success inspiration
The Rise of the
5 9ers
to
While the rest of us are using our spare time to relax and recharge, women
around the country are mucking in after hours to build themselves a
successful business portfolio. By Chelsea Armitage
D
olly Parton’s lamentation of the nine-to-
five workday seems a far cry from the hours
some women are working in this day and age.
Holding down a demanding full-time job and
often a family takes up enough time as it is, but
an increasing number of women are monetising
their skills and building a business in their spare time – the “5 to
9ers”. Refusing to settle for just one full-time job, these women are
making the most of every hour and pushing themselves to the limit
in pursuit of entrepreneurial excellence.
PepsiCo’s CEO Indra Nooyi famously landed herself in hot water
this year when she revealed she believes “women can’t have it all”
without sacrificing their personal lives and families. This sparked
outrage amongst professional businesswomen worldwide who came to
the defence of women partaking in an eternal juggling act of different
responsibilities – saying they are perfectly capable of achieving their
dreams while raising a family and building strong relationships.
Ditching the day job to pursue something you love and watch the
cash roll in is a dream most of us wouldn’t ever think of becoming
a reality. The fear of failure or going bankrupt is enough to quash
even the biggest of dreams, but a rising generation of women are
working around the clock to make theirs happen without sacrificing
their flow of income. More than five million people in the UK
alone – coined by author and businesswoman Emma Jones as “5 to
9ers” – have taken the opportunity to work around their full-time
jobs and minimise the risks that can often come with starting a
start-up. Instead of launching into a business full-time right off the
bat, which can take time to become financially viable with a large
investment and high risk, these 5 to 9ers are working around the
clock to ensure they can continue to stay on top of their regular
expenses while chasing other passions.
Most 5 to 9ers’ initial motivation for starting their own business is
often similar to regular business owners: monetising a hobby or skill,
and finding a way to use their talents to create something profitable.
The majority of start-up owners surveyed in this year’s Small Business
Sector report said they saw starting a business as an investment strategy
for the future and a way to make money from something they are
passionate about. Interestingly, 326,000 small businesses last year
recorded having zero staff on their books, meaning more and more
people are managing their business by themselves. With the cost of
living constantly on the rise, many people are looking for ways to
supplement their regular income. “The best way to set yourself up
for more income over the long haul is to start a strong side business,”
42 M 2 W o m a n .co.nz
says Trent Hamm from financial and budgeting website, The Simple
Dollar. This is exactly what 5 to 9ers are doing, giving them the power
to pursue their passion without the added pressure of having to make
money quickly in order to keep themselves and their business above
the water.
Although the idea of earning extra money is a major incentive for
starting a side company, the rule of thumb for most small businesses
is that they won’t turn a profit for at least three years, according to
business adviser Dean Soto. Any profit will be used to pay off initial
start-up costs and most of the income will be poured back into the
company, which can be unsustainable for regular people who have
to harbour the cost of living with no other financial support. The
advantage of building a company outside of regular working hours
is that it gives young entrepreneurs the chance to test the waters
and see just how financially viable their business really is. Doing
so allows them to build up their cash flow so that if they wish to
leave their nine-to-five job to pursue their business full-time, they
have developed a steady source of income rather than starting
from scratch. This financial stability enables the business to thrive
organically without having to pay itself off quickly.
As enticing as the premise of creating a business under these
circumstances sounds, a full-time job is still a full-time job. Managing
emails, phone calls and meetings for a regular job and a start-up
business can be a tricky juggling act. “Stress and lack of sleep can
do a number on your immune system,” says CEO and founder of
popular crowdsourcing website Avelist, Jody Porowski. “Stay healthy
because your start-up needs a healthy leader.” As well as this, the
nature of traditional business networking means 5 to 9ers can often
miss out on opportunities to build relationships with clients, attend
networking events, market and build a clientele during daylight hours.
However, with the increase of social media marketing on sites like
Facebook providing cheap and targeted advertising, most business
communication and marketing can be organised after hours. A study
conducted by MYOB in 2013 showed that 27 percent of women who
own small-to-medium businesses are making use of these social media
marketing channels to drive sales and publicity for their businesses,
compared with just 21 percent of their male counterparts.
