Female Founders: Catherine Leach of Leach Legal On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Start as you mean to go on. Set up your business like it is a big business and run it like that. My goal was to create a nice place to work, a place where I could regularly see my children, where everyone got along. I hired people because I knew them, or I liked them, and I didn’t always have the best person for the job. I didn’t have proper processes and procedures. I had no budgets and cashflows and every year I had no idea how much tax I had to pay and made no provision for it. If I started a new business I would set it up in a very structured way and I would be much more conscious of the big picture.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Catherine Leach.
Catherine is the founder and Managing Director of Leach Legal, one of the largest female-owned Family Law firms in Australia. She works with divorcing business owners so they can retain their businesses. She is a Regional Director of the global Entrepreneur’s Organization and mentors and coaches business owners to provide clarity to enable them to be authentic leaders.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Law was an “accidental” choice, as I did not really believe I was smart enough to go to law school. Through a series of unexpected events, I found an alternative way to become a lawyer that involved working full time and studying part time and less than a month after I decided to do law I had moved to another city, was working in a law firm and had commenced my studies. My business was also somewhat “accidental”. I was in partnership with another lawyer and that went sour, so I took the leap and struck out on my own. Again, a month after I decided to do this I was in new offices, with a team of four and running a business on my own.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
I hired a lawyer from overseas through a recruiter and I had not met her before she started. On her first day I took her to Court with me. As we went through security I was waiting to get my bags when I saw her bag go through the scanning machine. There was a handgun in her bag, and I started to panic that I had hired a psychopath or worse! The security guard turned to me and smiled and told me that the software embedded images randomly to test them. I was so relieved.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My funniest mistake was probably leasing premises that I thought had some strange security features, including a large light out the front which faced onto the street. The premises were on the edge of the entertainment district, close to the CBD. I later found out that the premises had been used as a brothel and that the light out the front was the infamous “red light.”
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have been incredibly fortunate that my best friend joined my previous business and when I started this firm she jumped on board. We have worked together for 20 years, eighteen of them in this business and it is such a delight to spend each day with your best friend. She has always contributed to the running and growth of the business and sits on my management team. I can completely trust her, and I am incredibly lucky in that she is around if I am not available and I trust she will make the right decision. She will sometimes disagree with me, when perhaps others are not as confident to speak out and I have found this has created an overall culture of transparency. She calls me out when I know I should do something, and I just really don’t want to. And she is an amazing support and sounding board for all my new ideas and projects.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
Most women are not risk takers. Starting a business can be a big risk and it takes courage to take the leap. Many women value security and starting a business is the opposite of this. Many women also want to make sure everything is in place, that they have all the skills they need and that they are prepared. We know that men are often underqualified for jobs, and they take the punt that they will learn how to do things, whereas women will often not put themselves forward unless they feel they can do everything.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
One of the best things is to connect women with other women and other business owners and put them in a program where they are taught the fundamentals and they have the support of peers and mentors. Groups like Entrepreneurs’ Organization run an Accelerator Program which is outstanding for women to get that knowledge and support and confidence. It also exposes them to other successful women, and they can see examples of what is possible.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder, but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Women led businesses add diversity to the world and to the economy. They hire and train in a more diverse way. They are an example of what is possible to their children and to other women. They “normalize” women in the economy, so we no longer (in 2022!) have to exclaim they are “the first women to….”. Studies show that companies with women on boards are financially more successful. Fifty percent of our population should be heading up and founding 50% of our businesses. Intellectually women have identical capacities to men and there is no physical reason women can’t start and run businesses if they are given the right opportunities.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
That business owners make a lot of money and having your own business is much easier than being employed. Only 25% of businesses make it to the 15th year. Only 2% of women owned businesses have revenue over $1 million so most women decide not to grow their business or unable to grow it. The reality for most business owners who survive in the long run is that they work extremely hard, they make sacrifices, and they are only successful if they are continually learning and growing and evolving.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
There is much debate about whether a founder can go on to be a successful CEO of a large business as they are two different skill sets. Some founders are terrible CEO’s and their business stalls or goes backwards until they bring in a suitable CEO — but some founders are amazing CEO’s as they know the business inside out and they are incredibly passionate about the business. A business founder eats last. Although they should always be paid first (commensurate with the size of the business), when things go wrong you need to be able to make financial sacrifices. You need to be able to make tough decisions. You need not worry about being liked. And you need a large appetite for risk as you will be continually standing on the edge of the cliff and jumping. And a founder will love that. And an employee will run a mile from it.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Start as you mean to go on. Set up your business like it is a big business and run it like that. My goal was to create a nice place to work, a place where I could regularly see my children, where everyone got along. I hired people because I knew them, or I liked them, and I didn’t always have the best person for the job. I didn’t have proper processes and procedures. I had no budgets and cashflows and every year I had no idea how much tax I had to pay and made no provision for it. If I started a new business I would set it up in a very structured way and I would be much more conscious of the big picture.
- Have a long term plan. Work out where you want to be in one year, three years, five years, and work towards that. My business grew organically because I hired people as they were presented to me. I later considered specifically who I would like to hire and pursued them, rather than just waiting to see what happened. I had no idea how my business compared each year until I entered a business competition and compared 10 years of financials. I would be more deliberate about things, rather than opportunistic.
- Understand the long term implications of your financial planning. When my business was small my accountant was fixated (as was I) on paying as little tax as possible. What I have learned is that you have to pay tax. The actions you take can impact outcomes later down the track and often it is a just a delay of tax. Also, understanding what that looks like when you sell your business.
- Surround yourself with smart people. I joined Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) in 2013 and I have spent a lot of time with business owners. I have a Mastermind group that I meet monthly with, and I have regularly used them as a sounding board for decisions and problems. I regularly speak with people in different businesses, and I speak to them about their industries and look at how these things could apply to my business. I also mentor younger business owners and have found that I have also learned as much from them as they learned from me.
- Learn about business. When I started my business I had worked in law for 15 years. In the early years of the business I obtained a Masters degree in Family Law, but I had no training about running a business. When I started in EO I did not fully understand my numbers and I watched with awe as my group reeled off revenue, EBIT, and gross profit numbers (while I had to keep googling EBIT to even know what that meant). I made it my mission to learn about business, management, and leadership, learn about myself and become a better business owner and I feel this has exponentially paid off in the last 8 years.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I have seen some of my employees go on to start their own businesses and be very successful. I am so proud that they are now employing others and contributing to the economy in this way. I am an example of what is possible, and I want women to dream bigger and to know that they can achieve more and that they have control of their destiny if they channel themselves in the right way.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would like to see the feminization of business — where the world is full of authentic leaders who lead in a way that is not masculine or traditional but authentic. This is the key to a more sustainable future. One of the steps to achieve this is by attaining gender parity in legal (and in fact all) partnerships. The trickle-down effect of more women in business will actually be a tsunami — and impact the world in an incredibly positive way.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Ayesha Vardag, the founder of blue chip Family Law firm Vardags in London. I love her vision and she has created an amazing business that is very inspiring. I am very keen to meet with her and listen to her story.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Catherine Leach of Leach Legal On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.