Entrepreneur Jo Burston has a simple but powerful motto to share: If she can, I can.
The successful Sydney businesswoman who has launched eight companies wants to inspire more women, and young girls, to take the leap and become entrepreneurs.
To help them get there she has written a book about Australia's top 50 women entrepreneurs, featuring interviews about how they got started, their ups and downs, and lessons learned along the way.
Titled Rare Birds Australia's 50 Influential Women Entrepreneurs, Ms Burston hopes the book will plant a seed in people's minds that becoming an entrepreneur is a legitimate career choice.
Among the top 50 are ModelCo beauty founder Shelley Barrett, kikki.K stationary retail guru Kristina Karlsson and acclaimed chef Christine Manfield.
Ms Burston's story is also included, explaining her journey from growing up in Sydney's south west to setting up tech companies and Jobs Capital, a multi-million dollar enterprise.
As a group, the Rare Birds have employed more than 11,000 people, supported 1,192 charities or social enterprises, raised tens of millions of dollars, imported, exported and bought other businesses.
Ms Burston says the women are role models and the perfect example of the Rare Birds mantra: "if she can, I can".
One of her greatest desires is to be able to ask a little girl what she wants to do when she's older "and you aren't surprised when she says, "I want to own and run my own company".
"That's how we came up with the term, if she can, I can.
"It's easy to remember, it's easy to say, it's not gender specific. What it means to me is breaking down the barriers to entry.
"So if I tell my story, the girl from Revesby that made good, through purpose, through entrepreneurialism and choosing that as a career, then someone else can do that."
The coffee table-style book emerged from a business Ms Burston set up in 2014, Rare Birds, which aims to inspire one million female entrepreneurs around the globe by 2020.
Her inspiration came after she interviewed pupils at her former primary and high schools.
When asked to name an Australian entrepreneur, none of the girls, aged between eight and 17, could.
"I woke up the next day and went, `I actually need to change this, I'm going to do something about this'," Ms Burston said.
"We need to celebrate, illuminate, tell stories and educate at the same time."
Next up for Rare Birds is the launch in March of a mentoring program for women entrepreneurs, followed by another focusing on how to raise capital.
A book on Australian women entrepreneurs under 30 is also planned for later in the year.
Share
