortable with a bit of that risk. We are stepping into the unknown as founders and business owners, so we know risk, but I think there's just an understanding and having those mitigation plans in place. And Tracy, what would you add here? You are in the digital space as well with The Digital Guide.

Tracy Sheen:

Yeah. Gosh, you've got to be prepared to dance with risk every single day in the tech space and digital spaces, as you said, and I'm working in AI now, artificial intelligence and working on my next book. Everything's changing. You wake up every day and something's changing and you've got copyright issues with what's it going to mean for AI and all the other things that are kind of happening. Just staying informed. And again, it always comes back to me for community, having those right people around your table that you can just know that you are solid with what you do. But I can go to Carrie, I can go to Karen, I can go to Lucy, I can go to a number of other people and say, "Okay, this is your space. Here's what I'm seeing, what are you seeing? What am I not seeing that I need to be aware of?" And just utilising that community so you're not an island, having those people around you that you can go to at any time and say, "Help me understand what I'm not seeing."

Carrie Kwan:

And so important, especially with women in business where they don't have big specialist teams around them, but they do have a community to tap into. 

Lucy Kippist:

I was going to say that's a nice segue into the fact that Tracy is one of our Mums & Co experts who provides that service, I suppose, in the technology space, in your respect to our community. So you are offering what you're explaining there. And we know from a recent micro business report that it's access to those expertise skills that really limits women's ability to progress and to succeed in their business. So an excellent point that you're making and also thank you for the contribution to our community that you make.

Tracy Sheen:

You're welcome. It's one of the things I've really noticed that Mums & Co do really well is it builds in that sense of being okay to ask. As women, we still have that like, "Oh geez, should I show that vulnerability that maybe I don't know?" And just having that environment, that community, that it's okay to ask, it's okay to be vulnerable, it's okay not to know, we don't have all the answers.

Carrie Kwan:

I like to think of it as this psychological safety. So you have to have safety in order to learn. And so there's no silly questions, there's no repercussions of asking a silly question. There never is. So I think that that's really important, especially with women as well, to be able to have that safety when they're finding their way with how to run a business.

Tracy Sheen:

Absolutely.

Carrie Kwan:

Because there's going to be a heap that you don't know, there's going to be a heap that you do know, but we have to be experts in marketing and legal and technology and you need access to all those areas, capital raising, getting the mail. It's the whole spectrum of what we need to do. So make the ask and definitely have your team around you.

This episode is brought to you by DWEN the Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network.

For more than a decade, DWEN has brought women entrepreneurs together from around the world to help them connect, scale their businesses, and ultimately succeed. 

Entries for the 2023 DWEN Dream Tech Competition are now open! This is your chance to win up to $40,000 in Dell technology to help your business grow*. Sign up and enter the competition at www.dwen.com today.

*Terms & Conditions apply

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