Katherine Hague – Educate Yourself on Whys and Hows to start-up an Investment

Katherine Hague was actually exposed to practical entrepreneurship from a very young age. And she was doing a marketing job in Toronto and that is when she got to experience the entrepreneurship. With the passage of time, she became a partner of Shopify before she co-founded her own platform of e-commerce. It really is inspiring to recognize that she got the relevant experience before she started her own platform. This e-commerce platform is named ShopLocket and at the beginning of 2014, the business was sold by her to PCH International, which is an international supply-chain and product-development organization. At just the age of 23, she had become a millionaire all by herself without taking the assistance of any other person. She showed that if someone wants, he or she can become an entrepreneur by herself and be independent. At present, she is 25 years old and also an angel investor. Besides being an angel investor, she has also founded Female Funders, which is a hub or network for female investors. When asked about her story, she exclaimed:

“Since I was 11 years old, I always wanted to become an entrepreneur. I can say that I always had this interest in business and that was one of the reasons why I was able to reach this position. I never let go of my interest and invested my efforts in it. Actually, I would like to say that for being a financially successful woman, you must ensure that you are investing your efforts in what you have an interest. For instance, if you have interest in commerce, invest your time in it and if you have an interest in business, you should invest in it. Mostly, women are confused about which passion and field to pursue. You should know that success comes not from a specific field but from your own belief in yourself that you can do something even if you choose this field. I got many inspirations from Oprah Winfrey and Richard Branson. I started my entrepreneurship with a marketing job in Toronto. My first job came from a paper route, and I performed the job for about six years. One thing I love from myself is that, I am a good money saver. I would save every single dollar that I got to start my own business. I can easily remember the times when my colleagues would say to join them to have dinner in a restaurant but I would politely refuse them because I always had this close-fisted attitude. I knew how it felt to invest your time and efforts into something to earn the money and that was the main reason why I saved as much money as possible. I didn’t waste my money on purchasing the things and utensils which I didn’t need. Instead of it, I would save all the money and I continued saving it until I had enough to invest it in my business.

Most of the women around the world don’t seem to save their money and I will tell that I didn’t waste even a single penny. Sure, I had my closed ones to take care of but still, I invested my money in them which I could afford. For instance, I had a limit beyond which it was impossible for me to give away. I would save all the money that was left and it has made me a financially strong and independent woman today. Saving money could be the most fundamental step to becoming a successful and independent woman.

After I have launched my own business which was ShopLocket, I also became a small ‘angel investor’ in my friend’s company as well. Yes, instead of launching another company, I have decided to invest my money as an ‘angel investor.’ When I found out that many women do not know how benefit in being an ‘angel investor’ is, I launched FemaleFunders, which is an online community with its purpose to educate women on whys and hows to start-up investment. Most of the women don’t know the benefits of investment and they often hesitate to invest their money. You don’t have to worry so much that you will not get your money back because investing it is an opportunity that not many women get. I understand that it is difficult to just invest your hard-earned and saved money but once that investment is successful, it will multiply your primary investments. FemaleFunders is a platform where you can learn how to invest your money in such a way that you can get the most out of it. While investing your money, there is only one thing that you should keep in mind and that is to never invest your money in a source without gaining proper knowledge about it. There are cases when investments are wasted and in most of them, it is common that investors had a lack of knowledge about the source in which they were investing. You should gain information and experience in your chosen source and invest in it when you are ready.

My goal is to encourage women to become angel investors. Even though entrepreneurship is quite essential to support the economy, but I also think that, for some people, it is also essential to have freedom of entrepreneurship.

I got my very first-cheque from a paper route and I did that job for straight six years. During that time, I did a lot of growing up and that time was quite vital for me because I didn’t have experience in the industry which I gained from it. I think that the first job experience critical for a person whether it be a woman or a man. Through it, you are able to learn what market is really about. At first, it is true that you make mistakes and sometimes you are even scolded at but as time passes, you get to feel the change. When some years have passed and you look back to when you first came, you would see how clumsy you first were and now, you have gained mastery over the work. Among all the benefits of doing a job, a significant benefit that you gain is knowledge. As you continue, you get to know the things which you didn’t even know existed. For instance, when I did my first job, I didn’t even know how the market worked in practical life but as I worked, I gained information about it. Moreover, I got to understand how international markets functioned and which strategies could be useful. As I continued study, I never let go of my job. For example, I always used to do a summer job throughout high school.

I always knew that if I have time then nothing would be better than investing it in the right cause. Being an entrepreneur was my dream and in order to achieve it, I knew that I had to work a lot. Teenage can actually be considered the most beneficial and golden time of your life and when you work hard during this period, it will always benefit you later in your life. I used to work as a bank teller and it also served to give me experience about concepts and things which I didn’t know. As I worked, I would always think about ideas which I could pursue and in the way, I encountered many ideas. An important practice that all women should adopt is to store all of their ideas. For an entrepreneur, his ideas are his weapons and if you are thinking about something, you should write it down and store it somewhere. You should think about these ideas and detail their strengths and weaknesses. I used to do the same and it wasn’t until I got the idea of ShopLocket that I knew it was worth pursuing.

My very first investment was in my own organization and up until my own idea, I don’t think that I made large investments. As I said before, as a woman you have to be careful with your investments because you don’t want to waste your money. Moving on, I invested a small amount of money in the idea of a friend and I still have shares in that platform. It served to be the right decision and I am glad that I invested in that idea.

            If I talk about my investment mix then approximately three percent is in angel investments. However, my objective is to make this figure reach ten percent in the coming three years. The remaining portion of my portfolio is in non-registered, TFSA, and RRSP accounts. On these accounts, I have a balanced mandate which is approximately sixty-five percent equity, thirty percent income, and five percent cash. Lastly, thirty-two percent of equity exposure exists in the United States stocks.

In the end, I would say that starting your business and going out of the norms is one of the most competent and great ways of building wealth and being financially independent. As I have stated before, most of the females hesitate when it comes to investing their money in an idea. They believe that it might not give anything back to them but I would like to clarify that investing your money is one of the best ways available in the market for multiplying your money. Majority of women around the world are stuck being employees and they want to save their money but they are unable to do so because they don’t have an idea on how to manage their finance. You have to make sure that you have knowledge and experience in the field that you are investing and start out with a small amount of money. Sometimes, investing a large amount can be a mistake. Thus, you should not back away from investing but you should avoid investing in an idea about which you are unsure.

A woman should not back away from risk but should take a sensible approach towards it.