INTRODUCTION:

Today’s powerful and accomplished women in business have undoubtedly raised the stakes. Despite justifiable concerns for women aspiring to high-paying career opportunities, industry clout, and far-reaching influence, it’s easy to overlook what women have accomplished in business, even with highly visible examples.

Ladies are the main characters in the family who manage the well-being of the family. Men earn and women manage it in order to fulfil the requirements of the family. Smart women in a developing country face many challenges. It is not an easy task to manage the affairs of one’s family. Managing a business while paying the attention to the development of one’s family is a great challenge.  Yet, women entrepreneurs have successfully overcome this challenge.

“The prominence of women in business can be described as a rising tide which lifts every boat on the water.”

Women always try to align their activities with cultural and traditional values. They play a key role in practising cultural aspects and promoting tradition, especially in developing nations. Female entrepreneurs who participated in this study mentioned that they apply and use traditional methods of production. It is necessary for the young generation of a country to be aware of and educated on best and suitable business practices.

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS ARE:

• Hardworking
• Information Seeking
• Creative and innovative
• Risk taking
• Seeking opportunity and initiative
• Demand of efficiency and quality
• Persistence
• Goal setting
• Networking
• Independent and self confidence

ROLE OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS:

Women have to play multiple roles. Sometimes she has to play the role of either wife or mother Or she has to adorn the role of parents or daughter. Simultaneously in the social setting, she has to play different roles in the community. Playing these roles, women sometimes submerge their own self role and their own reality.

STATUS OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS:

Women’s standing in India has shifted in the twenty-first century as a result of increased industrialisation and urbanisation, mobility, and social laws. Women have expanded their participation in higher education, technical and professional education, and their share of the workforce has increased as well. Women have transitioned from the kitchen, handicrafts, and traditional cottage industries to non-traditional higher levels of activity as education and awareness have spread.

Even the government has laid special emphasis on the need for conducting special entrepreneurial training programs for women to enable them to start their own ventures. Financial institutions and banks have also set up special cells to assist women entrepreneurs, this has grown with the women entrepreneurs on the economic scene in recent years although many women’s entrepreneurship enterprises are still maintained at a much-neglected field. However, for women, there are several handicaps to enter into and manage business ownership due to the deeply embedded traditional mindset and stringent values of Indian society.

“It’s no secret that women have historically faced greater barriers than men when it comes to fully participating in the economy. Across geographies and income levels, disparities between men and women persist in the form of pay gaps, uneven opportunities for advancement, and unbalanced representation in important decision-making.”

The Major Barriers Encountered By Women Entrepreneurs Are As Follows:       

AWARENESS ABOUT THE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE:

The majority of women business owners have had to rely to a significant extent on self-generated finance during the start-up period of their business. Bank loans and grants have only been used in a minority of cases and have usually been accompanied by some form of self-generated finance. The availability of bank credit appears to increase once businesses become established and/or a good relationship with the bank has been developed. Banks are reported to have been more forthcoming in the provision of loans once a business has begun to demonstrate a track record. Because of limited funds, they are not able to stock new materials and spend on advertising.

WOMEN NEED ROLE MODELS:

The only way to address and overcome these preconceptions and barriers is to have more women in positions of leadership; providing the support and the role models women desperately need to advance in their careers and bringing about the much-needed change in the workplace benefiting both genders.

They value having more women in leadership roles as role models for younger women just starting out in their careers. When millennial women are compared to women 35-54 years old or older, they have a stronger desire.

LACK OF SUPPORT:

A growing area of study also explores the tendency for women to be mentored and not sponsored. Mentoring involves support and advice offered by an employee to another employee a level or more below them in the company structure. It should be a private, developmental relationship between two people. A sponsor, on the other hand, advocates for employees below them at the decision-making table when it comes to staffing high-profile projects and promotions. They have the power to effect change on women’s behalf.

KNOWLEDGE OF WORKING CAPITAL:

To be a woman and to do something on their own becomes quite difficult for them because of lack of access to funds as women do not possess any tangible security and credit in the market. Before marriage she has to depend on father and after marriage, she has to follow the footsteps of the husband. As such, women do not enjoy the right over the property of any form and they have limited access over external sources of funds, even getting loans from either a bank or financial institution becomes exceedingly difficult.

CONFIDENCE NEEDS TO BE BOOSTED:

In general, women lack confidence in their strength and competence. The family members and the society are reluctant to stand beside their entrepreneurial growth. To a certain extent, this situation is changing among Indian women and yet to face a tremendous change to increase the rate of growth in entrepreneurship.

SOCIO-CULTURAL BARRIERS:

Women’s family and personal obligations are sometimes a great barrier for succeeding in business career. Only few women are able to manage both home and business efficiently, devoting enough time to perform all their responsibilities in priority.

MARKET-ORIENTED RISKS:

Stiff competition in the market and lack of mobility of women make the dependence of women entrepreneurs on middleman indispensable. Many business women find it difficult to capture the market and make their products popular. They are not fully aware of the changing market conditions and hence can effectively utilize the services of media and internet.

KNOWLEDGE IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION:

Ladies must be educated and trained constantly to acquire the skills and knowledge in all the functional areas of business management. This can facilitate women to excel in decision making process and develop a good business network.

