Starting a new business during a global pandemic might sound crazy. For Clare Harris, who quit her comfortable job this summer to launch her own consultancy, it certainly felt like a huge leap during a time of profound change.
“In my leadership programmes, I tell people to buck the trend and be bold, and take a risk. I thought I’ve got to practise what I preach, go against the flow,” she says.
While the coronavirus crisis has had dramatic effects on all areas of the economy it has been particularly tough on working women. In the US, unlike in the previous downturns of the past 50 years, women have lost more jobs than men, according to the Pew Research Center, which analysed the US data from eight financial crises. In the UK, mothers are 23 per cent more likely than fathers to have lost their jobs, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
But amid the turbulence, the crisis has also triggered a reset of priorities and a period of soul-searching that few other circumstances can provide.
For Ms Harris, 45, from Oxfordshire in the UK, the crisis gave her time to take stock and reconsider her career.
She quit her position as associate director at In Diverse, a human resources and technology consultancy, and this month opens her own consultancy focused on diversity and inclusion.
“[Quitting] made me feel quite bold and courageous,” says Ms Harris, adding that being the main breadwinner for her family made it an extra risk.
“When there are shocks, people tend to look at their lives and ask if the way they are living is the right one,” says Richard Alderson, founder of Careershifters, an online career change consultancy whose clients are mainly female. If the job does not work, it affects other areas of life, he adds, making it easier to think about change.
Ms Harris funded her change of career with savings — amassed before and also during lockdown. She did not have official business advice but drew on the expertise of friends and colleagues. “I have pulled in people from my network to take advice from, friends and colleagues who did the same thing along the way,” she says.
Ms Harris is not alone in trying to turn a crisis into an opportunity. A study conducted by AllBright, a professional women’s network with 800 members in the UK has shown that 61 per cent are thinking of a career change and one in four are considering launching a business of their own.
“The findings from our survey highlight the fact that women are using their resilience and renewed sense of perspective to pull through and not let the last few months set them back,” Anna Jones, co-founder of AllBright, says.
The survey found that publishing and health and fitness were among the areas women were most keen to explore.
Hanna Botelho, 27, who lives in Dublin with her partner and stepdaughter, is another defying the odds. She left her job as a programme manager in a technology company last year after insomnia led her to take up yoga and meditation. The pandemic hit just as she was about to open her own yoga studio in February.
The ensuing crisis made her rethink her move. From a traditional yoga studio, she switched to offering private classes, online yoga courses and online mindfulness sessions.
“The timing was bad because the city was closed but it helped me restructure my business idea,” says Ms Botelho.
“Lockdown has been a big time for reflection, which has opened up new possibilities in the way we work,” says Liz Ward, professional career coach and founder of SlickPivot. She points out there are businesses and industries that are flourishing, and ones that could provide women with more purpose.
Finding a workplace that matched her values seemed very important to Ashley Langham, a 30-year-old American based in London. She quit her job in compliance at a large investment bank this year to pursue a position at a US start-up that was a better fit culturally and in terms of its values and skills.
Langham used the extra time she had in lockdown to boost her portfolio of writing and content creation. “The pandemic has really helped because it gave me a lot of time to do it. Without it, I wouldn’t have had the time and space to be able to write.
“I worked every single day except for some weekends since the beginning of the year because I had a goal.”
She admits it was a gruelling experience: “It is much harder than any other time, but it is hard in general.”
Letter in response to this article:
Is Covid-19 a cue for more female entrepreneurs? / From Katja Staple, London E8, UK
Source: Financial Times
