Founding Females® 2024 in Review: 20 Wins, 40 Member Wins, and 8 Lessons Learned
This is a reminder, babe, that your successful could never detract from mine. The opposite is true, too.
In fact, our successes can serve to inspire us both to greater heights than we could each achieve alone.
There’s enough for both of us.
You can’t compete with me because I wanna see us both win. When you win, so do I.
Because what we’re doing here at Founding Females® is so much bigger than one woman’s business.
We’re challenging the status quo.
We’re re-writing the playbook.
The women in our community have such a high caliber of character that they’ve helped write my future.
The ones who bring a competitive undertone… The ones who play the victim… The ones who complain instead of get to work making things better…they don’t last long around here.
At Founding Females®, that’s not who we are and that’s not what we’re about.
We want you with us. If you can bring the good vibes, bright ideas, and a supportive attitude, we have room for you.
Check out what we were able to accomplish this year, along with our challenges, missed goals, and lessons learned (gotta keep it real, right?!).
We’re taking all the good from 2024 and using it as fuel to create an even better year in 2025.
Without further ado, I’m thrilled to present you with Founding Females® 2024 in Review: 20 Wins, 40 Member Wins, and 8 Lessons Learned (i.e. “Lessons Learned” is a fluffy way to say “dang, we missed the mark”)…
Founding Females® Wins
Double downed on Content Strategy - We focused in on a solid content strategy to divest from reliance on social media to market Founding Females®. We published 47 blog posts, curated a strong email strategy with an average 45% open rate, published two YouTube interviews to showcase our community, and rebuilt our Pinterest presence. The fruit was sweet with over 261,000 Google impressions and over 3,000 organic website visits from Google. We’ve seen over 10,000 website visits in total in 2024. The best part? Becoming unhinged from social media. There’s freedom in showing up on my terms.
Meet Ups - Together, we launched new Meet Up chapters in Galesburg, Champaign/Urbana, Danville, and Decatur, Illinois, and planted the seed to launch a Carmel, Indiana, Meet Up Chapter in the new year. Peoria Area Meet Ups were featured on News25. In total, we empowered over 375 attendees across all chapters. Click for more information about 2024 Meet Ups.
Tracking KPIs (key performance indicators) - We developed a rhythm of tracking what’s working and what’s not. We established KPIs correlated with growth and gauged success on a monthly rhythm to be able to make informed business decisions in real time.
Published our statement of beliefs - After a well-known business organization whose role is to support entrepreneurs asked me to work for free (ironic, huh?), it became clear I needed to help set a strong precedent for why women should turn down unpaid work. Women deserve to be paid for the value we create, which means setting boundaries around free work. Click to view our statement of beliefs.
Membership Week - For the first time, we launched Membership Week and grew our women’s business mastermind to over 35 members who pour into one another on a daily basis.
Hosted another round of the Business Bootcamp - Congrats to Taylor Leontios, Lee Ann Porter, and Janelle Reeb who graduated the Founding Females® Business Bootcamp six-week program.
Started a gratitude practice and double downed on positive mental health - As much as we like to believe business and personal life are separate, they’re not. Our mental health directly affects how we show up in all aspects of life, including running a small business. This year, I was incredibly intentional about setting boundaries, maintaining healthy rhythms, and exploring emotional regulation.
✨ SEO Glow Up ✨ Training - We hosted the SEO Glow Up training twice - once in April and once in October - with 16 women taking the training in total. We’re using this training to teach women how to build a sustainable business into an asset, not a paycheck!
Developed the Founding Females® Marketing division -
New Websites - We built or refreshed five new websites in 2024.
SEO (search engine optimization) and CRO (conversion rate optimization) - We provided SEO and CRO consulting and audits for five clients.
Consulting - We provided marketing and business consulting for seven clients.
Speaking Engagements - We trained groups at Purdue University, Central Illinois CPCU Society Chapter, Way to Grow Pediatric Therapy, and Illinois SBDC of McLean County for Women’s HERstory Month.
Received the Women’s History Month Award recognition from the State of Illinois Comptroller’s Office for the Women's History Month event in Springfield.
Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business - Sold over 110 copies of Dream, Build, Grow on Amazon and locally inside of The Wink House and Muse Morton Art Gallery.
Press Release 101 Course - Added our Press Release 101 Mini Course to the Founding Females® Mastermind as a complimentary added bonus (normally $99) for our women business mastermind members. This course spells out exactly how Founding Females® has made it into the news frequently and how anyone can get PR recognition for any small business.
