Women entrepreneurship(And challenges there in)

                        💧 TODAY'S INSPIRATION 💧*

Have courage to speak the truth and God will bestow on you the power to face the consequences!

👉 TODAY ONWARDS LET'S walk only the path of truth…

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                  ◦•●◉✿Women Entrepreneurship✿◉●•◦

Women’s entrepreneurship needs to be studied separately for two main reasons. 

The first reason is that women’s entrepreneurship has been recognised during the last decade as an important untapped source of economic growth. Women entrepreneurs create new jobs for themselves and others and by being different also provide society with different solutions to management, organisation and business problems as well as to the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. However, they still represent a minority of all entrepreneurs. Thus there exists a market failure discriminating against women’s possibility to become entrepreneurs and their possibility to become successful entrepreneurs. This market failure needs to be addressed by policy makers so that the economic potential of this group can be fully utilised. While without a doubt the economic impact of women is substantial, we still lack a reliable picture describing in detail that specific impact. Recent efforts initiated by the OECD (1997, 2000) are responses to this lack of knowledge and have focused the attention of policy makers and researchers on this important topic.

The second reason is that the topic of women in entrepreneurship has been largely neglected both in society in general and in the social sciences. Not only have women lower participation rates in entrepreneurship than men but they also generally choose to start and manage firms in different industries than men tend to do. The industries (primarily retail, education and other service industries) chosen by women are often perceived as being less important to economic development and growth than high technology and manufacturing.

Furthermore, mainstream research, policies and programmes tend to be“men streamed” and too often do not take into account the specific needs of women entrepreneurs and would-be women entrepreneurs. As a consequence, equal opportunity between men and women from the perspective of entrepreneurship is still not a reality. In order for policy makers to address the situation the report makes a number of recommendations. In order to realise the benefits of policy changes it is important to incorporate a women entrepreneurial dimension in considering all SMEs and growth policies (e.g. meeting women’s financing needs at all stages of the business continuum; take-up of business development and support services;access to corporate, government and international markets; technology access and utilisation; R&D and innovation; etc.). Moreover this means periodically evaluating the impact of these measures on the success of women-owned businesses and exchanging good models and best practices, through cooperation with leading international organisations such as the OECD, European Union, APEC, UNCTAD and the ILO, in order to continually improve policies and programmes.

Better qualitative information and quantitative data and statistics are required to profile women entrepreneurs (demographic information, barriers to start-up and growth). This would also assist in promoting awareness of the role of women entrepreneurs in the economy. Using a frame of reference such as that developed in the report could be valuable for the analysis of this information.

 Recent developments:- 

The Express Awards For Women Entrepreneurs were presented on recently. The event began with a chat between former PepsiCo chairperson and CEO Indra Nooyi and Anant Goenka, Executive Director of the Indian Express Group.

The awards jury was led by HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh.Other members were AZB & Partners co-founder and managing partner Zia Mody, Thermax chairperson Meher Pudumjee and Apollo Hospitals executive. vice-chairperson Preetha Reddy.

Here are some of the winners:👇👇👇

1. E-commerce: Anita Lal, founder, Good Earth. Social Impact: Shaheen Mistri, CEO, Teach For India.

2.Education&SkillDevelopment:LinaAshar,founder emeritus, Kangaroo Kids.

3.Fashion & Lifestyle: Mira Kulkarni, founder and managing director, Forest Essentials.

4.Finance: Soumya Rajan, founder, CEO, Waterfield Advisors.

5.Pharma: Suchitra K. Ella,co-founder and managing director, Bharat Biotech International.

6.Wellness: Vandana Luthra, founder, VLCC Group.

7.Hospitality: Kainaz Messman Harchandrai, founder & creative director, Theobroma.

Here you go with the authentic datas 👇👇👇

challenges women entrepreneurs face and how to overcome them 

1. Defying social expectations

Most female business owners who have attended networking events can relate to this scenario: You walk into a crowded seminar and can count the number of women there on one hand. When women entrepreneurs talk business with primarily male executives, it can be unnerving.  

In this sort of situation, women may feel as though they need to adopt a stereotypically “male” attitude toward business: competitive, aggressive and sometimes harsh. But successful female CEOs believe that remaining true to yourself and finding your own voice are the keys to rising above preconceived expectations. 

2. Accessing funding

Not all startup founders look for investors to help get their businesses off the ground, but those who do know how difficult the pitching process can be. Raising capital is even more difficult for women-owned businesses. A 2014 Babson College report found that less than 3% of companies with venture capital funding had female CEOs.  

