Challenges of Women Entrepreneurs and the solutions

women entrepreneurs
Challenges of women entrepreneurs are infinite due to the lack of support from society. Today, creating successful women entrepreneurs is one of the most needed steps that we need to take if society is really willing to grow. Women and entrepreneurship are so closely tied together since ages because women have the natural amazing ability to utilize limited resources and maximize the results.

Entrepreneurship is, the process of starting a new business with very less resources while taking high risks.

The need to have an entrepreneurial mindset in today’s competitive world is a necessity due to the unforeseen situations encountered any time. This article deals with the challenges of women entrepreneurs and their possible solutions, with the best sources being highlighted.

Challenges of Women Entrepreneurs
♥⇒ The first valuable source is indeed the best one; 6 global trends reveal how women are redefining entrepreneurship by Devishobha Chandramouli on Entrepreneur Asia Pacific. Devishobha has explained necessary facts and figures thus, leaving no stone unturned. She shares that most of the women owned businesses are SMEs and very few are running the export businesses but those who do, earn higher than those who don’t. She shares exciting figures from 2016-2017 GEM reports. An interesting fact shared in this article is that the entrepreneurial activity is more prevalent among the low education segments and it decreases as the education level goes up. Women entrepreneurs are less likely to indulge in business adventures because they are less likely to take risks. Many such interesting facts have been quoted by Devishobha in the article which can be read in detail here:

♥⇒ The next great source is How women entrepreneurs can be more successful by Kerry Hannon on Forbes. Among many other challenges of women entrepreneurs, Kerry has highlighted the most important; money. The same has been pointed out by many other researchers. The findings show that women have less access to capital while starting or running a business. The last few years have shown significant growth in women owned businesses but still there is plenty of room for the spotlights. It has been figured out in numerous studies that more married women are entrepreneurs than singles. As the women age, their entrepreneurial skills get multiplied as a result of their life experiences gained over the years. So, aged women are more successful entrepreneurs than the younger segment. Read the article here:

Kerry also writes that reluctant entrepreneurs are less likely to be successful in contrast to enthusiastic and passionate ones. She debates that most of the women entrepreneurs are born as a result of less job opportunities or that the current jobs might not be accommodating for them. Indeed, this is a great article with all necessary elements covered.

♥⇒ The third must read is Women entrepreneurs are key to accelerating growth by Emilt Fetsch, Chris Jackson and Jason Wiens of Kauffman foundation. They write that the gender gap still exists in our societies due to which we have fewer female entrepreneurs, almost half the number than the male initiators. Furthermore, they have more challenges to balance work-personal life. But, they make successful entrepreneurs as they are great risk takers. They have given many useful recommendations at the end of article.

♥⇒ Margery Kraus, founder and executive chairman APCO Worldwide shares 3 pieces of advice with the women entrepreneurs.

Margery says that the struggles and challenges of women entrepreneurs make them successful. She explains that if you want to be successful as an entrepreneur, you have to indulge in consistent efforts and yes, don’t take notice of the people putting you down and demotivating you. Her advice is indeed, very helpful for the struggling women as they face the biggest challenge of balancing work- personal life in the male dominated societies.

♥⇒ Through Forbes’ platform, female founders give very helpful tips for creating successful women entrepreneurs. They suggest women to be resilient and persistent. Besides that, they must believe in themselves and discover their hidden talents. Furthermore, taking guidance from the women mentors could be the best source of support for these struggling ladies.

Challenges of women entrepreneurs; Our thoughts

Despite long debates, still we talk less often about creating successful women entrepreneurs. Hence, Compiling all the studies and researches, it is evident that gender gap still exists in even the developed countries and women have less access to capital and growth opportunities. Indeed, a large number of women are great achievers but that is a small number as compared to men.

The studies reveal balancing of work and personal life as the number one factor among the challenges of women entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurial women want to increase their income so they decide to start their own companies. Certainly, the figures are different in every country and culture but some ground facts pointed out in the studies are uniform in most parts of the world.

Also, many societies fail to accept women as strong enough to run a business. Entrepreneurship isn’t about running a big business and being highly independent. It signifies those women too who are running small businesses at homes or the online business community. At present, the world is confined in a box and everyone has intensified reach through internet. As a result, these women have high entrepreneurial opportunities of running online businesses and reaching international clients which was previously a big barrier for them.

Entrepreneurship is all about taking risks when you have less investment and less opportunities. It demands courage and strong risk taking abilities which the women are naturally blessed with. Women empowerment is different from women and entrepreneurship as the purpose is not to empower only one segment of society but to utilize its neglected abilities.

Here, the debate is not about the increasing number of women doing jobs. A woman going through the process of taking a high risk of a start up venture has entirely different challenges in contrast to the one working in a developed work setup of someone else. As an entrepreneur, you have to manage all by yourself. Besides that, you have no specified job timings in the beginning. The family pressures are staggering your determination even more; causing demotivation and loss of perseverance. Hence, this is not just the physical and financial struggle, it is more of an emotional battle where nothing can make you win, but your belief in yourself.

Coping with the challenges of women entrepreneurs is all about changing mindset of our society. We need to mentor our women to balance their work-home lives and take risks to earn. Above all, we need to mentor our men to be supportive, where they encourage the growth of women. As an entrepreneur, you don’t need to necessarily go out but you can run an online or home based business.

Finally, women need to realize that they need to grow and strengthen from inside as only this power can lift them in the society. Entrepreneurship isn’t necessarily tied to education but, education enhances the opportunities. Above all, it broadens the scope of the growth as there are innumerable ways to grow fearlessly. Remember,

YOU must grow thus, helping the society grow

Your fragrance knows no limits when you have been watered and taken care of well.

Even if no one cares, you can take care of your growth in the best way.

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