They have been dubbed “Queenagers” and they are a force to contend with. This is the cohort of middle-aged women who are starting and running successful companies, and who are behind a large chunk of consumer spending. Yet these women appear in only about 10% of advertising and struggle to find investment for their businesses.
A recent study, “Fearless and Thriving: How Midlife Female Entrepreneurs are Changing the Game”, conducted in the UK by HSBC and Noon, found that middle-aged women were starting more businesses than any other demographic, peaking at the ages of 45-55. SA exhibits a similar trend, with 28% of female entrepreneurs in the 45-64 age group, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) SA Report 2023/24, conducted by the Stellenbosch Business School.
Prof Natanya Meyer of the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) College of Business and Economics, the lead author on the GEM report, said this was due to:
- Maturity, many have raised their children and have obtained the required skills and confidence;
- Pursuing a dream, which they maybe could not do when they were younger;
- Necessity, they may have been retrenched or unemployed, and this seems like a viable option; and
- Retirement, they might have taken an early retirement package to open a business.
However, both studies conclude that there are huge discrepancies in funding between companies started and run by men and those of women, with an urgent need for investment in women-led start-ups to get them beyond the critical three-and-a-half-year stage.
“SA women are exiting their businesses at a higher rate than they are starting and running businesses, indicating they need more support in growing start-ups to the established stage of more than three-and-a-half years,” said the GEM study.
According to the report, the gap between men and women entrepreneurs widens as businesses mature, with almost double the number of men owning established businesses (7.9% vs 4.1% of women), indicating that women find it more challenging to sustain a business than to start one. In addition, women entrepreneurs were far less likely than men to obtain credit in their founding year, even though those women who did receive start-up loans had a lower default rate than their male counterparts.
“Female entrepreneurs are twice as likely to seek government funding or charitable grants than bank loans or venture capital [VC] funding put together,” said the HSBC and Noon report. “Of the respondents, 8% received a government grant; 2% received VC; 3% depended on a bank loan and 69% used their own savings, including remortgaging property. Of the total, 44% made use of ‘bootstrapping’, which can be using personal savings but also reinvesting early profits back into the business, often with the goal of avoiding debt or external funding.”
Despite the barriers to investment, about eight in 10 (84%) of the women wanted to scale up their businesses within the next two years, according to HSBC, with nearly half (44%) saying they have identified a gap in the market to power this growth. A previous report by the bank found that one in five (18%) female business leaders viewed access to funding as a barrier to growing their business.
A golden opportunity
Focusing on these entrepreneurs could add billions to the fiscus. “Midlife female entrepreneurs understand this audience and can see the gaps in the market — with funding these founders could add billions to UK Plc. These women are a pioneering generation, redefining midlife and what 50+ looks like. We need to be funding their businesses and encouraging them to fly.”
This is an important customer group too, said HSBC. “According to the latest census there are about 7.2-million women aged 45 to 60 in the UK, [and] given that women are set to own 75% of discretionary spend globally, the importance of the midlife female pound is clear. In recent years, this cohort have started earning their own money in unprecedented amounts. In 2019, for the first time, women over 40 started out-earning women under 40, according to the UK Census. This trend reflects the accumulation of experience and progression into higher-paying roles over time.
“Midlife female entrepreneurs are part of a pioneering generation of women who are rewriting the rules of ageing, creating new maps and signposts for what 45+ can look like. These women benefit from the decades of experience that many of them have gained from working across a variety of sectors or previous business endeavours; they embody entrepreneurial verve, enthusiasm and innovation. A better investment ecosystem, which understands their needs, could help them [thrive better].”
Eleanor Mills, a journalist and the founder of UK consultancy Noon, said there is a golden opportunity for midlife women to start businesses that serve everybody but also focus on their own cohort. According to HSBC, 44% of the respondents said they set up their business because they saw a gap in the market for products and services aimed at midlife females such as themselves.
While struggling to secure funding, female-owned businesses have a 35% higher return on investment than men.
HSBC said the “constant struggle against gendered ageism is a major challenge for the women. As founders in midlife, they state that they are often not seen as credible, particularly by men. Another complained that ‘getting the idea through the barriers of male-dominated middle management has been very hard’.
“Even when women do seek investment, they often face more scrutiny alongside being underrepresented in investor networks. A Harvard study found that men are typically asked ‘promotion-orientated’ questions about their potential gains and success. ‘How do you plan to grow the market share?’ is a typical example, with an inherent assumption that the entrepreneur will succeed. Women, however, are typically asked ‘prevention-orientated’ questions, such as ‘How will you prevent customer turnover?’, loaded with the assumption that the entrepreneur is doomed to fail. This can make early-stage fundraising not only more difficult, but also more disempowering.”
Juggling finances
Life throws its curved balls too. Noon’s “Rise of the Queenager” research found that in addition to the dichotomy of work-family balances, more than half of women of 45 and older had been through at least five life experiences that tested resilience and focus, including divorce, bereavement, redundancy, caring for elderly parents or Gen Zs with anxiety, and menopause. Despite this, Queenagers do not only survive but thrive.
Fiftysomething entrepreneur Samantha Hogg-Brandjes started work at 15 and did a public relations (PR) course, cutting her teeth in the male-dominated IT industry. After working for several companies, she founded marketing and communications agency GinjaNinja 22 years ago. Today the company employs eight people and she recently entered into a partnership with Nicola McGowan from IT Marketing to form 4th Floor to add digital marketing expertise.
Hogg-Brandjes is grateful that she was always able to fund her business, with the help of a supportive bank manager who authorised an overdraft when she needed it. But in her work she comes across many entrepreneurs who battle to find investors. “The bank system is flawed. There is no bank manager to look at you or your business holistically — it’s impersonal, you’re dealing with a call centre. And private equity [PE] investment and VC are boys’ clubs. We need to grow girl entrepreneurs from the start, to change their mindset in schools and colleges so that they have an appetite for risk.”
In the HSBC study, just 4% of the women surveyed received angel investment. “The disparity in angel funding for women-led businesses in the UK is likely to be directly influenced by the gender compositions of the angel investors themselves. Now, only 14% of UK angels are women.”
Older women make good entrepreneurs, said Hogg-Brandjes, because they are pragmatic, have strategic intent and think things through. “But we can learn from the PE and VC boys’ club. We need investment companies that are female-led and to increase the appetite of women to back each other.”
Younger people given large amounts in seed money for start-ups often waste it. “I advise investors not to give them assistance unless they have a solid marketing and brand proposition.”
Gcina Mahlaba is another midlife entrepreneur who’s had to juggle funding to keep afloat. After working in a number of corporates as a transformation and sustainability manager, in 2017 she started Trans4mation Consulting, which provides services around broad-based BEE (B-BBEE), environmental, social and governance (ESG) and strategic compliance.
Starting out she had little success applying for funding from banks and development finance institutions. “The most common response was that our business did not meet collateral or turnover thresholds for traditional funding. We’ve since focused on building partnerships, using phased growth strategies, and preparing for targeted funding opportunities aligned to ESG and SMME development.”
Her business has been primarily self-funded through revenue reinvestment and personal savings, but Mahlaba has now qualified for a grant and funding as a B-BBEE enterprise development beneficiary. However, she said, “while this has ensured independence, it has also limited scaling — particularly for marketing, staffing and technology investments. Accessing consistent cash flow during economic downturns has been a major challenge.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.