What to Get the Woman Who Just Started a Business: 15 Gifts She Will Actually Use

Our big moments in life get gift registries: bridal showers, weddings, housewarmings. But what about another huge moment in a woman’s life…when she starts a business? 

One thing about me is I have ZERO problems asking for what I want. I had so much fun putting together our wedding registry. Every year by October, those close to me absolutely know what I want for Christmas (ranked in order!).

But that’s not everyone. And your female founder friend may not be as vocal about what would support her new entrepreneurial path. Starting a business is one of those meaningful moments that often go overlooked and uncelebrated. Sure, our friends congratulate us (and hopefully buy from us!), but how often do we get gifts for new entrepreneurs to commemorate their first year of business? Not that often, I’ll bet.

Starting a business is a huge leap of faith and self-trust. Having a friend who shows up and notices ‘Hey, you have the courage to put yourself out there and build something you believe in and I see that’ means the world to a woman taking a chance on herself.

If you’re looking for new business owner gift ideas, here are 15 useful gifts for a woman starting a business. Brands with a 🩷 emoji indicate that it’s a female founded brand, and those with a 🍁 highlight a Canadian brand.

What do you buy a woman who just started a business?

The best gifts for a woman starting a business fall into three categories: things that help her look the part, things that help her survive the part, and things that help her believe the part. The first year is less about equipment and more about identity, so the gifts that land are the ones that treat her business as real before the revenue does.

Gifts that help her look the part

Becoming an entrepreneur also means stepping into a brand new identity. And I’d be lying if I said that looking my best doesn’t help me feel my best. I notice how I show up on a day I work in pyjamas and a ponytail versus the days I put on actual pants (with a real waistband) and do my hair.

These gifts will help her show up the way she wants to be seen in her home office, at in-person events, and on social media. (Because as a business owner, by necessity we usually end up becoming content creators too!)

1. Armoire Subscription 🩷 - There are so many female founder events to attend, and they’re all getting documented on social media. So it’s nice to have new clothes for different occasions, but of course that can get pricey. Enter Armoire, a clothing rental subscription, making it affordable to play with style and experiment!

   
   Photo Credit: Armoire

2. Content Shoot - Whether she’s running a product-based or a service-based business, she’s going to need original photography and videography for her digital footprint. The feed needs to stay fresh and her website needs great graphics! Having a day for a content shoot somewhere like Mint Room Studios allows her to get a variety of shots in different settings so that she can batch her content in one fell swoop.

   
   Photo Credit: Mint Room Studios

3. Neewer Vlogging Kit - Ask many of us founders, we never set out to be content creators, alas it’s a necessity! Having a proper selfie stick, ring light, tripod, and of course, the popular tiny microphone, encourages me to whip out my camera more often and to share stories and behind-the-scenes with my community. Having the right gear definitely helps.

   
   Photo Credit: Neewer
   

4. On-Camera Office Styling - Most of our meetings are still happening in our home offices. So help hers look great. Personally, I don’t like Zoom virtual backgrounds; they feel like the other person is trying to hide something and it prevents a certain level of connection because the background is, well, inauthentic! That could be an in-person session with a stylist, or a training like Jayn Simpson’s Styled to Rise design course. I love how she phrases it: “It’s time to create spaces that reflect who you’ve become.”

   
   Photo Credit: Style to Rise

5. Poppies & Peonies Poppy Tote 🩷🍁- As founders, we work anywhere, and this tote from Poppy & Peonies is great for carrying around a laptop, selfie stick, notebook, hydration and more. The gold buckle detail and handle shape make it different from the standard work tote, plus the colour selection goes beyond black!

   
   Photo Credit: Poppies & Peonies

Gifts that help her survive the part

It’s ‘easy’ to get started, it’s tough to keep going. Running a business is a constant series of ups and downs and this set of gifts will help her move through the journey with resilience, support, and hopefully a bit more ease.

6. Ace Smart Accessories NFC Keychain 🩷🍁 - At networking events, it is the most awkward thing to flip between apps for QR codes to connect with others on social media. And business cards aren’t something I’ve had since 2017. My NFC keychain from Ace Smart Accessories is my go-to accessory for IRL meetups. It’s programmable and I can easily change the website that it directs to based on the room that I’m in, whether I want it to point to a free 7-day preview of the Female Founders Journal or to my Top 100 Resource List for Female Founders. 

   
   Photo Credit: Ace Smart Accessories

7. Claude Subscription - Of all the essential AI tools I use to run my business, Claude is my number one. Where it used to take days and an assistant to create a sales page in Shopify, Claude can do it in under 10 minutes. Especially as a bootstrapped founder, we love a cost-saving tool that helps us be efficient. Using the connectors and creating agents has freed up my capacity to be more creative in my business. No exaggeration this will be a gamechanger for her business.

   

8. Female Founder Community Membership 🩷 - Entrepreneurship can be lonely, and for a long time I assumed that was just part of the deal. It isn’t. There is no shortage of female founder communities to connect with other women entrepreneurs who just ‘get it’. I often say that my best decision in 2024 was joining the Entreprenista League (⬅️ disclosure: this is my affiliate link!), a community of over 4,000 women business owners, and through that origin community, I met women who introduced me to all the other women entrepreneurship groups that I’m a part of, at least 10 currently!

   
   Photo Credit: Entreprenista League

9. Mentorship - Trying to figure it out on your own is absolutely exhausting. Plus, you don’t know what you don’t know. One of the most valuable investments in my over 10 years of entrepreneurship has been investing in mentorship and coaching. Whether it’s through an organization like The Forum or the Tory Burch Foundation, having a mentor saves time, energy and mistakes.

