In today’s world, more females entrepreneurs are emerging with new businesses. But despite the increasing number of the female counterpart in the business world, they still face so many challenges depriving them of coming top in the business world.
Female entrepreneurs are women who see opportunities around them and gather resources together to make good use of such opportunities and help meet the needs in their immediate environment through products and services. Women have some unique characteristics that have still been able to keep most of them in business, adaptability, innovativeness, creativity, strength, accountability,managerial skills and credit risk. But despite these qualities they still face some challenges.
Lets take a look at the top world richest people, it is dominated by the men, this is to tell us that there are factors/challenges hindering female counterpart from really gaining their stand in the business world. Listed below are some of the challenges that female entrepreneurs face.
Reason for making this information available is to help the women presently in business that do not know to be aware and be able to know how to face them. Likewise for intending business women to be aware of the challenges ahead and be prepared to face them.
1. Cultural Values: This is dominant in the Africa setting where the man is believed to be the bread winner of the family, leaving the woman to just domestic chores. If the woman is seen doing some sort of work, she is believed to be taking the position of the head of the family.
2. Lack of access to finance: Another major challenge women entrepreneurs face is not able to access enough capital to start up their business. Most banks and investors don’t give women capitals to start up a business, this because of their lack of trust in them to pay back. This sometimes due to the fact that some of the women may not be fully grounded in their knowledge of the business, therefore having a bad business plan. It can also be due to the reason that the woman may not have a collateral.
The way out of this is to try and get a collateral and have a strong business plan that any one can buy into it. Also, you must be able to sell your idea excellently well and convince your investors and build their confidence in your business idea. If you raise enough capital from family and friends that will reduce the interest you have to pay.
3. Emotions and wanting to please everyone: women generally are more emotional compare to men, “For men, a business is mostly about the bottom line, but for women, it’s more than that,” said Delia Passi, CEO of WomenCertified. “We get emotionally connected, and that can hold us back from making the tough decisions. Male board members and investors get frustrated when we’re not as quick to fire or make dramatic business changes that could impact employees’ families.” Women like to build relationships and nurture them, but they still have to direct, firm and be focused on their business goals.
This relationship women build sometimes approve of what others say and get carried away by it, this lead them to wanting to satisfy others at the detriment of their business. Women should watch out for this and try not to let their emotions overpower their aims and goals for their businesses.
4. Discrimination from the society: Most people still have the mentality that a woman should not be allowed to take some certain business in the society. They believe those business are meant for men and a woman cannot be fully competent in it. But this believe is actually not true, because their are women who have even done far better than men in some certain areas.
The solution to this challenge is that the woman should keep at what they are doing and do let people’s talk make you weak. When you have made your grounds in that business, then the things been said by the society will now turn in favour of the women.
5. Inferior Educational Background: In some part of the world, women are still given the ability to go deep educational and also to get additional skills that will help them in the business world. It has been known that most women just get basic education which most times is not enough to help them gain any ground in the business world. The best thing for an ambitious woman to do is to try and get this skills and be determined to make it in life.
6. Afraid of Failure: Failure and success are part of life, before a person can be successful, you have to have experienced failure. One has to build confidence and encourage oneself in order to be able to achieve success in any business.
7. Combining Raising a Home and a Business: Having to raise your children and also maintain your business is a very challenging task. As we all know women are the backbone of the home, so you have to find a way to balance up being with your family and also managing your business.
These are the challenges female entrepreneurs face and for those just intending to start or have started their businesses should take note of these challenges and be prepared to face them.
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