Our top female entrepreneurs

Meet Australia’s top female entrepreneurs – they are smart, focused and generate more than $3.6 billion in sales.

In a special feature to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8, SmartCompany has compiled a comprehensive list of 48 of Australia’s best business women (see the full list here).

The list, which includes Sussan Group chief executive Naomi Milgrom, recruitment industry leader (and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s wife) Therese Rein and Fernwood Women’s Health Club founder Diana Williams, highlights a group of diverse and passionate entrepreneurs who have taken very different paths to the top.

But despite their diverse backgrounds, a survey of these entrepreneurs has revealed that the majority believe it has become easier for women to start businesses.

The SmartCompany top female entrepreneurs list is headed by Jan Cameron, the founder of retail chain Kathmandu and the current owner of Retail Adventures, which owns discount retail chains Crazy Clark’s, Go-Lo and Sam’s Warehouse. The company turns over about $1 billion.

In second place is Naomi Milgrom, owner of the retail empire Sussan Group, which operates the Sussan and Sportsgirl chains and generated revenue of $496 million in 2008-09.

Recruitment industry veteran Julia Ross, chief executive and major shareholder of listed company Ross Human Directions, is next with $393 million in annual turnover.

Perhaps the most famous name on the list is Therese Rein. The wife of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was forced to sell the Australian operations of her recruitment services business Ingeus prior to the 2007 Federal Election. However, the international business, which focuses on the British market, continues to perform strongly. According to estimates the company’s revenue is around $120 million.

The list is dominated by entrepreneurs from the services sector, with a particular focus on personal services and the recruitment sectors. Retailers are also prominent, while 14 entrepreneurs have used franchising to grow their empires.

Of the 31 entrepreneurs to complete SmartCompany‘s special survey, two thirds started the business from home, while just under 80% of the businesses on the list were launched with less than $100,000 in start up capital.

Most of the women on the list said it has become easier for female business people to launch companies, thanks to improved access to resources and assistance and a sharp increase in the number of positive role models.

“Women have made great inroads to earning credibility in the finance and business world, and so make it easier to be taken seriously in these once male-dominated areas,” Fernwood’s Diana Williams commented.

However, some pointed out that boys’ club haven’t completely disappeared from Australian business.

“There is a ‘glass wall’ (rather than a glass ceiling) that you hit during growth, where people expect to be dealing with a man rather than the woman,” My Coffee Shop’s Carmelina Pascoe says.

“The boys club, while much smaller than it was before, does still exist.”

The list

SmartCompany’s top female entrepreneur list was compiled using information provided by the entrepreneurs themselves. Where information was not provided, SmartCompany has made an estimate of revenue using publically available information, including data from research firm IBISWorld, and industry sources.

For those women who declined to provide this data, we have made a conservative estimate about the size of their turnover by consulting industry sources, research firms such as IBISWorld, ASIC documents and other publically available information sources. An asterisk (*) denotes where revenue has been estimated.