This rising generation of spectacularly hard workers traverses the
globe, with New Zealand seeing an increasing number of women
who are filling up every second of their spare time in pursuit of
their dreams. M2woman sat down with six of these women, who
are excelling on their own terms in the professional sphere, to find
out what makes them tick.
Light bulb moment:
When I was living in New York, I’d be wearing Juliette Hogan or
Kathryn Wilson or World, and quite often I’d get stopped and
asked where my clothes were from. It just really made me think that
New Zealanders are really creative and amazing and can stand their
ground in an international space. I originally had the idea to open
a shop in New York that stocked purely New Zealand fashion, and
then I realised that with my experience in digital – and just through
a series of fortunate events and encounters and meeting a few people
– an online space would work better and that the real gap in the
market, although I love the fashion side of things, was the real, true,
emerging artists and creatives.
Perseverance is key:
To achieve anything great, it takes time and it takes a lot of hard
work. I’ve worked many jobs and many, many hours. There’s
been weeks at a time where I have literally slept for two hours a
night and have run myself into the ground because there’s just
been so much on. It has definitely not come without hard work.
Hard work is definitely the key to success. You’ve just got to
work really hard.
Seek financial support:
I was really fortunate in the sense that I had an investor – and an
amazing one – Christina Domecq. I definitely still worry, it’s still a
start-up and we still run on a shoestring budget. We’re still doing
everything we can to make it a profitable business and we still have
the same start-up problems and costs and all that kind of stuff, but
it definitely does help when someone believes in your idea and is
happy to help you get there from a financial perspective.
Serial Entrepreneur
Toyah Attwell
28
FOUNDER OF CREATING SPACES,
& GENERAL MANAGER & CO-
FOUNDER OF THE MARKET NZ
Starting her first business at the age of 19 was an easy
feat for this serial entrepreneur. Her latest venture, The
Market NZ, brings artisans from around the country
together to sell their wares online in a digital version
of the traditional marketplace. The former editor
of teen website 24/7 Girl, founder of events
company Creating Spaces and front-runner
of her own freelance digital company still
insists she’s nowhere near the top.
Making sacrifice worthwhile:
The biggest sacrifice I’ve made is time with friends and family, and
not being able to do things that I would have if I had more time on
my hands. But in saying that, I think I’ve achieved some great things
and worked with some amazing people, and it’s all super rewarding.
I think working hard is fine when you get the benefits of it, both
at a personal level and being able to see how you’re helping people.
Re-energising:
When I am really, really busy, that’s the most important time for
me to exercise. Even just taking half an hour out of your day – and
sometimes it’s the hardest when you’re really busy, because you don’t
have half an hour – but just half an hour running on the treadmill,
doing something physical or just going for a walk means you just
get so much more energy and clarity, you just clear your head for a
minute and focus on that.
Best advice:
You need to be optimistic and you need to be positive, because as
soon as you get down, everything snowballs. You’ve just got to keep
pushing through. You’ve got to keep going and going and going.
“You need to be optimistic
and you need to be
positive, because as soon as you
get down, everything snowballs.”
M 2 W o m a n .co.nz 43
xxxx XXXX
Music Maverick
Adelaide Carleton
26
Programme Administrator
at AUT, & founder of
Ifonika Recordings
After befriending a French music producer,
Adelaide Carleton started up her own record
label, Ifonika Recordings. Working alongside
Roddy Reynaert, as well as being a full-time
Programme Administrator at Auckland University
of Technology and developing her own artist
career, Adelaide has a lot on her turntable.
The value of digital:
Because Ifonika is completely online based, if I do anything
physically I don’t have to upfront with much. I do have to up front,
but because I’m full-time working it’s not a problem for me to come
up with the small amount of cost that it does take to run the label.
It really wasn’t like I was trying to create a café or anything. The
risks were time and personal – whatever impact it had on my life.
The greatest sacrifice:
I think just at some point, general sanity. It gets a bit nuts. It’s
just been a huge learning experience, especially in terms of time
management and realising how much time you actually have in
a day. It’s a very weird thing because you learn to maximise every
single minute, but then it’s really hard to switch off because when
you do get your down time, you find yourself thinking you should
be doing something. Or you feel like you’re wasting time if you
don’t do anything.
