WomenVenture client, Emily Farrell is the owner of Abendroth Golf
The modern-day female values flexibility within their wardrobe. Women seek a lifestyle brand that seamlessly integrates into their existing wardrobe and day-to-day life. Emily Farrell, PGA Professional and teaching professional at White Bear Yacht Club, saw a void in the golf marketplace for women. “It is hard to find feminine, stylish, and comfortable golf clothes” she mentioned. Emily wanted to optimize this opportunity and rethink the women’s golf “uniform” by making apparel options more functional on and off the course while building a community around inclusion and empowerment for women in golf. Emily Farrell built Abendroth Golf with hopes to “break down some of the barriers to entry for women in golf.” she explained. “The feeling of intimidation occurs – am I wearing the right thing, do I have the right equipment, am I following basic etiquette guidelines correctly?” All these questions are questions that she’s familiar with through friends and students trying to get into the game.
Although her beautiful designs continue to help other women feel confident, Emily’s confidence was shaken. When she first started her business, she kept meticulous financial records on a multi-tabbed and hyperlinked excel spreadsheet. She updated her spreadsheet regularly and she always knew her bottom line. After she obtained a loan from WomenVenture, her production increased, and she decided to outsource her accounting to a local bookkeeper so that she could focus more on running her business.
She started to use QuickBooks and that was when the wheels fell off the wagon. The names of the accounts were not the names she had always used. QuickBooks had a life of its own, gobbling up and categorizing payments and expenses before she even saw them on her bank feed. The numbers made less and less sense every time she checked them. Emily knew her sales were strong as her business continued to grow, but her books were impossible to understand.
WomenVenture offers loan clients basic business consulting services. Emily remembered that, and she reached out for help. The Business Consulting Team spent three months working with her to customize Abendroth Golf’s chart of accounts and provide guidance on how to categorize her income and expenses correctly. Our goal was to help her take control of her books so that she would feel as confident in her numbers as we do in her products.
Once she had organized financial information, Emily was able to have more confidence in her numbers to make sound business decisions to help continue to scale her business. Through these insights, WomenVenture’s Business Consulting Team recommended she explore capital equity investments rather than taking on additional debt to grow her business.
Now Emily has the information that she needs to manage and grow her business. She can pitch to investors because she knows exactly what is going on with her business and she has the knowledge she needs to pivot and adapt.
Emily wrote on Abendroth Golf’s website “We want to empower women through the game of golf and build a community that encourages women to be their best self — in their careers, their lives as mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends.” We love that she wrote that because we know Empowered Women Empower Women.
About the author: Tammy Dahlvang provides support to WomenVenture clients in developing business plans, forecasts, and accounting systems and procedures.
