The Indian economy has grown steadily over the last decade,and there has been a parallel surge in the number of startups and newbusinesses in the country. A majority of these have been founded by men.However, in this golden age of globalization, digitalization and start-upbooms, India is pursuing a revolution vis-à-vis women entrepreneurs. The sixtheconomic census released by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation(MoSPI) highlights that women constitute around 14% of the totalentrepreneurship in India. Today’s women entrepreneurs do not come only fromthe established business families or from the higher-income sections of thepopulation, they come from all walks of life and from all parts of the country.From running sports media firms to construction companies and security anddetective agencies – women are dabbling into fields that have traditionallybeen bastions of male domination.
But there is also other side of the story. While many womenhave ambitions towards entrepreneurship, it is often more difficult for them tosucceed. In fact, India has been found to be in a group of countries wherewomen business owners (as well as women leaders and professionals) strugglewith less favourable conditions, pronounced cultural biases, and a lack ofbusiness resources such as finances, capital, training, and development.
The government’s ambitious Startup India, Stand-up India initiative has failed to attractwomen entrepreneurs. Only 43% of the 27,084 recognised startups in India had awoman director as of 8 January, according to the Economic Survey 2019-20.
Women’s representation remained low even in the states that,according to the survey, were top performers in terms of state-wisedistribution of recognized startups—Delhi, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Also, in the Index of Women Entrepreneurs 2019, India ranked52 out of the 57 surveyed countries.
What’s worse, according to the reports, the number of fundedstartups with at least one female co-founder declined from 17% in 2018 to 12%in 2019. Women are missing in theStartup India initiative because many women, who start their initiatives, arenot in the limelight or mentored professionally. Additionally, when it comes tofunding, women are not only scrutinized about how they’d manage theirbusinesses, but also their families in parallel, which isn’t a filter men areput through.
We at Greater Kashmir believe that women are a potentialgold mine when it comes to entrepreneurship and must be encouraged throughprofessional guidance, skilling and handholding. A society in which womencannot realise their full potential loses out on the significant potential forinnovation, economic growth, and job creation.
Let’s roll out some essential steps for women who want tobecome entrepreneurs. Women start their businesses for a variety of reasons.Millennial women are often driven by market opportunity while baby boomers aredriven by necessity.
But regardless of the age group or primary driver, there aresome universal considerations that apply to all potential woman entrepreneursas they prepare to start a business.
Have an honest assessment of yourself
Entrepreneurship isn’t right for everyone, so it’s importantto determine if it might be a good fit—and before spending significant amountsof time, money, sweat, and tears launching a business.
Business owners need to be self-starters who don’t wait forothers to call all the shots. Are you self-motivated? Are you decisive? Theyalso have to be comfortable with assuming some degree of risk. Success inbusiness is never a 100% sure thing. Can you deal with risk and uncertainty?Can you handle setbacks and rejection without falling into deep despair?
Entrepreneurs must also have a knack for managing time andsetting priorities effectively. Are you organized and able to recognize tasksthat require urgent attention versus those that can wait?
Anticipate impact of entrepreneurship on your interpersonalrelationships
Starting a business requires time and focus—often largequantities of both. Realize that this will have an impact to some degree onyour relationships with your partner, kids, other relatives, and friends. Somepeople might feel offended by the time and attention you’re devoting to yourstartup and won’t always understand why you can’t carve out an hour to meet themfor lunch or happy hour. Your partner and children may feel resentment atneeding to do more around the house than they did before.
It’s critical to communicate and set expectations from thebeginning so that you can help prevent hard feelings and maintain healthyrelationships.
Don’t forget to analyse its impact on your livelihood in thebeginning
Starting a business often comes with cutting back on some oflife’s luxuries. And by luxuries, I don’t necessarily mean caviar, exotictrips, and designer handbags—you may need to temporarily forgo some of themodest perks you regularly enjoy. Whether it’s daily stops for a grande mochalatte at the Starbucks downtown, subscriptions to premium cable televisionchannels, dinner at the local steakhouse every Saturday night, or some otherindulgence, you might need to put them on hold as you wait for your business toramp up. Can you accept that? Can your family accept that?
Learn what you need to learn
Entrepreneurship is a journey and an educational experience.As you traverse the process of starting and running a business, you willdiscover deficits in your knowledge and capabilities that you weren’t aware ofbefore. Be self-aware and accept that you’re imperfect and will make mistakes.What matters is how you react to and overcome those challenges. Put your egoaside and be willing to learn and improve.
Believe in yourself and your abilities.
Celebrate and capitalize on your personal strengths. Moreover,learn to differentiate between constructive criticism and mean-spirited inputwhen you receive feedback from others. The first will help you become astronger, more effective entrepreneur, and the latter will deflate yourmotivation and self-confidence if you take it to heart.
To conclude, starting a business will not be easy, but ifyou do your due diligence, channel your strengths, prepare for challenges, andleverage resources wisely, you can and will succeed.
Choose the right business
If you have a burning desire to become a femaleentrepreneur, then you’ll need to lay the crucial foundations; decide what thebusiness will be in the first place. It’s a basic requirement but it certainlyis no easy feat! There are more business ideas for women out there than thestars in the Milky Way, so you’ll need to consider a number of questions beforechoosing your star – the industry and business to work in.
Ask yourself when choosing a business:
1.What are your skills?
2.How will you turn your skills into a business model?
3.Is there a viable niche in the market?
4.Can you afford to start a business?
Meanwhile, there are some common challenges such asovercoming social stigmas, conquering the fear of failure, balancing work &family and acquiring funding which a woman entrepreneur can face.
Societal norms have taught us to expect certain behavioralpatterns from men, and different behaviors from women. But, in order to survivein the world of business, women entrepreneurs know that it’s often necessary tobeat men at their own game. That is to say, women entrepreneurship requires ahigh level of competitiveness and sometimes even a fair bit of aggression.Needless to say, those traits are the opposite of what old-school norms haveascribed to women: to be quiet, gentle, and complacent.
How to avoid this challenge: Be confident and assertyourself! Don’t allow other people’s expectations to weigh you down and keepyou from achieving your full potential. Success in business takes gritregardless of gender, so don’t be ashamed to stand tall – particularly in theface of criticism!
In the context of conquering the fear of failure, theproblems of women entrepreneurs can come from within as easily as they can comefrom an external source. In other words, it’s not enough to ignore the haters(and there are plenty of them!) or even to use their critiques as fuel. Tobecome a female entrepreneur of the highest caliber, you’ll need to conquer thefear of failure, which ultimately comes from self-doubt.
It’s completely normal for business owners to experienceanxiety and fear in the face of potential failure, but what’s important is notallow that fear to cripple your ability to succeed.
To avoid this challenge, the woman entrepreneur has to learnlessons from small business failure statistics; study up on what the commoncauses of failure are, and the best strategies to predict and avoid them. Asthe great Franklin Roosevelt once said, “The only thing we have to fear is fearitself!” The solution is not to ignore fear, but rather, to recognize whenthere are justified reasons for fear and take the necessary steps to clearthose hurdles.
How to maintain the role of a parent while simultaneouslyoperating a business – it’s one of the most common challenges faced by femaleentrepreneurs. Mompreneurs have it harder than others involved in womenentrepreneurship, and certainly have a much more difficult time than malecounterparts.
Though the odds are far from equal, that by no means makesbusiness success an unreachable goal for mothers. Don’t believe us? Before youmake up your mind, have a look at how one amazing woman was able to establishher business even when the cards were stacked against her.