Famous women entrepreneurs such as Madam C.J. Walker, Estée Lauder, Mary Kay Ash, Oprah Winfrey, Sara Blakely, Kendra Scott, Arianna Huffington, Melanie Perkins, Reese Witherspoon, Rihanna, and Whitney Wolfe Herd each have a documented record of how they got their product or story in front of customers, buyers, editors, or investors. Their methods changed with each era, from ads in Black newspapers and free samples at department store counters to a nationally syndicated talk show and a product demonstration in a buyer’s meeting. If building a name feels out of reach on a small budget, several of these stories began with small sums, such as Kendra Scott’s $500 and Sara Blakely’s $5,000. We walk through what the record shows about each one, with lessons you can use in your own small business.
Madam C.J. Walker: Black Newspapers and a Convention Floor
After moving to Denver in 1905, Walker launched the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company the following year with her Wonderful Hair Grower, according to NBC News. Her husband, a newspaper ad salesman, helped her place ads in Black newspapers, and she spent more than a year and a half on the road promoting herself. The Library of Congress notes that she targeted her audience through African American newspapers and magazines.
In 1912, she went to the National Negro Business League convention in Chicago. Booker T. Washington had rejected several requests for her to speak there, so on the final day she rose from the audience and spoke anyway: “I feel that I am in a business that is a credit to the womanhood of our race.” The following year, Washington welcomed her as an official speaker at the convention in Philadelphia.
Estée Lauder: Free Samples and Beauty Editors
Lauder began by selling skin care and makeup in beauty salons, where she demonstrated her products on women as they sat under hair dryers, according to The Estée Lauder Companies. She and her husband, Joseph, launched the company in 1946, and a year later they landed their first major order, $800 worth of products from Saks Fifth Avenue.
She used word-of-mouth publicity and lived by the motto “Telephone, Telegraph, Tell a Woman.” She gave customers a free sample when they bought a product, which helped make the gift with purchase a standard beauty industry practice, and she often gave customers samples at the counter herself. The company’s history also notes that she crossed the country to meet with store buyers and beauty editors.
Mary Kay Ash: Pink Cadillacs and a Stage for Her Sales Force
Ash quit a sales job in the early 1960s after a man was promoted to a position above her at double her salary, according to History.com. On September 13, 1963, she launched a cosmetics company in Dallas with her $5,000 life savings. Mary Kay’s company history explains that it chose pink for its packaging because most American bathrooms in the 1960s were white, so women could keep the products on their counters.
She began an annual event called Seminar to recognize the accomplishments of the women who sold her products, and at the 1969 Seminar the company awarded its first five pink Cadillacs, in a color General Motors later named Mary Kay Pink Pearl. History.com notes that the company became known for an award system designed for women, with mink coats, diamond rings, and pink Cadillacs, and that Ash told her saleswomen, “I want you to become the highest-paid women in America.” She became one of the most recognizable businesswomen in the country.
Oprah Winfrey: A Local Show That Went National
In January 1984, Winfrey was invited to Chicago to host AM Chicago, a struggling half-hour morning program on WLS-TV, according to her Academy of Achievement biography. The program was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show in September 1985, and the following year it was broadcast nationally and quickly became the top talk show in national syndication.
She formed Harpo Productions in 1986, and in 1988 Harpo acquired ownership and all production responsibilities for the show from Capital Cities/ABC, which made Winfrey the first woman in history to own and produce her own talk show.
Sara Blakely: Modeling the Product in the Pitch
In 1998, Blakely was selling fax machines when she cut the feet off a pair of control-top pantyhose and had the idea for Spanx, Fortune reports. She had $5,000 to invest, and a string of hosiery manufacturers rejected her.
When she called Neiman Marcus, the buying office in Dallas offered her 10 minutes in person if she would fly herself there. About five minutes into the meeting, she took the buyer to the restroom and modeled her white pants with and without Spanx, and the buyer agreed to put the product in seven stores. Spanx launched at Neiman Marcus in 2000, and that same year Oprah Winfrey added Spanx to her annual product roundup.
