Discipline and fearless determination: key elements a woman needs to start a business

He learned early on that to get ahead in business in Spain he had to have fearless determination, a quality he has in large part thanks to his time in the Royal Air Force.

It was during his time in the British RAF that he learned not to accept excuses or lies, in addition to acquiring iron discipline.

“Being in the RAF was one of the happiest moments of my life and instilling discipline in me,” he tells Olive Press.

“As a result, I don’t advocate nonsense, but that also means that people know where I stand, which is very important in business.”

It was still not easy for her to set up her insurance business on the coast three decades ago, when women were not taken seriously in business.

“I was a widow, I survived on a meager widow’s pension, so the only way to start a business was to re-mortgage my house, borrow money and make it work,” she recalls from her home in Jávea, on the Costa Blanca. .

“I had trouble finding a bank that would support me and I remember the first time I submitted my business plan for a loan, the bank manager would not address me directly but kept looking at the friend I had brought with me.

“I had to point out that I was the one borrowing the money, that I was the owner of the business and when they didn’t take me seriously, I left and went somewhere else.”

She eventually found a sympathetic bank manager, a man who has supported her since her first company and who she has stayed with as he moved to different banks.

She then began working with a giant US company, Liberty Insurance, designing special packages for the expat market and has built a reputation as a highly successful expat businesswoman.

“At first they didn’t want to hire me and they were sure I would fail,” he reveals. “My selling style was completely new to them, the culture here in Spain was very different.”

“As an entrepreneur, I had to take risks and convince those who had the financial backing of large institutions behind them to take a chance on me, but I proved myself and in the end, those same people looked to me to lead the strategy and He even asked me to show them how to do it.”

Today Jennifer Cunningham Insurance has seven offices in Spain (including one in the Canary Islands) and thousands of expatriate clients.

While she is an incredible success story, not just for a woman, but as an expat as well, however, she is most proud of the fact that she leads a team of more than 20 women in her offices.

“It is not a policy to only employ women, it just turns out that they are the ones who have prospered,” she explains.

“Applications are open to everyone and we have hired men and I try to keep a balance in the teams, but it is the women who seem to have the most success in this business and who stay for years and years, while the men just doesn’t seem to keep up.

READ MORE: