Francie Hinrichsen | Morton, Illinois

Francie Hinrichsen is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and real estate investor. Graduating with a master’s degree in business administration from Ball State University in 2013, Hinrichsen has been a self-employed business owner since 2015. She founded a data and analytics marketing consulting company called Simply Integrated, LLC, and Founding Females®, an entrepreneurship education company. Hinrichsen also consults to help companies grow by developing effective marketing programs. Most recently in 2024, Hinrichsen and her husband co-founded Free Bird Management, a real estate company.

Hinrichsen published her book, Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business, to teach women how to start a business that fuels their unique passion and purpose while driving a healthy profit margin. Her business playbook “celebrates women’s unique motivations for starting businesses, building relationships, and changing the world, and offers detailed guidance about how to grow from business idea to an effective business launch to profiting and scaling, ultimately helping readers turn their business into an asset, not a paycheck.”

Hinrichsen got her entrepreneurial spirit from her father. “Once when I was very young,” she remembers, “I asked my father, an entrepreneur, ‘What would we do if you lost your job?’ Without pause, he responded, ‘We’d start a taco stand.’ The message was clear: Make your own way…His resourceful traits instilled in me an insatiable thirst for ‘making my own way’ and helping others do the same...While I never had a set career role in mind, I knew from an early age that I wanted to do two things: 1) Make the rules and 2) make a difference.”

In between daily dance parties in the kitchen with her two young children, husband Hans, and bulldog Winston, Hinrichsen gives back to her community by investing in it and encouraging others to do the same. She suggests eating and shopping at locally owned small businesses and donating to or volunteering with organizations impacting lives. She adds, “When we vote from our hearts with the resources we have, we can change the world.”

Hinrichsen and her family enjoy the outdoors by attending Peoria Chiefs’ baseball games, hiking local trails, and engaging in many fun activities in the community. An entrepreneur herself, her excitement for female businesses in this area cannot be overstated. “I’m so proud of our female business community here in central Illinois! Women leaders are paving a new path here.”