Launched the Small Business Gift Guide - To centralize shopping small for the holiday season, we teamed up to launch a Small Business Gift Guide which included over 30 small businesses.
Taking Eight Weeks Off Work - At Founding Females®, we often say, “Build a business around your life and not a life around your business” and walked the walk. I took eight weeks off this year when I wanted or needed to. Here’s what that looked like:
One week in January to vacation in Park City with my family;
One week in May to travel to vacation in Destin;
One week in July for a trip back to Westfield, Indiana, my hometown;
Three weeks in October for an unexpected move with my family;
Two weeks in December when my kids are home on Christmas break.
Built Community - Attended over 30 networking events, conferences, and/or relationship-building opportunities to deepen ties with our female entrepreneur community.
Women’s Fund Nominee - Nominated as a Women’s Fund of Central Illinois award nominee. A huge thank you to one of my dearest friends, Katie VandenBerg, for the nomination.
Personal Growth - This year I read over 15 business and personal development books including:
The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman
I Thought It Was Just Me by Brené Brown
What Happened to You? by Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Bruce Perry (twice)
Take Back Your Family by Jefferson Bethke,
10X is Easier than 2X by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy
The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rogers
The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown
Atomic Habits by James Clear
The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
Embolden Women by Rakshan Syed
How to Use Limited Liability Companies and Limited Partnerships by Garret Sutton
The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile.
Partially filling client book for 2025 - Our 2025 book of business is currently 50% full! If you’d like to work with our team in 2025 for website design, marketing strategy, or speaking engagements, click for more information about working with Founding Females® to grow your business.
Finally took a self defense class - This was a personal bucket list item that was incredibly empowering. Anyone up for a 2025 Founding Females® group self defense class? You can never be too prepared, right?!
Favorite win of all: The one who made the universe knows me by my name. Wanna talk about Jesus? I’d love to create that space for you.
Women’s Business Mastermind Member Wins
Our women’s business mastermind is a safe space to find support and belonging along the entrepreneur journey. Inside the mastermind, we openly share wins, failures, ah-ha moments, growth, business opportunities, and life.
With permission, I’m sharing 40 wins our mastermind members have worked so hard to cultivate this year:
First profitable year!
Expanding my services and location
Blogging and sending out my newsletters 12/12 months
Adding services to make my business more profitable
Landed Johnny Depp as a client! And because of that work, also landed Robert Downey, Jr. as a client!!
Made my first official hires
Expanded my business by adding a location in another state
Worked with 11 new clients through Founding Females® alone
Focusing on SEO and Newsletter marketing
Figuring out how to use what I already have to keep my expenses down
Overcoming fears of liability to open up new opportunities
Policy and system creation
Paying off debt
Paying myself
Focusing on the one success instead of the five misses.
Hosted nine monthly Founding Females® Meet Ups!
Launched three efforts this year ( 1:1 coaching program, HerStory Circles, and women’s group coaching)
Created and hosted monthly efforts for Women Community Leaders with local Junior League
Coached 14 women for storytelling and/or finding joy
Chaired Women of Impact community college scholarship effort - we raised $28,000!
Negotiated a living wage to bring my emotional intelligence workshops to community college in spring 2025
Continued to identify growth areas and found support/education!
Didn’t quit (and learned from) being told I was a dime a dozen
Joined a keynote speaker mastermind group to continue to believe in myself
Became certified as an Essential Workplace Skills Facilitator and have base viable income for first half of 2025!!!
Coached 20 women in my first year in business
Crossed the $1M net worth mark
Published my first book in May and broke even with book sales by selling close to 300 books
Led two groups of amazing women through my Captivating Creation Book Study
Finished all my videos for my book study to be released in January 2025!
Growth within my marriage - counseling and hard work has made us stronger
Worked through the worst anxiety I’ve had yet, finally getting my hormones under control
Amazing connections through Founding Females® gained me two podcasts appearances, new friendships, and many gems of wisdom as I move forward to be the best version of myself! Thank you ladies!
Opening JReeb Consulting LLC
Reaching out for customer discovery calls
Raking risks
Plugging into Woodford Co CEO as a mentor
Empowering frontline leaders
Being patient and persistent
Walking through the doors God opens.