Work hard, sustainably:
When it was at its worst – which I had to taper back on because
it was just unmanageable at that point – I was getting up in the
morning, working an hour or two before work, going to work,
coming home at night and then Skyping for three hours and doing
more prep work for it, and that was my life basically. There was no
time, I was just always busy. So my social life kind of went out the
window. I learnt that’s not sustainable, well not for me personally. It
might be for other people, but not for me. But that was a big thing
to learn and manage.
Be committed:
You’ve got to be willing to drop everything – obviously not your
nine-to-five, but everything outside of it – and be willing to give up
whatever else you’ve got going on. You’ve got to love it that much
success INSPIRATION success inspiration
Footwear Fanatic Youthful courage:
When you think about it, all of our body weight is carried on our
Rebekah Craig two little feet, and if we don’t look after them, we’re screwed. It
really is a wider issue that needs to be spoken of more and have
24 a little more education around it. That was really the kick that I
needed to just think, “Yes, this is what I want to do.” I think in
debt collector, & founder of all honesty a lot of my guts came from the fact that I’m young.
Rebekah Craig footwear Young people, we’re intelligent, but I think we tend to be a little
more idealistic and bigger risk takers, so I think we always have a
A painful walk to the bus stop was the catalyst little bit of a head start in terms of taking risks.
for Rebekah Craig’s venture into creating
I’ve got a degree, so what?
comfortable, stylish high heeled shoes. Rebekah
I did politics and sociology and I also got half way through
works on her self-titled line of footwear into the a law degree. I know so many people who busted their asses
wee hours, after returning home from her day doing the whole school thing, because that was supposed to give
job as a debt collector. them security, and I know people who are lawyers working at
McDonald’s. There’s no such thing as security any more. I think
that was really my thing – what is security? At the end of the day
do I want to be a lawyer, do I want to be a politician? No, not
really. Not for the rest of my life. I want to do something that
matters. I want to do something that helps humanity, and at the
end of the day if what I do benefits the people around me, then
that’s what I want to do.
Work and life don’t need to balance:
I still get to do what I love, I still go to work and earn my money
and I still go see my friends and family, but in terms of, “This is how
many hours I commit to work, this is how many hours I commit to
my start-up”, I don’t really do that, because I’m so passionate – even
when I try to go to sleep, I’m still thinking about it. As long as I’m
not burnt out, and as long as I find a healthy way of dealing with
my stress and dealing with a lot of the things that can come up in a
“Once you’re in it and you’re start-up, I don’t really see the need to box anything up.
swimming, you just have to Biggest challenge:
keep going.” I was severely dyslexic and had severe ADHD until I was 14. I
couldn’t really read anything more than your basic sentences until
I was 14. So for me, to be where I am now is amazing, and a
huge part of that is my faith. When it comes to stuff like my
that it’s not going to bother you. For me it comes down to passion,
business, big things are overwhelming and a lot of times I don’t
but it’s also awesome to connect people too. The cool thing about
know what I’m doing, I just have faith and pray.
it is finding out that people in Israel are playing your song at some
club, or there’s some artist who loves hearing your stuff that really Success to me:
wants to sign with the label and they’re from Denmark. There’s no such thing. If one thing doesn’t work out the
way you planned it, nothing’s ever a loss.
Set ground rules:
One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that it really is true what people Getting out of fear’s grip:
say about going into business with your friends. You need to recognise A fear of failure is never a good enough reason to not do
that if you do business with your friends, you really have to establish something that you love. Fearing what people think about
where you stand and knuckle down as much detail as you possibly can you, fearing what your parents think about you, fearing what
before you even begin. When we launched, we only covered what we your friends think about you. My parents don’t understand. They
basically needed to do at that specific time and we never established wanted me to do law – they wanted me to be a lawyer – and I
major ground rules or anything like that. Once you’re busy, you don’t tried. I have the personality, I have the capacity to be a lawyer, but
even have time to deal with it. My main thing is always that you have it’s not what I want to do. Just forget everybody else and forget
to have the understanding that some things are professional – whether what you’re told to want – just go for what makes you happy. Do
you’re dealing with your clients or your friends or you’re working what you’re good at.
directly with a partner, you need the real ability to look at things
objectively. You are dealing with your professional business right now
and whatever you say to each is to do with that, it’s not a personal thing.
