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Two female founders on their rules for running a business

Founders Tarla Lambert-Patel and Kellie Hush share their rules for keeping a business running despite rising costs and excessive mental load.

By Stephanie Nuzzo. Pictured below: Kellie Hush and Tarla Lambert-Patel

  • With 76 per cent of women in business saying inflation and cost of living are negatively impacting their operations, Tarla Lambert-Patel and Kellie Hush share how to stay resilient when the pressure is on.
  • Both founders agree that protecting time for yourself is a non-negotiable that directly improves performance, not just personal wellbeing.
  • From hiring the right people to managing costs with discipline and staying flexible within your vision, Lambert-Patel and Hush share the rules that have kept their businesses growing through tough times.

The cost of doing business right now is high – but the story of how that cost impacts women in particular reads differently. A 2025 Women’s Agenda report, supported by CommBank, titled The Support Deficit: What Needs to Shift for Women Founders to Thrive¹, revealed 63 per cent of women are facing burnout or feel they are carrying an excessive mental load and 76 per cent feel inflation and cost of living are negatively impacting business.

Tarla Lambert-Patel and Kellie Hush both know what it means to build something real under pressure. Lambert-Patel co-founded Women’s Agenda, an independent media platform for women, in 2016 with no outside investment – just a clear vision and a solid partnership with co-founder Angela Priestley. Hush went from editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar to running two businesses simultaneously, as CEO of Australian Fashion Week and co-founder of The Volte, a peer-to-peer fashion rental platform.

Here, they share what it takes to build a resilient business.

A delicate juggling act

“Women who are running businesses are not only contending with a cost-of-living crisis, they’re also contending with carrying the load at home and the mental load of families and care responsibilities,” says Lambert-Patel. “I’m a single parent to two little kids and that means it’s often challenging to keep things going in the way I want.”

The mental load that comes from keeping all those balls in the air is heavy.

On an average day, Hush may be up from 5.00 am – squeezing in yoga before a call with the US then moving straight into a Fashion Week schedule review. And her ability to carry all that lies in her adaptability. “Some things will not go perfectly and you just have to be able to move on from it,” she says. “I like moving really quickly. Operating like this actually suits my personality.”

Both founders are firm on one non-negotiable: protecting time for themselves, even when the diary is full.

“I’ve kept a steady routine of doing at least 20 minutes of exercise every day,” says Lambert-Patel. “The productivity I’ve been able to demonstrate has been far more than what I’ve done in past years, just sitting there churning through work. It’s not your best work if you’re not taking that time for yourself.” 

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Staying clear on your vision

When business feels uncertain, it’s easy to lose sight of your vision. Both founders stress the importance of returning to your purpose when things get hard. “It’s always coming back to what our core mandate is,” says Hush.

For Lambert-Patel, that clarity is most vital when times of turbulence arrive. “There have been years where it’s been really hard; COVID being the prime example. When the pandemic hit, we really didn’t know what was going to happen,” she says. “The vision for what we were trying to build has always been the same. When we needed to strip things back, it’s never been from editorial. Instead, we’ll look at what we’re spending on programs and software.”

Staying the course isn’t always easy but for both founders, it’s been one of the things that’s kept them moving forward. “It takes guts,” says Hush. “But you don't really look back.” 

The founders' 3 rules for women in business

Tarla Lambert-Patel:

  1. Choose the right business partner: “The key to Women’s Agenda’s longevity is the strong foundation of the partnership that Angela and I have.”
  2. Hire the right people: “I respect the people on my team beyond measure. They’re so good at what they do.”
  3. Embrace steady growth: “Everything we’ve built has been organic. It’s been slow at times but it’s given us time to reflect and think about where we go next.”

Kellie Hush:

  1. Be loud: “As female founders, I think we have to get louder and talk more about our achievements and our capabilities.”
  2. Manage your costs well: “You have to know when to spend and when to pull back. Being able to build a resilient business is about managing costs.”
  3. Be flexible: “Your vision can be strong and you may know where it’s going but you have to be flexible within that, too.”

For more insights into starting, running and growing a business, visit the Brighter small business hub.

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Published: 1 June 2026

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Things you should know

¹Women’s Agenda, The support deficit: What needs to shift for women founders to thrive, September 2025

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