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Founding Females® Lessons Learned
This is a kushy way of saying, “We missed the mark!” Not everything goes as planned. I love this quote by Dwight D. Eisenhower:
“No battle was ever won according to plan, but no battle was ever won without one. Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
Lowlights, What Didn’t Work, and Areas for Improvement
Regardless of the reason, here’s where we missed the mark:
Two Meet Up chapters on pause - It’s a priority that our Meet Up chapters are as good of a fit for our leaders as they are for Founding Females® as a company, so when the benefit isn’t mutual, we have to pivot.
Goal to publish 100 blog posts - Content creation is taxing, y’all! We fell short of this goal by 53 posts. This probably comes more from setting unrealistic expectations than from lack of effort.
Women’s Conference on Pause - I made a deeply personal decision against hosting the Founding Females® | Central Illinois conference in 2025. “Not now” doesn’t mean “not ever.” Our priority to “build a business around your life and not a life around your business” will always take precedence.
Pinterest results were lukewarm - In 2025 I’m looking for a content queen who can run with this project because the effort takes more resources than I had to give this year.
Didn’t hit revenue goals - To be honest, I’ve never hit a revenue goal in my ten years in business. Call me a dreamer. I heard Josh Kaufman quote this about success, “To me, success is doing the things I want with the people I want in a financially sustainable way.” I think I’ll adopt that as my own definition of success, too.
Growing email list - I set a goal for our email list to cross the 1000 subscriber mark and that didn’t happen, but we’re close.
Dream, Build, Grow was pulled from Target - This was a bummer. Rejection always hurts.
That’s a Wrap!
That’s a wrap to this transformational year. I can feel the momentum revving for 2025 both in my own life and in our women’s business mastermind.
Want to join this group of truly inspirational women (many call them, “total baddies”)? We want you with us! Click to find out how to attend a Founding Females® monthly meet up or join the 24/7 women’s business mastermind.
Have a win you’d like to share? Click to email me so we can chat through what’s going on in your business.
Cheering for you, always!
Francie, Founder
Recent Blog Posts About Female Entrepreneurship
Past Founding Females® Heartbeat Newsletters
Founding Females® Heartbeat July 2024
Founding Females® Heartbeat August 2024
Founding Females® Heartbeat September 2024
Founding Females® Heartbeat October 2024
P.S. Here are some of my top favorite female small business resources:
Dream, Build, Grow Free Resource Suite - free business templates for your business plan, marketing plan, ideal client persona, financial statements, and more!
Founding Females Community - an online female mastermind space for entrepreneurs to connect, support, and get inspired
Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business available on Amazon- a guided handbook including everything you need to know from business idea to launch to profiting and scaling your business.
Free Downloads for Female Entrepreneurs
Free PDF Download: 25 Ways to Market Your Business (Aside from Social Media)
Free PDF Download: 33 keys to Business Success
Free PDF Download: SEO Tips for Entrepreneurs
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Hi, I’m Francie!
Nice to meet you. I’m the founder of Founding Females®. Some call me a business sage because I love to empower female entrepreneurs to breathe life into the business dreams God called them to.
After feeling like a misfit in the corporate world, I discovered a life I loved waking up to through business ownership.
I’m the author of Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business, a guided journal helping hundreds of women start and grow their businesses.
I’m also a passionate entrepreneurship hype girl, female leader, public speaker, and community enthusiast.
My MBA and 10 years in a corporate career and in business ownership positioned me as an entrepreneurship educator with forward-thinking strategies for starting and growing successful businesses.
As a community leader, I realized other women could thrive with the right guidance and support. I created the Founding Females® Mastermind Community that provides a safe space for women to build better businesses.
I believe that anyone with a dream on their heart can pull up a seat to change the world through entrepreneurship. Looking to grow your own business? Click for info about how to work with me.
About Founding Females®
The mission of Founding Females® is to help women build thriving businesses. We create safe spaces for women to share business challenges and receive peer support.
In addition, Founding Females® offers an online female business mastermind, a how-to guidebook for female entrepreneurs called Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business, and in-person events, like an annual women’s business conference and local Founding Females® Meet Ups.
Founding Females® was founded by small business educator, Francie Hinrichsen. She believes anyone with a dream on their heart can pull up a seat to change the world through entrepreneurship. Click to learn more about working with Francie.
Founding Females® 2024 in Review: 20 Wins, 40 Member Wins, and 8 Lessons Learned