For nearly nine years, I’ve been growing a national network of women across the UK made up of local community groups. The mission is simple: helping women belong where they are. The execution is complex.

We host a range of different events to help women connect with each other, as well as managing several social media channels to facilitate that connection online. We’re building a content bank of advice to help guide women through their lives and a business directory to help them find the products and services they need.

We also have an app called the Friends Pass where we highlight exclusive deals across the country to help them save money and find places to go. Our latest product, a Wedding Directory, has been created in response to the 130% increase in people coming to us for wedding recommendations.

A jobs board is in development, due to our latest discovery that 2,124 women have found jobs through our events, social media channels and us recommending certain City Girls for job openings.

At the time of writing this, we support 153,712 women across 19 communities in the UK. Our impact is multi-dimensional. They’re finding friends, jobs, travel deals, properties to buy, business connections, fitness communities, insurance brokers and local support services when they’re at a vulnerable point in their lives. That’s really just scratching the surface, but I think you get the idea.

When it comes to building a community, I’m an expert.

When it comes to building a community business, I’m a disruptor.

Monetising the City Girl Network has been my greatest challenge. I have built this community on the principle of being inclusive: free at the point of entry, affordable events, free recommendations, and affordable products. Withholding access to knowledge, opportunities and experiences has resulted in iron-clad barriers for women: that cycle ends with us.

Rejecting the easiest and traditional model of charging for membership threw me into an advanced business course before I’d even learned the basics. Like most women who were educated in the state school system, I was actively discouraged from building a business – more on that another time.

I’ve spent years reading books, theories and studies about business; attending free courses and workshops; and having countless coffees with mentors. I became such an encyclopaedia of knowledge that I started to lecture in business and consult on other successful businesses. I just struggled to financially sustain mine.

Until this year. The year I was listed as a “Top 100 UK Female Entrepreneur for 2024”; an accolade that, on reflection, was a premonition rather than an accurate placement.

This year, I had to rip out the rule book in a last-ditch effort to save the City Girl Network. Our audience may have been growing, but our bank balance wasn’t. I had to radically lean into the reality that I was the only person who could save it. So, I applied my “A, B, C” formula of building a community to building a business: Accountability, Boundaries, Communication.

Accountability in community-building terms is staying true to your mission. Every event, product and relationship opportunity that comes our way, has to pass our mission test first: does it help women to belong where they are? If yes, pass 'Go'.

Boundaries are ensuring that the audience knows what you’re here for and what you’re not – we can guide you in the right direction, but we can’t solve your problems for you. Communication is the core ingredient for facilitating connections, building trust and growing relationships.

My approach to accountability in monetising a community began by looking at the principles of our mission – making knowledge, opportunities and experiences accessible – and the boundaries for that. Our audience should be able to access where to find the best products and services for free. But those businesses should pay to access them. Finding ways to save money through our deals and discounts app adds value to their lives and therefore matches our mission, but it’s a premium service that our audience should be paid for.

Communication snuck in a few more ‘Cs’ when it came to business – confidence and conviction. The City Girl Network is now an advertising business, powering a thriving multi-channel community.

When businesses advertise with us, they’re advertising to a highly targeted, engaged audience who trust our brand. When our audience sees those advertisers, they know that they’re a business that’s investing in their community and are more likely to buy from them. The success of this has resulted in hiring a full-time Head of UK Communities to support and develop our audience experience.

This is how we now monetise our community. But please don’t make the same mistake as I have and see this as a blueprint. There is no blueprint when it comes to people. All you can do is listen, innovate and apply your ABC(CC)s.