Kendra Scott: Door to Door with a New Baby
In 2002, Scott started a jewelry line with $500 in a spare bedroom in Austin, Texas, three months after having her first child, CNBC reports. With her baby in tow, she went door to door and pitched local boutiques to carry her product. She grew her customer base in her own city first, and then she landed major retailers such as Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s.
In 2016, the private equity firm Berkshire Partners acquired a minority stake in her company in a deal that valued the business at more than $1 billion, CNBC reports, citing The Wall Street Journal. Scott told CNBC that “good reviews and word of mouth can go a long way in getting your small business idea off the ground.”
Arianna Huffington: A News Site of Her Own
Huffington co-founded The Huffington Post with Kenneth Lerer in 2005, according to The New York Times, as published by CNBC, which in 2011 described her as an author and a cable talk show pundit. The site began as a liberal blog with a small staff and a $1 million investment, and readers could comment on articles and share them on Twitter and Facebook, which the Times named as a major reason it drew so many readers.
By early 2011 the site had about 25 million visitors a month, and AOL agreed to buy it for $315 million, with Huffington as editor in chief of a new Huffington Post Media Group.
Melanie Perkins: Getting in Front of Investors
Perkins was 19 and studying in Perth in 2006 when she noticed how hard other students found the design programs she taught them, CNBC reports. She and Cliff Obrecht tested the idea first with Fusion Books, an online school yearbook design business.
Her first big break with investors came at a conference in Perth in 2010, where Silicon Valley investor Bill Tai invited her to pitch in San Francisco and then introduced her to his contacts. Tai, an avid kitesurfer, wanted Perkins and Obrecht to network at MaiTai, his retreat for investors and kitesurfing enthusiasts, so she learned the sport. Perkins co-founded Canva in 2013.
Reese Witherspoon: A Listening Tour and a Book Club
By 2011, after two decades in the movie business, Witherspoon found the scripts reaching her desk “really demeaning,” Fortune reports. She began what she called a “listening tour” and visited the heads of all seven major studios to ask how many movies each was developing with a female lead. For the most part, the answer was none.
She co-founded Hello Sunshine in 2016 with Seth Rodsky of Strand Equity, with the main mission of putting women at the center of every story, and Fortune counts the influential Reese’s Book Club among its hits. The club’s site says she has recommended books through it since 2017, and that each month she chooses a book with a woman at the center of the story. In August 2021, she sold a majority stake in Hello Sunshine to a Blackstone-backed venture in a deal that valued the company at roughly $900 million.
Rihanna: A 40-Shade Foundation Launch
Rihanna was inspired to create Fenty Beauty after trying to find products that worked across all skin types and tones, according to the brand’s launch announcement. With Kendo Brands, a beauty developer owned by LVMH, she launched the brand in 1,600 stores across 17 countries in one day. The line included 40 shades of Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation, and it became available on September 8, 2017, at Sephora, Sephora.com, and FentyBeauty.com.
The brand also launched with an ad campaign featuring a diverse array of models, TIME reported when it named Fenty Beauty one of its 25 Best Inventions of 2017. Rihanna told TIME that “it was also important that every woman felt included in this brand,” and that some customers were “finding their shade of foundation for the first time, getting emotional at the counter.”
Whitney Wolfe Herd: A Brand Built on a Mission
Wolfe Herd, Bumble’s founder and CEO, built it as a women-first dating app, and on February 11, 2021, Bumble Inc. went public on the Nasdaq and raised $2.2 billion, Fortune reported. At 31, she became the youngest woman to take a company public, and she rang the opening bell from Bumble’s offices in Austin with her one-year-old son by her side.
That day she told Fortune she thought investors were excited about a dating company focused on building “a brand and a mission and a movement around the product.” Fortune also noted that only about 20 women had ever taken the companies they founded public.