EXPOSED TO THE TRAINING PROGRAMS:

Training programs and workshops for every type of entrepreneur is available through the social and welfare associations, based on duration, skill and the purpose of the training program. Such programs are really useful to new, rural and young entrepreneurs who want to set up a small and medium scale unit on their own.

IDENTIFYING THE AVAILABLE RESOURCES:

Women are hesitant to find out the access to cater their needs in the financial and marketing areas. Inspite of the mushrooming growth of associations, institutions, and the schemes from the government side, women are not enterprising and dynamic to optimize the resources in the form of reserves, assets mankind or business volunteers.

When women are empowered and can claim their rights and access to land, leadership, opportunities and choices, economies grow, food security is enhanced and prospects are improved for current and future generations.”

CHARACTERISTIC ROLES IN AN WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP:

Imaginative: It refers to the imaginative approach or original ideas with competitive market. Well planned approach is needed to examine the existing situation and to identify the entrepreneurial opportunities. It further implies that women entrepreneurs have association with knowledgeable people and contracting the right organization offering support and services.

Attribute to work hard: Enterprising women have further ability to work hard. The imaginative ideas have to come to a fair play. Hard work is needed to build up an enterprise.

Persistence: Women entrepreneurs must have an intention to fulfill their dreams. They have to make a dream transferred into an idea enterprise; Studies show that successful women work hard.

Ability and desire to take risk: The desire refers to the willingness to take risk and ability to the proficiency in planning making forecast estimates and calculations.

Profit earning capacity: She should have a capacity to get maximum return out of invested capital.

FUNCTIONS OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP:

• Exploration of the prospects of starting a new business enterprise.
• Undertaking a risk and handling of economic uncertainties involved in business.
• Introduction of innovations, imitations of innovations.
• Coordination, administration and control.
• Supervision and leadership.

THE MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR:

• To improve the quality of life of their children.
• To share the family economic burden.
• To adjust and manage household and business life successfully on their own terms.
• Due to the death or sickness of their husband.

Women entrepreneurs also explored their perceptions of the types of support that might be most helpful for them in addressing the issues and problems that they are facing.

Financial Aspects: Special schemes should be implemented whereby women can get bank loans at decent conditions

Childcare: More childcare facilities should be provided to fit women entrepreneurs’ needs. This would entail extended opening hours or flexible opening hours according to the woman entrepreneur’s needs. Alternatively, measures should be taken for fathers to be in the position to take parental leave, and men should be encouraged to take the leave.

Household: It should be made easier for women entrepreneurs to get help for their households, and initiatives like the “cheques services” implemented by the Belgian government should be copied. This system would alleviate the work load of the female entrepreneurs and at the same time decrease the number of unemployed persons.

Working time: Self-employed women should be encouraged to employ on a part-time or full-time basis at least one person so that they have more time for their family and can take interest in other occupations, actively participate in decision-making bodies.

• Training, advice or consultancy targeted solely or mainly at women entrepreneurs
• Startup programs for women, particularly those returning to the labor market.
• Special targeting of women in general campaigns to boost levels of entrepreneurship.
• Equal opportunities policies aiming for equal access for women to services.
• Need to have network with other firms to generate business and access informal advice.
• Encouraging and assisting relevant business support initiatives

Firstly, it is also found that compared to men, women were less concerned with making money and often choose business proprietorship as a result of career dissatisfaction. Secondly, women find entrepreneurship as a tool of meeting their career needs and childcare role.

On a Lighter Note:

Earlier there was 3 Ks:

1. Kitchen
2. Kids
3. Knitting

Then came 3 Ps:

1. Powder
2. Pappad
3. Pickles

At present there are 4 Es:

1. Entrepreneurs
2. Event Management
3. Entertainment World
4. Engineering

“Many women may start in those beginning stages where they are fearful, it’s small, it’s intimidating, I just want to pay for soccer camp, but here’s what I’ll tell you: once they experience success, that success fuels their confidence and their confidence fuels larger goals. So the next year she’s like ‘well maybe I could bring home a third of our family income’ and the next year she’s like ‘well maybe I could just replace my whole full-time income, ’ and the next year it’s like ‘hey, what if I hired someone?’ It’s incredible to see how once they begin to experience success they begin to believe in themselves more, they believe in the business more, and their vision for the business and their goals grow exponentially.”

CONCLUSION:

Globally, one in four senior roles is now held by a woman. This is a slight increase from last year. But the proportion of businesses with no women in senior leadership positions has also risen. Once again, developing countries are leading the charge on diversity, with many major economies continuing to lag behind.

Women participation in the field of entrepreneurship is increasing at considerable rate, efforts are being taken at the economy as well as global level to enhance woman’s involvement in the enterprise sector. Educated Women is contributing to a great extent to the social transformation and in the future, will be seen that more women venturing into areas traditionally dominated by men.

“Assess the requirements, Explore the opportunities and Implement the changes and Succeed – Sky is the limit”.

If, you are a newbie and have some questions- ask me in the comments…
If, you’re an expert- share your secrets with me in the comments…

THANK YOU!!!