FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS

Make your desire of success greater than your fear of failure

(For female entrepreneurs (most especially in Nigeria)) 

Entrepreneurship has traditionally been defined as the process of designing, launching and running a new business, which typically begins as a small business, such as a startup company, offering a product, process or service for sale or hire. It has been defined as the “Capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit. An entrepreneur is typically in control of a commercial undertaking, directing the factors of production – the human, financial and material resources – that are required to exploit business opportunity. 

They act as the manager and oversee the launch and growth of an enterprise. Women became more involved in the business world only when the idea of women in business became palatable to the general public. Before the 20th century, female operated small businesses as a way of supplementing their income. In many cases, they were trying to avoid poverty or were replacing the income from loss of a spouse. At that time, the ventures that these women undertook were not thought of as entrepreneurial. Many of them had to focus on their domestic responsibilities. The term entrepreneur is used to describe individuals who have ideas for products and/or services that they turn into a working business. In earlier times, this term was reserved for men. 

 Home-based businesses helped to solve a good part of most problems for those women who worried about being mothers. One Lillian Vernon, while pregnant with her first child, started her own business dealing with catalogs by investing money from wedding gifts and started filling orders right at her kitchen table. Mary Crowley founded Home Decorating and Interiors as a way of helping women to work from home by throwing parties to sell the products right in the comfort of their own home. In an effort to avoid criticism and lost business from those who did not support women in business, Bette Nesmith, who developed the product “Mistake Out,” a liquid that painted over mistakes in typing, would sign her order B. Smith so no one would know she was a female. Studies have shown that successful female entrepreneurs start their businesses as a second or third profession. Because of their previous careers, female entrepreneurs enter the business world later on in life, around 40-60 years old. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report, “women are nearly one-third more likely to start business out of necessity than men.” Because women are overtaking their male peers in the level of education obtained, the average self-employment rate for women under 25 years old in OECD countries is 7.2%. 

 "In the grab for power, women use whatever means available to them, whereas a man would take a club to his opponents head, a woman is more likely use other less forceful and more subversive measures. Let's just own it, we have different weapons in our arsenal." Female entrepreneurs make up for approximately 1/3 of all entrepreneurs globally. According to one study, in 2012 there was an approximate 126 million women that were either starting or already running new businesses in various economies all over the world. As far as those who were already established, there was an approximate 98 million. Not only are these women running or starting their own businesses but they are also employing others, so that they are participating in the growth of their respective economies. A study in India entitled "Barriers of Women Entrepreneurs: A Study in Bangalore Urban District", has concluded that despite all these constraints, successful female entrepreneurs do exist. Female entrepreneurs have evidently more to ‘acquire’ than their male counterparts. But, the socio-cultural environment in which women are born and raised hinders them. Social customs, caste restrictions, culture restraints, and norms leave women lagging behind men. 

PRESENT CHALLENGES ON BEING A FEMALE ENTREPRENEUR 

Even though female entrepreneurship and the formation of female-owned business networks is steadily rising, there are a number of challenges and obstacles that female entrepreneurs face. One major challenge that many female entrepreneurs face is the effect that the traditional gender-roles society may still have on women. Entrepreneurship is still considered as a male-dominated field, and it may be difficult to surpass these conventional views. Other than dealing with the dominant stereotype, female entrepreneurs are facing several obstacles related to their businesses. Obstacles specific to starting new firms External finance and sex discrimination. In general, women have lower personal financial assets than men. This means that for a given opportunity and equally capable individual, women must secure additional resources compared to men in order to exploit the opportunity; because, they control less capital. The question of whether women have a harder time getting finance than men for the same business opportunity has developed into its own sub-field. One possible issue in raising outside capital is that 96% of senior venture capitalists are men and may not be as understanding of female-centric businesses. However, the situation seems to be improving. 

A study by Babson College showed that in 1999, fewer than 5% of venture capital investments went to companies with a woman on the executive team. In 2011, it was 9% and in 2013 it had jumped to 18%. A specific solution for solving women's difficulties for obtaining financing has been micro-financing. Microfinance is a financial institution that has become exceptionally popular, especially in developing economies. Female entrepreneurs have also been especially successful in getting funded through crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter. Obstacles to managing a small firm Studies on female entrepreneurs show that women have to cope with stereotypical attitudes towards them on a daily basis. Business relations—from customers to suppliers and banks—constantly remind the entrepreneur that she is different, sometimes in a positive way such as by praising her for being a successful entrepreneur even though she is a woman. Employees tend to mix the perceptions of the manager with their images of female role models, leading to mixed expectations on a female manager to be a manager as well as a "mother". 

