Women entrepreneurs have to walk through a daunting road bearing several challenges that are frequently different from the challenges faced by male entrepreneurs.
The recent data provided by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor suggests that there is a large gender gap in entrepreneurial activities across the globe. Only one in five women is starting or running a new venture. Most new businesses are more likely to be started by men instead. This evidence adverts our attention to addressing the hurdles that hinder women entrepreneurs’ success.
Despite facing distinct pressures in the business industry whilst coping with a gazillion home chores, women entrepreneurs have shown tremendous growth over the last decade. But there are still a bunch of problems that obstruct the growth of women-owned companies and are needed to be addressed.
“The glass ceiling that once limited a woman’s career path has paved a new road towards business ownership, where women can utilize their sharp business acumen while building strong family ties.”
Erica Nicole, Founder, and CEO of YFS Magazine
As the number of women-led enterprises is soaring up, we are getting familiar with challenges that are commonly faced by women entrepreneurs.
Here are some of the major challenges that a female entrepreneur must address to make her venture a huge success.
1. Role Conflict
The foremost factor affecting the progress of a female entrepreneur is work-family conflict. Research suggests that women are most likely to face conflicts between work and family as compared to men (Noor 2004; Welter 2004; Frone, Russell, and Cooper 1992). It affects her overall well-being that ultimately creates a negative impact on her performance.
The top women entrepreneurs have also addressed the need to mitigate work-family conflict, which is essential for the growth of their ventures.
Most successful women entrepreneurs follow three basic strategies to reduce the work-family conflict by manipulating roles. These strategies include,
- Role Elimination
- Role Reduction
- Role-Sharing
It is proposed that the majority of successful women entrepreneurs follow one or more of the above strategies for maintaining a work-family balance.
The level of work-family conflict can be reduced by eliminating or reducing any of the roles either from your venture or from your family demands. You can also delegate the tasks you are not good at and make space for the areas you excel at.
So, most of the inspiring women entrepreneurs have deployed participative management techniques to overcome this major problem hindering their venture’s growth.
2. Lack Of Self-Confidence
Women entrepreneurs exhibit a lack of self-confidence as compared to male entrepreneurs which is another factor affecting their success. According to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report, only 43.4% of women entrepreneurs perceive themselves as capable of starting a successful venture as compared to 55.6% of men.
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
The majority of aspiring women entrepreneurs bear the feelings of not being a good fit for entrepreneurship, hence they stop pursuing their dreams. With this, their self-confidence keeps deteriorating and it becomes impossible for them to initiate their ventures.
Even after launching their ventures, women are less likely to exhibit confidence in their skills and are more likely to exhibit fear of failure. On the other hand, male entrepreneurs are undeterred by fear of failure hence have higher chances of excelling in their respective ventures.
Therefore, it is important for a female entrepreneur to exude a high level of confidence because self-confidence is the only driving force of success.
You may also want to learn, 7 Important Lessons From Leading Women Entrepreneurs
3. Lack Of Financial Resources
Numerous studies have justified that women entrepreneurs find it harder to accumulate financial resources as compared to their male counterparts. Even after starting their ventures, lack of financial literacy forces several new women entrepreneurs to end their business activities.
Although there are numerous reasons for business closures but, the most prominent factor that hampers women-led businesses is the lack of capital. According to a recent report of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, over 30% of women discontinued their ventures following a lack of financial resources. Contrary to this, the percentage of male entrepreneurs closing their business ventures due to financial reasons was only 16.2%.
Besides available financial resources, lack of profit has also remained a prominent factor obstructing the progress of female entrepreneurs.
The world of equity investment has also accepted that women do face discrimination when it comes to equity investment pipelines. Banks also feel reluctant to debt finance the women-led organizations because they consider women entrepreneurs to be less financially sound. Also, several financing institutions view women as a greater risk to the funding requirements of business ventures. Furthermore, the banking institutions do not accord the same level of credibility to female entrepreneurs as compare to male businessmen.
“It is important that women not only have access to funding in setting up a business but also access to training”
Denitsa Sacheva, deputy education minister of Bulgaria
To mitigate the financial risk, women entrepreneurs need to be more vigilant when it comes to financing a venture. They must also get adequate information regarding venture financing before getting started.
4. Building Up A Support Network
Selecting the right support network is crucial for the success of every business venture. Most famous female entrepreneurs have revealed that lack of mentorship and advisory has hindered their professional growth and it has also impacted the growth of their venture.
The women entrepreneurs find it difficult to obtain aids, be it a lack of finance or lack of appropriate contacts, they require supporters to help them navigate through the whole course. However, not being able to find the right support team/person women entrepreneurs keep delaying their venture’s launch.
Also, with the majority of business networks being dominated mostly by men, blazing the path whilst adding all essential connections becomes difficult for women entrepreneurs. However, there are several inspiring female entrepreneurs who have amassed massive success despite all odds.
Proposed by some top women entrepreneurs, some of the ways through which you can identify your right support network are to,
- Participate in women-focused networking events
- Join online forums specially designed for women entrepreneurs
- Look for groups that arrange women conferences
After identifying your right support team, be clear about your goals and do not hesitate to ask what you need from them. You never know who has the capacity to help, so keep interacting and identify your right support. If you don’t ask or interact, you won’t be able to get your desired support network.
5. Fear Of Failure
Self-limitations and fear of failure is another factor that lags the process of ‘dreaming to achieving’. Revealed by top women entrepreneurs, the major factor that holds back women entrepreneurs from achieving their dreams is fear of failure. They further argue that women tend to be more cautious when it comes to launching a new venture which ultimately holds back several women-led entrepreneurs.
The fear factor further compels women entrepreneurs to question their ideas and make them reluctant to take risks. Not only in the launching phase but fear of failure also affects the performance of an entrepreneur during the entrepreneurship process and creates a negative impact on the overall performance of the venture.
Most successful female entrepreneurs believe that, after overcoming the initial fear of initiating the venture, post-entry fear of failure can act as fuel for your venture’s success. The post-entry fear motivates female entrepreneurs to make additional sacrifices, hence saving them from encountering potential losses.
Thus, it is essential for women entrepreneurs to explore the positive influence of the fear factor in order to make their ventures a huge success.
6. Social Expectations
In the majority of countries across the globe, women are stereotyped as the ones who are meant to do the home chores and stay at home contrary to their male counterpart who is often believed to be the breadwinner. As women show their entrepreneurial prowess, they are presumed to be taking over the role of household leader. These gender-based inequalities and social expectations get in the way of aspiring women entrepreneurs and discourage them to initiate their ventures.
Even after the commencement of the entrepreneurial process, female entrepreneurs face inequality at work and it takes longer for them to gain the trust of the public. However, their role in homemaking and parenting remains the same which builds societal pressure on the well-being of emerging entrepreneurs and has a negative impact on their performance.
In the end, it doesn’t matter if you are a female entrepreneur or a male, what matters most is how you turn your challenges into opportunities and emerge victoriously.
