Just 18% of companies in the UK are led by women, and while data suggests female entrepreneurs are on the rise, men still receive more funding and are entrusted with higher average loans to get them started.
In the concluding interview of an eight-part series, Money blog reporter Jess Sharp speaks to women who are bossing it in their respective fields – hearing stories, struggles and advice for those who want to follow in their footsteps by starting a business.
This week she has spoken to Denise Gosney, the founder and owner of theatre school company Razzamataz…
If you think appearing on Dragons’ Den means Denise was handed success in business on a plate, you’d be very wrong.
The 51-year-old’s first memories are of sharing an “airing cupboard bedroom” as a child – and it was this childhood that instilled in her the ethos that if you want something, the answer is to work harder.
She grew up in a little town near Glasgow in a two-bedroom council flat with her mum, dad and three siblings.
“Money was very, very, very tight,” Denise said. “I don’t remember having a TV or a wardrobe.
“We always laugh that my first bedroom until I was 10 was an airing cupboard and an airing cupboard that I shared with my sibling.
“We didn’t have a lot of money but it was a very happy childhood.”
Denise said that back then she was quite shy.
“I didn’t enjoy school, I was bullied and I felt out of place. I just lived for dance and for performing arts. It gave me so much confidence and transformed my self belief and self-esteem,” she said.
Years later and working as a dancer for Butlins, she took £200 and set up Razzamataz to bring the same opportunities to other children across the country.
Getting started
She was 27 at the time and already had a successful career as a dancer, performing on cruise ships around the world, in pantomimes, and on the West End.
She wrote some posters and put an ad in the newspaper to get going.
“I didn’t really know anything about business but honestly it didn’t cost me much. Maybe I spent a couple of hundred pounds starting the business, so that’s not bad,” she said.
In the beginning, she would travel to a different location in Scotland every evening to host a class, but when she started “running out of days in the week” she looked at a franchising ethically.
In 2006, six years after getting started she was able to sell “Derby and then Glasgow and Edinburgh.”
Buying back shares from a Dragon
Some of you might recognise Denise for her appearance on season four of Dragons’ Den, where she secured a £50,000 investment from Duncan Bannatyne for a 25% stake in her business.
Initially, she auditioned for the show with an idea for a performing arts game but when the producers heard about Razzamataz, they asked if she was willing to present that as an investment opportunity instead.
Duncan stuck around for quite a long time, with Denise eventually buying his shares back from him seven years later – since then she has owned 100% of Razzamataz.
“I would always email Duncan directly and he would always reply even though he must be a super busy guy,” she said.
“I wouldn’t say he got heavily involved in the day to day running of the business… I would say it was the PR that brought value more than anything else.”
“Honestly, the PR from that programme is worth its weight in gold,” she added.
The day after the show aired, Denise got a phone call from TUI inviting her and Duncan to their office.
The meeting ended with her winning a 10-year contract to deliver performing arts classes across all their sites over the summer holidays.
Since then, she has worked with huge brands including Warner Brothers, Mattel and Disney.
Miscarriages, IVF and ‘the worst year of my life’
In the same year that she appeared on Dragons’ Den, Denise had two miscarriages and fell pregnant with her first son, Callum.
She actually discovered she was expecting as soon as she got back home from filming the show.
“We always laugh now that he has been on Dragons’ Den because he was in my belly,” she said.
Business was booming, Denise was franchising across the country and working with big brands, but her life became “really stressful” when she decided to try IVF and ICSI.
“I actually had a year break at that point because it is incredibly stressful having IVF and ICSI,” she said.
After losing two more babies, she eventually fell pregnant with her second son, Lewis.
“Sometimes I look back and I don’t know how I did it,” she said.
“Obviously, I had the support of my husband and I’ve always been a grafter. I just thrive on working and I think it was a distraction when I was grieving.”
In 2017, disaster struck again when her youngest fell ill and was diagnosed with type one diabetes.
“Type one diabetes is a lifelong illness and there is no cure at the moment so Lewis requires 24/7 care. He has a one to one at school and we have to monitor his blood glucose during the night – it’s quite a dangerous things to have,” she added.
Six months later, her eldest was rushed to hospital after a cyst ruptured in his spleen. Now 17, Callum has undergone a total of six surgeries.
“It was probably one of the worst years of my life,” Denise said.
During this difficult time, she thought about giving up running Razzamataz, but it was providing for her children that spurred her on.
“My mum couldn’t even afford a pint of milk sometimes and I just didn’t want to go back to that. I wanted to give my children a bit more if I could and I knew that I had to keep working. It was just going into survival mode,” she said.
Bouncing back from ‘worst decision’ of her life
Denise said the “biggest mistake” she ever made was trying to set up a hair and beauty salon as a separate business while Razzamataz was steadily growing.
“I just thought because I liked getting my hair done and my nails done, why don’t I set up a business doing that,” she said.
“I knew absolutely nothing about it.
“It was the worst decision of my life because it actually bought us close to bankruptcy and we probably lost about £100,000 on that business.”
She explained she “didn’t know enough about the industry” and hadn’t done research.
Now, Denise has a company worth £1.5m with plans to expand to Dubai in the next year.
Denise’s advice
Part of Denise’s advice is just “work every hour God sends” and love what you do.
But practically, she advises keeping your overheads as low as you can in the early days of your business.
“Put a plan together for what those overheads are going to be but keep it quite basic and just research, research, research,” she said.
Referring to her failed hair and beauty business, she said that a company that’s set up without passion will not succeed.
“It failed because I thought it was going to be easy… it is not easy to run a business. You have to have a lot of passion,” she said.
“I’ve seen people go into business and they start getting quite bitter, counting up how many hours they’ve worked and how much money they’ve earned.”
She warned that you’ll work “the hardest you have ever worked in your life for nothing” at first – but it will all pay off eventually.
“You have to be patient. If you expect your business to make you a return and make you money overnight, then don’t do it, don’t run a business,” she said.
“Nobody gave me anything on a plate. I had absolutely nothing when I started out.”
You can catch up on all the pieces in the series below…
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