While females make up half of our workforce, under 20 per cent of CEOs are women and upwards of 20 per cent of boards and governing bodies in Australia still have no female directors.

The most recent research available (from 2022) also shows that only 3 per cent of venture capital funding went to all-female-founded startups.

It’s with these ongoing inequities on their minds that sisters Briana Cicchelli and Annika Launay launched their website, Franc.World in 2020, introducing the world of careers to tweens, and it’s why they’re releasing their new book ENTREPRENEUR [for teens].

“Essentially Annika and I have worked together for 14-15 years now in a marketing and PR firm, and various other businesses, and we really wanted to set up a legacy – something giving back to helping future generations,” Cicchelli explains to EducationHQ.

“We have five children between us, three of whom are girls, and so the female career path and showcasing all careers was particularly important to us.

“That’s how Franc.World really came about, taking our personal experience, as well as the statistics of how many CEOs are women, and the investments into businesses founded by women and obviously, there are large disparities in male and female gender equality.”

After undertaking research, the pair decided on late primary school as the target age for Franc.World, whereas ENTREPRENEUR is aimed at girls from 10 years of age up to and beyond 16 years.

It’s essentially ‘for any girl who has ever wanted to be her own boss, build a bold side hustle and create her own future’.

“We decided on the book for a couple of reasons,” Cicchelli says.

“Firstly, it’s something that we absolutely identify with – we are entrepreneurs at heart, and so we feel we are experts in the space.

“But also, importantly, anyone can be an entrepreneur, and many of the mindsets and the skills it takes to be an entrepreneur can be adapted and utilised in many, many careers in future.

"So whether you're someone who wants to start a side hustle in high school and it’s washing cars, mowing lawns, walking dogs, a means to make money, you need those entrepreneurship skills.

“There’s so many ways entrepreneurship skills can be adapted to suit your life and lifestyle, really, from any age, and that’s why we wanted to start with this one,” Cicchelli says.

The book regularly references resilience and a positive mindset, along with the importance of altruism, a career priority regularly cited as being a telling motivation for young women when considering their future working lives. PHOTO: Anna Stills

The book is presented as an easy-to-read, informative guide, and takes the reader through every stage of creating and starting a business, from honing the initial idea, to resilience, mindset and giving back.

School-age readers learn how to come up with a winning business idea, how to write a business plan, create a brand, build a marketing strategy and more.

“The way we’ve written it is you’ve got a lot of bite-sized chunks that can be absorbed in different learning styles and for different age groups,” Cicchelli explains.

“So at 12-plus, you can take a top line view on how to be an entrepreneur, there are some tick boxes, there’s checklists, but then going right through to that upper age bracket where we go into some more deep dives around brand and market positioning and things like that. So there’s quite a bit in it for a variety of age groups.”

The book references resilience often, and a positive mindset, along with the importance of altruism and giving back, a career priority regularly cited by academics as a common motivator for young women when considering their future working lives.

“We talk about resilience and mindset a lot, because obviously, they’re soft skills that, again, are transferable, but are also really, really necessary,” Cicchelli says.

“So for whatever age you are, even while you’re still just studying at school, resilience is incredibly important.”

The book features interviews with 10 of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs – including Shark Tank alum and Contour Cube Founder Sarah Forrai, The Block All Star sisters Alisa and Lysandra and TikTok sensation Jasmin Brisbane, each covering a different topic, with many of them touching on the resilience theme.

While there are obviously numerous areas in this space, Cicchelli says ‘impact entrepreneurship’ is a big one.

“We talked to a really fantastic woman who has a jewellery business called Francesca, out of Hobart, and that business has several ways of giving back, whether it’s you buy a bangle and a percentage goes towards a charity, or others where the entire proceeds go to things such as the bushfire appeal and things like that,” Cicchelli says.

“Because, as she talks about, not only does it give you a sense of fulfillment, but if you’re working with others, being able to share that story, it really galvanises others to come on the journey with you, whether they’re working with you or buying from you.”

Launay says the book fills a gap in education and offers valuable insider tips for a range of school ages.

“Even if you aren’t sure what job you want in future – but know that getting a standard role is not for you – chances are you might just want to be an entrepreneur,” she says.

“ENTREPRENEUR is the first book in our series of eight titles, with STEM and FASHION to follow in 2025.”

For more on ENTREPRENEUR [for teens] click here, and for more on Franc.World, click here.