The workload associated with being a small business manager is also not easily combined with taking care of children and a family. However, even if the revenues are somewhat smaller, female entrepreneurs feel more in control and happier with their situation than if they worked as an employee. Female entrepreneurship has been recognized as an important source of economic growth. Female entrepreneurs create new jobs for themselves and others and also provide society with different solutions to management, organisation, and business problems. However, they still represent a minority of all entrepreneurs. Female entrepreneurs often face gender-based barriers to starting and growing their businesses, like discriminatory property; matrimonial and inheritance laws, and/or cultural practices; lack of access to formal finance mechanisms; limited mobility and access to information and networks, etc. A woman's entrepreneurship can make a particularly strong contribution to the economic well-being of the family and communities, poverty reduction and women's empowerment, thus contributing to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). 

Thus, governments across the world, as well as various developmental organizations, are actively undertaking the promotion of female entrepreneurs through various schemes, incentives and promotional measures. Female entrepreneurs in the four southern states and Maharashtra account for over 50% of all women-led small-scale industrial units in India Obstacles to growing firms A specific problem of female entrepreneurs seems to be their inability to achieve growth, especially sales growth. Another issue is finance and, as stated previously, the entrepreneurial process is somewhat dependent on initial conditions. In other words, as women often have a difficult time assembling external resources, they start as less ambitious firms that can be financed to a greater degree by their own available resources. This also has consequences for the future growth of the firm. 

Basically, firms with more resources at start-up have a higher probability to grow than firms with fewer resources. Resources include the following: societal position, human resources, and financial resources. This initial endowment in the firm is of great importance for firm survival and especially for firm growth. A study by the Kauffman Foundation of 570 high-tech firms started in 2004 showed that women-owned firms were more likely to be organized as sole proprietorships, both during their startup year and in the years to follow. Female entrepreneurs were also much more likely to start their firms out of their homes and were less likely to have employees. This fact may serve as an indication that women either anticipated having smaller firms or were operating under resource constraints that did not allow them to launch firms requiring more assets, employees, or financial resources. This study also found that women only raised 70% of the amount that men raised to start their firms, which ultimately impacted their ability to introduce new products and services or expand their business in terms of employees or geographic locations. Other problems that are facing female entrepreneurs is how they are handling their decision-making models and stressful situations. Women compared with men are more susceptible to be influenced by their feelings than men when they have to make decisions. Also women have more likelihood of stress than men in difficult situations, without this mean that women are "weak sex". Despite the fact that many female entrepreneurs face growth barriers, they are still able to achieve substantial firm growth. There are examples of these both in a number of developing economies (Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia) surveyed by the ILO, as well as in more developed economies such as the United States. 

REASONS FOR STARTING A FIRM BY A WOMAN

Many studies show that women start their own businesses for a variety of reasons. These reasons include the following: having an idea for a business plan, having passion for solving a specifically related career problem, wanting to be more in control of their careers, maintaining a more balanced life, having a flexible work schedule, and taking a personal vision and turning it into a lucrative business. Along with the intense desire to see their vision carried out, these women also have a great ability to multi-task and never feared the risks involved in being self-employed. Women are still facing many issues in the workforce, and being their own boss certainly is more appealing to some of the everyday issues they face outside of entrepreneurship. Gender roles are still very much a part of their lives, but for some female entrepreneurs, they feel more in control when working for themselves. No matter what your reason is, the time to becoming an entrepreneur is now! 

ENCOURAGEMENT

 In 1993, "Take Our Daughters To Work Day" was popularized to support career exploration for girls, and later expanded to Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. Hillary Clinton stated that "Investing in women is not only the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do." Research shows that there are many support groups for women in business, for female entrepreneurs, and for women looking for business advice. Women in different areas are willing to show the support that in some cases, they never had. They offer encouragement, advice, and support to moms who seek to provide for their families through their own visions for business. HerCorner, is a group located in Washington, D.C. This groups seeks to bring women business owners together to collaborate with each other for the betterment of their businesses. There are government backed programs available to female entrepreneurs and information can be found on their website at SBA Online and their Facebook group SBAgov. Female-only taxi companies in India, the UAE, and Brazil support working women. One example of successful female entrepreneurship in rural villages of Bangladesh is the Infolady Social Entrepreneurship Programme (ISEP). Norway celebrates Female Entrepreneur of the Year. 

When will I hear from your firm? Why Not Start Your Firm Today? YES! You can do it, just by making your desire of success greater than your fear of failure. 

Hamza Ahmad Fagge From 

#thewinnershub2018