Less than 20% of all active UK companies are led by women, and the pace of new business registrations is slowing down.
That’s according to analysis of Companies House data by Prowess, which also found women-led companies receive just 5.8% of all investment.
In our Women in Business series, we speak to women who are bossing it in their respective fields as they tell us how they’ve overcome challenges and how others could do the same.
Today Money live reporter Jess Sharp speaks to Lemon Fuller, a former dancer, choreographer, singer and the founder of Lemonade Dolls.
Lemon’s business grew from an Instagram page she created while heading back to London after living in LA for three years.
Having spent a decade in the entertainment industry being criticised, her aim was to build a community that uplifted women.
“I was being told whether I was good enough, pretty enough, thin enough, fat enough – you name it. I think that was really the heartbeat of building a brand that was so inclusive,” she says.
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She had spent a lot of her life working on shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and Comic Relief, and with global music stars.
She toured around the UK as a support act for Little Mix before being signed by a record company in LA.
“I have no regrets at all, it was absolutely amazing and I worked very, very hard to get where I got. I worked my bum off every single hour of every single day, but after 10 years I needed to change.”
‘The Nike of lingerie’
After her Instagram page gained thousands of followers, she decided to shift the account into the lingerie business that we now know as Lemonade Dolls.
Starting off with no money and no team, she has gone on to raise more than £3m in investment and create a business she tells Money is worth £17m.
Her aim now is to become the “Nike of lingerie”.
“I want it to be mass market done better where everything is recycled, and it’s sustainable. I want it to be as accessible to as many women as possible, and that’s why our price point and where we stock is so important,” she says.
“We want to at least be a leading disruptor in the lingerie space, where every woman feels like we have catered to them.”
And Lemonade Dolls is already on the right track.
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Its products are sold in several countries including the US, New Zealand, the UK and across Europe.
While its sales come predominately from online, it has entered several stores, including John Lewis and Nordstrom.
“W’re here because our customers are so epic. We are still learning… but once you shop Lemonade Dolls, you just keep coming back. Our returning customer rate is so high,” she says.
“We don’t really use celebrity endorsement – our customers are our ambassadors and we just use word of mouth.”
‘You’re only as good as the last pair of knickers you sold’
Despite her determination and passion, Lemon says she made “mistake after mistake after mistake” and nothing in the business happened quickly for a long time.
For the first few years, she just held the position of founder, but three years ago she took over as chief executive and pushed the business to new heights.
“I didn’t have any products, I didn’t know factories, I didn’t know where to get it done, I didn’t know anything but I didn’t have any money, so I just tried to find people who had influence that could help me,” she says.
“When I became CEO, I was able to really run the business the way I believed it should, taking lots of risks.
“But we’re not getting too ahead of ourselves, you are only as good as the last pair of knickers you sold.”
How to face a room full of male investors
One of the keys to her success was learning how to face a room full of male investors and convincing them the underwear market is big enough for Lemonade Dolls.
“The biggest thing that I learned to succeed in that environment is to match their understanding of numbers and to be ready to ask them questions,” she says.
“Some people have said I shouldn’t have to do that but I’m not angry about it – at the end of the day it’s made me grow and nobody knows the numbers more than me. That’s how I have been able to get respect and investment.
“No one knows your business better than you, so make sure you know how to articulate that.”