Just keep swimming: “A fear of failure is never
The fact that I was naïve before I began helped in a way because if I had a good enough reason to
known what I was up against, I probably would have thought twice.
But once you’re in it and you’re swimming, you just have to keep going.
not do something that you love.”
M 2 W o m a n .co.nz 45

Pampering Guru
Hannah Ross
26
account manager, &
founder of Scarlet Delivery
After getting caught in a tricky situation,
Hannah Ross saw a gap in the market for
looking after women while they were on
their period. After pushing her ideas aside
for more than four years while she worked in
public relations, Hannah finally gathered the
courage to start her long-awaited business,
Scarlet Delivery, which delivers care packages
to women once a month.
Life happens:
It’s taken so much longer than I thought it would – I thought it
would be a month or two to get off the ground. In reality, it’s taken
me probably close to a year, but in that time I got engaged, got
married, went on my honeymoon for a month, started a new job,
I’m buying a house and my whole life has pretty much changed in
the last year, so it’s huge for me. I wish I could just focus on the
business, but I’m not. I’m focussing on my life too so it’s taken me
so much longer than I wanted to.
Sleep evangelist:
I am passionate about getting lots of sleep, so I’m not losing any sleep
over it. I do talk to my new husband a lot about what’s happening, and I
probably should stop doing that because he hears about tampons all day,
which probably isn’t the best for a new marriage. The main thing that
I’m sacrificing is my personal finances, because I’m doing this all myself.
I don’t have any investment, and it’s all pretty much me, basically.
On confidence:
Confidence? I still don’t really have it, to be honest. I just take
one day at a time. I talk my ideas through with people, and they
“I draw energy off people
and that kind of gives me the
confidence I need to really keep going.”
46 M 2 W o m a n .co.nz
give me the confidence in each area that I’m tackling that I’m
actually doing the right thing and I should keep going with
that. I don’t really have a mentor as such, but I draw energy
off people and that kind of gives me the confidence I need to
really keep going.
Celebrating the small things:
When I have a success, I celebrate that success. When I
lock something down, when I get a contract finalised, when
I launch the website, when I pretty much do anything, I
celebrate that. Every little thing I tend to celebrate, which is
really nice in this day and age.
Biggest challenge:
Every day itself is a challenge – I’m always learning something
new. I guess I’ve realised I can’t do everything myself, which
is probably quite common amongst people who are starting
up their own business. If there’s any aspect I find particularly
challenging I will bring on someone with that expertise.
Just do it:
If you think you’ve got something special, something you
think people will want or need or that will really make a
difference somewhere, then don’t just leave it. Look into it,
see if you can do it. As long as you don’t push it aside for
years like I did, it will happen. You just need to chip away
at it every day and it will slowly come together. Or if you’ve
got a lot of time on your hands it should come together a
lot faster.
PATH TO THE TOP:
The first ten years of my business life – my design company –
resulted in not having a life. Full-stop. I worked ridiculously
long hours and sacrificed many things because of it. I wouldn’t
recommend what I did to anyone. What’s made it worth it is that I
am loving where I am now. Without those sacrifices I may or may
not be where I am now, I don’t know. What I do know is that by
year ten, the biggest lesson I learned was if you’re not passionate
about what you’re doing or whom you’re doing it with, change it.
Let your hair down:
Although I do juggle a lot, I actually do have spare time now. I
make it happen. A couple of years ago I completely changed my
outlook to work, business, life and how I did things and it was the
best thing I’ve ever done. Now I take the time to relax – catching up
with friends, eating out at fabulous restaurants, travelling around the
world. As soon as I come back from a trip away I’m already planning
my next trip. It’s great to have those things to look forward to. I
exercise and to keep me motivated I book into running events. Trust
me, I have absolutely no desire to run a marathon but I like using
these events as goals to keep healthy.
Be passionate:
For me you need to be prepared to take a risk to be rewarded with
success. I’m passionate about Nudecoconut. I live and breathe
coconut oil on a daily basis. I’ve found it’s far easier to promote
something you’re passionate about. No confidence needed there.