   
   Photo Credit: Tony Burch Foundation

10. Rhythm Fun Walking Pad - It’s common knowledge now that we’re all sitting too much so help her get her steps in! Inspired by a friend who does this, I stack the habit of using my walking pad while on calls. I’m already in this meeting for 30 or 60 minutes, why not get some low-impact cardio in while I’m at it? Bonus points: if your friend lives somewhere cold, it could work for indoor wintertime jogging.

    
    Photo Credit: Rhythm Fun

Gifts that help her believe the part

A framework I come back to is ‘Be. Do. Have.’ We must first BE the person who has the success (identity alignment), then DO the aligned actions in order to HAVE the results. A lot of people have it backwards: have, do, be. 

Self-belief fuels our actions. If we don’t believe that a result is truly possible, we’re not going to take the actions to achieve it. Or even if we do, we may self-sabotage along the way. These gifts support a female founder’s belief in herself so that she can see herself the way the world sees her: capable and confident.

11. Celebrate Yourself, by Amy Ballantyne 🩷🍁 - After hearing Amy Ballantyne speak at an event in 2024, I’ve been into the idea of being my own best cheerleader. She writes about it in her recent book, Celebrate Yourself: Become Your Own Cheerleader Through Mastering the Art of Self-Love and Unshakeable Confidence. It aligns perfectly with my practice in the Female Founders Journal of ending the day by filling out the prompt ‘Today I’m proud of myself for __________.’ This is a great read to stop her from overlooking her accomplishments, or allowing self-doubt to overshadow her true potential.

    
    Photo Credit:  Amy Ballantyne

12. Female Founder Event Ticket - There’s likely at least one huge female founder event happening every month either in Canada or the US. The kind of conference where tickets cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Being in the right room is imperative for any woman building a business so that she can make the right connections, but sometimes the costs can be prohibitive. I’ve been lucky enough to win or be gifted tickets to events that otherwise were out of my budget and they’ve always moved the needle for me. This is one of the best gifts you can give her!

    
    Photo Credit: Female Founders Collective

13. Female Founders Journal 🩷🍁 - The Female Founders Journal is the best gift for a woman entrepreneur because it’s foundational: it helps her believe in herself while also celebrating her wins. The Female Founders Journal is a 90-day guided journal for women entrepreneurs with more than 180 prompts, reviewed by a licensed therapist. Every morning her day starts with confidence, following the BRAGS framework, which stands for Build confidence, Reframe thoughts, Affirm strengths, Grow mindset, Self-reflect.

    

14. The School of Becoming App 🩷 - Tracy Litt, founder of The School of Becoming, created her app and its content around Identity coaching for high-achieving women. Her curriculum brings together nervous system work, neuroscience, and consciousness so that women can expand their capacity and step into their full potential

    
    Photo Credit: The School of Becoming

15. Worthy, by Jamie Kern Lima 🩷 - Written by the founder of IT Cosmetics, Jamie Kern Lima’s book Worthy is an annual read for me. She sold her company for $1.2 billion so I was open to hearing what she wanted to say. If your female founder friend is similar to me and struggles with feeling like enough, this book is a supportive read.

    
    Photo Credit: Jamie Kern Lima

What not to get her

When you’re thinking about what to gift a woman who’s starting a business, skip anything that adds an extra task to her plate or treats her business like a hobby. She’s already busy enough.

Wall art with a slogan

Been there, done that. Boss babe. She believed she could, so she did. Anything with what I describe as ‘Kate Spade girlboss font’. (My first website had that font and I loved it, but we’ve evolved.)

Merch with her logo

Oof I made this mistake in a client pitch years ago. I’m sharing this so you don’t make the same mistake I did. It’s a lovely thought but the execution is almost never quite right. Let her control how she presents her brand.

Another candle

She’s probably got an entire mantle full of candles, promise.

The common thread?

Skip the gifts that will get stuffed in a drawer, take up space in a corner, or generally have a dated vibe.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good gift for a new business owner?

A good gift for a new business owner is something that helps her step into her new identity as an entrepreneur and helps her feel seen and supported. An inspirational book, a guided journal and practical accessories for real-life situations are examples of good gifts.

What do you give someone for a business launch?

A business launch is an incredibly busy period, and the best gift that you can give a woman entrepreneur is the gift of time. Services like meal delivery, a cleaning service, or personal assistance through a service like TaskRabbit (which is female founded!) will help her reclaim her time.

How much should you spend on a gift for someone starting a business?

Spend what’s comfortable and reasonable for your budget when getting a gift for someone starting a business. Books, guided journals, content creation accessories, etc. can all cost less than a dinner out and have a meaningful impact. Events and memberships can cost well into the thousands and also be equally loved! This is an example of where it’s the thought that counts. 

Nobody makes a registry for this

Typically when a woman starts a business, there’s no shower, no registry, and no day dedicated to people telling her that they believe in her. It’s usually an internal decision based on self-trust and a lot of days where she’s the only person who knows how much it really takes to get this thing off the ground. 

So if you are the friend, the sister, the partner: pick one thing from this list for her. I promise it matters more than you may think.

And if you have read all fifteen of these thinking about your own business, add the Female Founders Journal on your own list this year. It’s a 90-day guided journal for women entrepreneurs with more than 180 prompts, reviewed by a licensed therapist, built on two frameworks you won’t find anywhere else, and it starts every morning by asking what you are building toward.