August 14, 2021
Entrepreneurs, Female Founder Spotlight, Latest Articles

Female Founder Spotlight: Sharon Peake

8 March 2021|Latest Posts, Meet the Successful Founder

IWD Inspirational Female Founders Spotlight: Sharon Peake

Sharon is the founder and Managing Director of Shape Talent – a gender diversity consultancy and coaching business with a mission to accelerate women into senior leadership roles in business. A chartered occupational psychologist and executive coach, Sharon has built shape talent into an organisation helping global organisations build more gender equal workplaces, growing her revenues ten-fold in the process

A wife, mother and business-woman, Sharon is passionate about unlocking the potential of women for the benefit of individuals, organisations and society at large. She believes the world will be a better place when more women occupy positions of leadership. She’s also passionate about wildlife conversation and a Board Member of the Born Free Foundation.

What would you love to share to encourage other women to start their own company?

I’d always wanted to start my own business but it took a redundancy from a large corporate to give me the impetus. I haven’t looked back once in my journey and wish I’d started earlier. I thought I needed to know more and be more ready, but learning on the job catalyses your learning so much more. Don’t let the idea of starting your own business be something you wish you had done. Start now – even if you don’t feel ready. You don’t need to know everything, you just need to know a bit more than the next person.

What are your top 5 tips for entrepreneurial success?

1. Do what you love. It keeps you sane during the tough times of building your business, when hours are long and payments are sporadic.

2. Don’t wait until you’re ready! Someone else may catch on to your idea. You don’t need to have everything perfectly set out to start.

3. Say yes first, then figure out how you will deliver it – you will probably surprise yourself with how much you can achieve.

4. Have a community of likeminded people who can support you. I joined a business accelerator and met the most amazing female founders who are my ‘tribe’.

5. Outsource! Don’t try and be an expert in everything. Bit by bit, as finances allow, find people who can take tasks off your hands (and perhaps do them better than you can).