Work hard, play hard:
I find that such an interesting term, “work/life balance”. Basically I
believe we need work to get life balance, I need work to give life balance,
success inspiration
Coconut Crusader
Janine MacDonald
46
MANAGING DIRECTOR & founder of
Braincell Creative, Template Digital
& Nudecoconut
As the founder and managing director of two
graphic design companies, Braincell Creative and
Template Digital, Janine MacDonald is no stranger
to hard work. So of course a search for the world’s
best coconut oil led her to start another business,
Nudecoconut, to share what she had found with the
rest of the country.
and I need a life to give work balance. I love to travel. Without work as
my financial vehicle then there’s no travel – it’s that simple.
Location, location, location:
I‘m pleased to say I actually am where I want to be now. I may be
in a different place (I thought I’d be in New York) but the place
doesn’t matter. It’s the doing and the people I’m doing it with that
matters the most.
I wish I had:
Believed in myself. For years it was like I had to prove I was good
enough, that no-one believed in me, which wasn’t true. In reality I was
trying to prove this to myself – I didn’t believe in myself. Instead of a
positive thought of, “You’re awesome, you can do this”, I found I was
internally trying to sabotage myself. But it worked for me, I had proven
that negative voice wrong – it kept pushing me out of my comfort zone
and forced me to keep going, which ironically was a positive.
Best advice:
Be the absolute best at what you do and who you are but make
sure you have fun. Don’t take yourself too seriously. If you’re not
passionate about what you’re doing, when you’re doing it or whom
you’re doing it with, change it.
“If you’re not passionate
about what you’re doing or whom
you’re doing it with, change it.”
M 2 W o m a n .co.nz 47
success inspiration

Charity Queen
Althea Carbon
25
solicitor, & founder of CharityIT
& Business is the New Black
As a long-time volunteer at non-governmental
organisations, Althea Carbon was well aware of
the budget constraints of charities. With this in
mind, the lawyer-by-day launched CharityIT
to help not-for-profits with limited resources
access the talents of volunteer IT professionals,
working with some of Wellington’s most well-
known charities. Althea also runs Business is the
new Black, a blog encouraging young women to
consider entrepreneurship as a career.

Being kind: Tackling stress:

I try to be accepting of myself and be kind to myself when I’m
stressed. I think it’s easy to internalise a lot of things and get angry
that you’re not perfect and you’re being a bit emotional, but it’s just
being kind to myself and thinking, “This is the way things are, what
are you going to do about it?”, and giving myself time to be a bit
sad about it or be stressed, but then after that just going, “Right,
what are the steps to solve this?”
On sacrifice:
It used to be sleep, but now I think I’m getting older so I need
my sleep. I don’t actually see too much of a sacrifice because I
really enjoy what I’m doing – I actually enjoy my day job and my
night job. I actually am working with people who are my friends
– especially in my night job – so I get that social element as well.
Maybe just having the time to have nothing on, that’s probably the
biggest sacrifice.
“It’s just getting over
the fear and being okay with
being uncomfortable with not
knowing what else is coming.”
There’s definitely situations where I feel like I’ve taken on too much
and I’m choosing which ball to drop if I have to, and those are the
most difficult challenges because it’s hard to let go. The way to
get around it is to kind of look at the bigger picture and to check
whatever I’m doing is going to lead me to what I want to do in the
future. I think just having that priority check just helps me deal with
any kind of challenges. Is it actually a really big deal in the bigger
scheme of things?
I swear by:
Being mindful and being present in whatever I’m doing. So when
I’m at work, I try and focus on work and focus on whatever I have
at hand, whether that’s my day job or my night job. And then,
when I’m not doing them, then I try and switch off as much as
possible, so I can fully enjoy being with my friends and family.
Best business advice:
You can find time for things that you are really truly passionate
about and that is important to you, so just get out there and
actually start it – and then figure out how to finish it and keep
going. My mum is a great example of someone who’s been working
all her life and it’s just now that she’s launching her own business.
She could have started this ages ago. It’s just that getting over the
fear and being okay with being uncomfortable with not knowing
what else is coming, and just having that attitude of “I will figure
it out as I go along.”

48 M 2 W o m a n .co.nz