Visibility Habits from Famous Women Entrepreneurs That You Can Use
Billion-dollar companies may seem far removed from a small business, yet the records of these successful female entrepreneurs show habits you can copy. Several of the great women entrepreneurs above faced structural barriers, from a convention program that left Walker off the stage to the small number of women who have taken their own companies public. Ash left a job after a man was promoted above her at double her salary, and Witherspoon found that studios were developing almost no movies with a female lead. Even so, a few patterns repeat, and you can put each one to work this quarter.
Show the result where people can see it. Lauder demonstrated her products on women in salons, and Blakely modeled Spanx in the buyer’s meeting. Rihanna put 40 foundation shades on the shelf at launch, so shoppers could see the range for themselves. If your work produces a visible change, a short live demonstration or a free sample lets a buyer see the outcome for herself.
Go where your buyers already pay attention. Walker advertised in the newspapers her customers read, and Lauder met the beauty editors who wrote for hers. Scott pitched boutiques in her own city before she landed national retailers. List the publications and podcasts your clients follow, then pitch with an angle their audience would value. The guide on how to get press coverage explains that method step by step.
Build a channel you control. Winfrey gained ownership of her show two years after it went national, and Huffington built a news site whose reader comments and sharing helped it draw a large audience. Witherspoon built a book club that names a new pick each month. A newsletter or a well-kept website gives you a place to publish on your own schedule.
Ask for the room. Walker spoke up when the program left her out, and Perkins learned to kitesurf to meet investors at Tai’s retreat. Find the events and associations where your buyers or backers gather, and ask organizers directly for a speaking slot or an introduction.
Give people a mission they can repeat. Wolfe Herd told Fortune that Bumble was built around a brand and a mission, and Walker told the 1912 convention that her business was a credit to the womanhood of her race. Put your purpose in one plain sentence and use the same words in your bio and your pitches, so other people can describe you accurately.
Reward the people who spread your name. Ash recognized her saleswomen at an annual Seminar and made pink Cadillacs part of the company’s awards, and Scott told CNBC that good reviews and word of mouth can go a long way for a small business. Thank the clients and partners who refer you, and give them a short, accurate description of your work that they can repeat.
Listen before you launch, as several of these successful women did. Witherspoon asked studio heads one question about female leads before she built Hello Sunshine, and Rihanna created Fenty Beauty after her own search for products that worked across skin tones. Both were already powerful women in entertainment, and each built her company around a gap she had seen firsthand. Ask the business leaders and buyers in your market what they cannot find today, and use their exact words when you describe your offer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Are Some Famous Women Entrepreneurs in History?
Well-documented examples include Madam C.J. Walker, who launched her hair care company in 1906, Estée Lauder, who launched her beauty company in 1946, and Mary Kay Ash, who launched her cosmetics company in 1963. More recent examples include Oprah Winfrey, Sara Blakely, Kendra Scott, Arianna Huffington, Melanie Perkins, Reese Witherspoon, Rihanna, and Whitney Wolfe Herd.
Who Is Credited as the First Black Self-Made Female Millionaire in the United States?
Madam C.J. Walker is credited with being the nation’s first Black self-made female millionaire, according to NBC News. She launched her company in 1906 with her first product, and by 1910 she had built a factory and a training school in Indianapolis.
How Can a Woman Entrepreneur Become More Visible?
Start with the people who already influence your buyers, such as editors, podcast hosts, event organizers, and store buyers, and give them a clear reason to feature you. Pick one channel for the next quarter and set aside time for it every week.
Do You Need a Large Budget to Build Visibility?
Fortune reports that Blakely started Spanx with $5,000. One in-person meeting put Spanx in seven Neiman Marcus stores, she asked friends near those stores to buy it, and Oprah Winfrey added it to her annual product roundup in 2000. If your budget is small, one well-chosen meeting and a few people willing to spread the word are a reasonable place to start.
What Do Famous Women in Business Have in Common?
Among the 11 women here, the sources show each one getting her product or story in front of customers, buyers, editors, or investors, from Walker’s newspaper ads to Blakely’s Neiman Marcus meeting. Several also built or owned a channel, such as Winfrey’s show or Huffington’s news site.
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