Just 18% of businesses in the UK are led by women, and although data suggests that women entrepreneurs are on the rise, men still receive more funding and are entrusted with higher average loans to get started.
In an eight-part series for Sky News’ Money blog, our reporter Jess Sharp speaks to women who are at the helm in their respective fields – hearing their stories, struggles and advice for those who want to follow in their footsteps.
This week, she spoke with Jenni Dunman, founder and owner of Daisy First Aid…
Many people dream their entire lives of starting a business – for Jenni, it was literally an accident.
“I was off work and I went to have a coffee with a friend, she had her daughter in the high chair, her daughter was choking and she didn’t know what to do,” explained Jenni.
“As a police officer, I already had first aid training, so I was able to pick up her daughter and pat her on the back, remove the blockage very quickly and she made a full recovery.
“I went to my husband’s house that night and said ‘why don’t parents know these really basic things’.”
The ingenious idea of first aid classes aimed at providing medical care to children was born – and now, having started with just £400, Daisy First Aid is about to go global.
It’s been quite a journey for Jenni, who dropped out of school at 16, moved out of the family home and worked three jobs just to pay the rent.
Living in Crystal Palace in south-east London at the time, she says she wasn’t surrounded by the best people and after losing a child and ultimately trying to take her own life, she decided to make a drastic change.
“I went through a really dark time in my life and I kind of decided at that moment, after hitting rock bottom, to either try again and be successful or completely change my life,” said the 44-year-old.
Jenni joined the Metropolitan Police.
“I didn’t live in a particularly nice area nor did I hang out with particularly nice people, so I decided I would completely cut ties with everyone,” she said.
At the time of their training, the police covered the costs of room and board for new recruits during the 18-week course, she explained.
“I basically had a place to completely reset my life. It changed my life completely. I loved it.”
Jenni eventually made it to detective sergeant, met her husband on the force when he came to her rescue, and was one of the first officers on the scene during the July 7th bombings.
“I think that’s probably where I initially discovered my love for first aid,” she said. “I really loved that side of things.”
Joining the police ‘completely changed’ his life
The emergency situation that sparked your idea
Several years later, and now a mother of two, Jenni was finding it difficult to balance work and a busy home life.
It was during her pregnancy with her third child, in 2013, that the business idea emerged, motivated by the incident in the cafe.
“They give all these amazing parenting classes, but if your baby stops breathing, or chokes, or has a seizure, why don’t they learn this basic first aid?” she said.
Jenni began researching online what large organizations were already offering and found a gap in the market with classes aimed exclusively at parents.
Jenni began taking bookings during a career break from law enforcement
One pavilion, two customers and a friendly favor
Initially, she started by organizing a first aid class at her local pavilion in Sutton and putting a post on Facebook inviting people and their babies to attend.
The two-hour class taught people about the signs of meningitis, how to deal with burns and seizures and broken bones in a “simple and easy to remember” way.
His initial costs came to £400, which was mainly spent on mannequins for the class.
“I had two bookings, both paying £25, and I asked all my friends to join me so it looked busy, so everyone came with their babies and we had a great class,” said Jenni.
After that, word spread quickly and she started gaining more and more clients as her business grew organically.
“I took a break from my career in policing and started getting bookings from London, Surrey, Kent… I realized I was really on the right path,” she said.
‘I learned a lot along the way’
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Learning, learning and more learning
As her company flourished and she struggled to keep up with demand, Jenni began studying how it should be structured.
From the beginning, she wanted a work-life balance that had not been offered to her by the police, and worked her hours at school and in search.
Using Google and teaching herself, she came up with the idea of franchising.
“I knew nothing about starting a business, I knew absolutely nothing, so I learned a lot along the way. I learned how to franchise and tried and tested the model,” she said.
“I took over two franchises, both police officers who lived in other areas, and taught them how to expand their businesses and do what I was doing.
“It just exploded beautifully and quickly grew into what it is now, with 115 franchises across the UK with plans to expand worldwide.
“We’ve helped save hundreds of thousands of babies’ lives.”
‘I receive investment offers, but I refuse’
Daisy First Aid is now planning to launch in Dubai by the end of the year, with Jenni having aspirations to take it to Australia and Europe as well.
“What was supposed to be a small business for me, to help me get a nice little maternity paycheck, turned out to be life-changing for me and my other franchisees,” she said.
Unlike many businesses, Jenni never made any investments, financing the initial setup herself and growing it ever since.
“I probably get investment offers twice a month, but I’ve never accepted investments, so I own 100% of the business. Some people think I’m crazy, but I’m very happy,” she said.
“The model we have works very well and we know we can replicate it anywhere.”
Jenni takes five daily steps to maintain her positive mindset
And the challenges?
Jenni said the “biggest battle” she overcame was her own mind and that it was something she still needed to work on every day.
“I think most of us were taught by our parents, by our ancestors and others, to just survive life and stay safe… you know, go to school, get a job, get a pension, retire yourself and then die.” she said.
“I really think that now we can remove these blocks just to open up, because we were made for more.”
She explained how she had to work over the last 20 years to overcome her fear of failure, but also her “fear of bragging rights and fear of success.”
“By far my biggest challenge is myself and my own self-sabotage,” she added.
“There are so many fears we all have that hold us back from achieving more.”
Jenni’s Advice
Jenni confessed that she was “very obsessed” with learning and advised others to research and learn for themselves the skills they lack.
“All the information is available online, whatever you need, you can find out, but also don’t be afraid to ask other experts for help,” she said.
She remembered the first time she hired an accountant and asked him to explain everything to her as if she were 10 years old.
“Sometimes, as entrepreneurs, people expect us to know everything, but we will never know anything. However, we might be brave enough to ask other experts.
“There are so many people who will give up their free time to help you, and there is a lot of information online, so it doesn’t have to be expensive.”
She also follows these five daily steps to keep her mindset positive:
- Practice gratitude – take time to remember and feel grateful for the positive things in your life
- Define your goals – write them down and illustrate them
- Be mindful of your words – stop moaning and don’t be negative. Changing the words you use out loud and in your head can have a positive impact.
- Create a wave of happiness – do one thing a day to make someone else happy – this will encourage them to do the same
- Leave positive comments and give compliments – if someone did a good job, tell them about it.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