3. Struggling to be taken seriously 

At one time or another, most women CEOs find themselves in a male-dominated industry or workplace that does not want to acknowledge their leadership role.As a female entrepreneur in a male-dominated industry, earning respect has been a struggle

4. Owning your accomplishments 

The communal, consensus-building qualities encouraged in young girls can leave women unintentionally downplaying their own worth.They have always found it difficult to convey her own value ,as a leader.   

5. Building a support network 

A robust support network is essential for entrepreneurial success, so it’s no surprise that 48% of female founders report that a lack of available advisors and mentors limits their professional growth, according to accounts. 

With the majority of the high-level business world still being dominated by men, it can be hard to blaze your own path and facilitate the introductions and connections into some of the more elite business networks. 

6. Balancing business and family life 

Parent entrepreneurs have dual responsibilities to their businesses and to their families; finding ways to devote time to both is key to achieving that elusive work-life balance. 

7. Coping with fear of failure 

Failure is a very real possibility in any business venture, but women should not to let their insecurities keep them from dreaming big. We should encourage women to work through the moments of self-doubt that every business owner faces and not wait for perfection before starting their business or taking a big promotion. Failure should not be viewed as a negative or an excuse for relinquishing your goals, according to Swartz.  

Steps needs to be taken :- 

1. Increase the ability of women to participate in the labour force by ensuring the availability of affordable childcare and equal treatment in the work place. More generally, improving the position of women in society and promoting entrepreneurship generally will have benefits in terms of women’s entrepreneurship. 
2.  Listen to the voice of women entrepreneurs. The creation of government offices of women's business ownership is one way to facilitate this. Such offices could have programme responsibilities such as providing women's business centres, organising information seminars and meetings and/or providing web-based information to those wanting to start and grow a business. 
3.  Incorporate a women's entrepreneurial dimension in the formation of all SME-related policies. This can be done by ensuring that the impact on women's entrepreneurship is taken into account at the design stage. 
4. Promote the development of women entrepreneur networks. These are major sources of knowledge about women’s entrepreneurship and valuable tools for its development and promotion. Co-operation and partnerships between national and international networks can facilitate entrepreneurial endeavours by women in a global economy.
5.  Periodically evaluate the impact of any SME-related policies on the success of women-owned businesses and the extent to which such businesses take advantage of them. The objective should be to identify ways to improve the effectiveness of those that should be retained. Good practices that are identified in this way should be disseminated and shared internationally. 

 6.Improve the factual and analytical underpinnings of our understanding of the role of women entrepreneurs in the economy. This requires strengthening the statistical basis for carrying out gender-related cross-country comparative analyses and longitudinal studies of the impact of important developments and policies, especially over time. 

Way forward:

It is a widely known fact that women are born natural leaders. Apart from being excellent with managing finances, women also own the required soft skills to excel in leadership positions. Furthermore, women-led enterprises play an extremely prominent role in empowering the ecosystem by generating employment opportunities as well as serving as an example for other female entrepreneurs who are hoping to make it big.

If we were to quote statistics, according to McKinsey Global, India can apparently add 700 billion dollars to the global GDP by increasing women’s participation in the labour force. In addition to that, as per a report by IBEF, 20.37% of women are MSME owners which account for 23.3% of the labour force. While these statistics certainly look encouraging, we still need to do a lot of work in terms of encouraging women entrepreneurship in India. 

As far as the Indian Government is concerned, Startup India, an initiative by the Government of India, has listed the states with startup policies for women. Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka and Goa among other states offer special support to women entrepreneurs. Some of the policies are listed as follows:

• Monthly funding of Rs 20,000 for a period of one year for startups with women co-founders in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• All Universities in Andhra Pradesh have been allowed to give 5% grace marks and 20% attendance every semester for student startup teams, which have at least one woman as a cofounder.
• Special one-time incentive of Rs 5,000 per woman candidate hired subject to an upper limit of Rs 1 lakh per startup for a period of 3 years in Assam.
• Monthly allowance of Rs 12,000 for a period of one year is paid to women founded startups subject to the approval of Start-up Task Force in Jammu and Kashmir.
• All Government supported incubators have been mandated to allocate minimum 10% seats for startups with women cofounders on preferential basis in Karnataka.

Similarly, other states are also offering support in terms of finances, regulations and mentoring for women entrepreneurs. In conclusion, it would be prudent to state that women entrepreneurship must to supported in India for women are great multi-takers, adaptable, intelligent and judicial risk takers who have a lot to offer to the budding entrepreneurship landscape in India.