8 Primary Challenges Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Starting and Managing a Business

Entrepreneurship is hard. The sacrifices, challenges, hard work, and sleepless nights are all part of an entrepreneur’s path to success.

Women entrepreneurs though face their own set of challenges just because they belong to a particular gender. It is unfortunate that the current society does not give enough support and resources to women for them to make it big.

Here are a few challenges women face in becoming entrepreneurs and in their entrepreneurial journey:

Limited Funding Opportunities:

The right kind of funding can help kickstart a business or help a business grow multifold.

Unfortunately, among many factors that affect funding, the gender bias of the investors also plays a primary role. According to a report, only 12% of the companies funded by VCs in India have at least one female co-founder. This number drastically reduces when it comes to VC-backed companies that are run by all-women founders. Not only VC firms and angel investors but banks also tend to not fund women entrepreneurs as they consider them not creditworthy. Moreover, not having any property or assets in their name cause a problem for women when applying for a loan or private funding.

But, this is unfair as the primary reason for this reluctance is clearly gender bias and prejudices of investors. This needs to change as women are in no way inferior to men in terms of running a successful business and the right funding can give women entrepreneurs a higher chance of success.

Limited Access to Professional Networks

It’s not what you know, it‘s who you know, that matters.

Networking plays a huge role in entrepreneurial success as it is extremely important in scaling any business. But women entrepreneurs are less likely to be included in any professional network as traditionally they are considered to be unworthy of such discussions. The fact that 48% of female founders report that a lack of available advisors and mentors limits their professional growth is enough to show the reality of the present situation.

When most of the existing professional networks are dominated by men, it becomes difficult for women to access such networks. This hurts their business as it hurts their chances of networking to get the right funding or vendors or even mentors.

Work-life balance

Family plays an important role in everyone’s life. Taking responsibility for the family is necessary, but for women, the family is considered to be an extension of them. As soon as they are married, they are expected to enter motherhood and play the primary role in rearing children. The family expects her to be a mother and wife, while their business expects them to be leaders.

In this process, people around them forget women also have dreams, desires, and passions, and have every right to choose to work and build businesses.

As women get overwhelmed by this pressure they are put under, it acts as a hindrance to their success in their business.

They deserve all the social support they can get to be able to achieve their dreams.

Pressure to Stick to Traditional Gender Roles

Irrespective of what a woman wants, women in the present patriarchal society are expected to play predefined gender-defined roles. They are expected to do all the household chores, and be responsible for the welfare of the family, while also catering to their professional commitments.

At the same time, when the industry is majorly male-dominated, and whenever they walk into any networking event, they see only men around, they are forced to play to men’s definition of how women should work.

This pressure to play gender-specific roles defined by men can be overwhelming especially for women who are just starting out. This can demotivate them.

Even when women are paid equally to men, the pressure to rise amongst the discrimination makes it even more challenging for women.

Lack of an Entrepreneurial Environment

Entrepreneurship is not a bed of roses. It is a mixture of a lot of learnings, unlearning, risks, and sacrifices. Along with all the regular challenges women face, the lack of an environment that supports women’s entrepreneurship is an extra hurdle women have to cross. In some places, women are expected to have a male cofounder to secure funding and leads and to crack deals with vendors.

A productive environment where women are supported and seen as someone who can run businesses can play a huge role in keeping passion alive.

Lack of Business Education

Educating girls in many countries is seen as a burden. Some families, in the place of encouraging them to pursue their dreams, are forced to get married early and expect them to act as good wives according to their own definition.

Education can change the way one thinks. It gives access to resources that will help them find innovative ideas to work on. These ideas can turn out to be proper businesses.

Not only formal education, women, irrespective of their educational background and professional experience can be benefited from entrepreneurship coaching which can help them understand tips and techniques to find work-life balance, give them the confidence to start and become successful in the business of their choice.

Coping with fear of failure

In any business you do, there’s no guarantee of success. But fear of failure should never stop anyone from taking the plunge.

Women due to a lack of a proper support system tend to have this fear of failure and this stops most of them from taking the initial step. They are sceptical of their capability and dread failure as they think they’ll be ridiculed more if they fail because they were never supported, to begin with.

Having the right support network can give them the confidence to run a business irrespective of the result as trust is instilled in them that they have someone to fall back on.

Inadequate Support System

A social support system is also necessary for women to succeed. If you don’t have support at home, the whole process becomes even more difficult than it already is.

As women are expected to take care of their family and are dumped with responsibilities, without proper support from their partner or their family members, it can be overwhelming to a point where they will not have any other choice than to quit,

All women should be supported and their dreams should be valued. They should be given the freedom to pursue their passion and should not be made feel guilty for doing so.

In conclusion, women entrepreneurs are the need of the hour as they bring in ideas only they can think of along with a lot of empathy. Let’s all join hands in bringing the change. If you are thinking of becoming one, join my workshop to get all the support you need

For such brighter days ahead!

Meena Chabbria.