Serial entrepreneur Fleur Madden draws on her expertise in business to offer a practical blueprint for women-led businesses looking to grow. As highlighted in Women’s Agenda’s 2025 national insights report, founders still face hurdles like burnout, limited support, and funding barriers. Madden’s strategies are designed to help women overcome these challenges and unlock scalable success.
Having a tailored business framework can help businesses set up a strong foundation for success and resilience. Women-led businesses are showing promising growth across the nation, and by putting strategy on paper it could help these businesses unlock barriers and achieve goals to scale.
This growth, particularly in small-to-medium sized business, is prominent, with 85 per cent of women business leaders in Australia saying they plan to hire in the next year and 80 per cent already investing in scaling, according to data from Women’s Agenda’s latest insights report, published in partnership with CommBank.
While these insights are promising, the data also shows that only seven per cent of these women indicate that their business is thriving.
It’s a noticeable gap that highlights not only the ambition these women-led businesses hold, but also the many pressures they face, including burnout, a lack of support structures and access to funding.
Intentional strategy
To overcome these ever-changing challenges, entrepreneur and CEO of the Ginsburg Firm Fleur Madden has laid out a blueprint for success, saying the key lies in women being “strategic and intentional” with their business development.
“Many business owners reach a point where the organic traffic slows and their existing network has gotten them so far,” Madden says. “If they want to scale their business, business development needs to be strategic and intentional.”
Madden says this involves doing many things, including building and maintaining meaningful connections.
“Successful business development is about meaningful connections, knocking on new doors, reminding people you exist, telling stories that engage, building your community around your business, adding value and doing it consistently,” she says.
“It isn’t one thing, it is everything over the course of every year.”
And while “everything” might feel overwhelming at first, Madden says that’s where intentionality comes into play, as it’s important to remain focused on clear targets.
“Take the time to do an annual business strategy, so you know what success looks like for you this year and let the team know your targets so you are all working together for the win,” Madden says.
“Push yourself to think bigger and play a bigger game. It’s time to step into who you came here to be in this business.”
Madden’s tips for an annual business strategy to help formalise business growth trajectory:
- Be consistent over time – steady effort wins the race
- Have discipline in the off-season – progress happens when no one is watching
- Think long-term – invest in your goals for future success
- Make the last quarter of the year count – plan early instead of waiting to take action in the new year
- Learn to lead with dollars – put financial targets into your strategy
Scaling a business
One of the most overlooked factors when it comes to scaling a business, Madden says, is setting financial targets.
“When we talk about growth, let’s put a figure beside that and a pathway of how we achieve it,” she says, adding that when women know what targets they’re working towards, the pathway to success becomes clear.
“Staying accountable to ourselves is the key,” Madden says.
Another key area of focus is creating a magnetic business brand, and with this, Madden says that this involves business owners going beyond simply “being bold”.
“Bold brands aren’t enough in 2025. People want to work with the best in class, and we need to demonstrate that we are the best in class.”
To go about this with intention, Madden suggests women ask themselves the following: How am I showing up? How am I making my customers feel? What are my brand values and am I living and breathing them? What is my mission? What is my legacy?
“Everyone wants to know who is behind a business, and we have seen the rise of the social entrepreneur the last five years, where your personal business brand has never been more important,” Madden says.
“Your brand should be constantly evolving.”
Madden’s magnetic business brand checklist:
- Be clear on your brand values: This is why someone will choose working with your business over another business.
- Be clear on who you are: Understand who your service supports, what makes your business unique, what your mission is and how you want to make people feel when they engage with your business.
- Select 3–5 values that feel true: Make sure your entire team knows these values and connects with them too.
Resilience
One of “the greatest predictors of success in business”, Madden says, is an entrepreneur’s “level of resilience”, as well as showing up with intention as a leader.
Through her coaching, Madden talks a lot about creating a blueprint for what an entrepreneur’s ‘best day in business’ might look like. Then, she helps women to start living in that space.
“Make decisions that keep you in that energy and channel high performance,” says Madden.
“I liken a high-performing business owner to an elite athlete. Athletes don’t wake up on a Monday and get to the track late, underprepared and in a negative mindset, they are the first ones there, they have the best coach to push them, they are prepared coming into the week with their nutrition, and they surround themselves with people who want them to win.
“As business owners we should have a similar level of intention,” she says, emphasising that “working on mindset is a lifelong journey.”
Explore Madden’s tips to start working on your business growth playbook.
Madden’s ‘best day in business’ protocol involves asking yourself the following questions to get clear on what your idea of everyday success looks like:
- How did my day start?
- Who did I work with today?
- What type of work did I do today?
- What did I achieve today?
- How did I feel when the day ended?
Thanks to our partner CommBank. CommBank supports women in business and the community across all industries and sectors through its Women in Focus team. For more information head to WomeninFocus.com.au
This article represents opinions and views of the interviewees’ personal experiences only. It does not have regard to the situation or needs of any reader and must not be relied upon as advice. It is not intended to imply any recommendation or opinion about a financial product or service. Before acting on this information, consider its appropriateness to your circumstances.