In this article, we will be focusing on what are the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs.
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Being a woman and then being an entrepreneurial woman is not easy. One of the most difficult things for a woman is that she has to prove herself at every single step that yes she is competent enough to make the impossible possible for her.
Despite all the hardships and hurdles, many such successful businesses are owned by women but the point is that they have gone through many challenges.
In this male dominant society, it is really hard for women to survive but still, some women don’t give a dam to the people discouraging them and let themselves stay focused on their work and goals.
For women it is well said;
if people are doubting how far you can go, go so far that you can’t hear them anymore
This is the century that gave rise to a women entrepreneurial ecosystem and let the voice of women be heard.
The most interesting thing is that it is increasing at a surprisingly massive rate and there are so many case studies of successful women entrepreneurs. But still, there are some common Challenges Faced by Entrepreneurs.
Women must be self-employed and should not depend upon anyone for their financial needs and the empowered women inspire so many other women to step up from the comfort of their homes and prove themselves to be the best in their skill set.
It is said;
a women’s best protection is a money of her own
There are several competent female entrepreneurs around the globe and have shown a massive positive engagement in the field of entrepreneurship.
Some young women entrepreneurs step out to start their entrepreneurial journey out of their passion while some do it to fulfill their necessity.
The challenges become even bigger when it comes to the business environment where the competitors are men.
In my opinion, entrepreneurship is the best and ideal way to prove themselves in this competitive market. In this article,
I will be sharing the list of challenges that usually female entrepreneurs face. Let’s have a detailed look at each of these.
Challenges Faced by Female Entrepreneurs:
For females, every step comes up with a surprisingly different sort of challenge. it’s up to them how hard do they work to survive in a male dominant society.
The only thing we should do is encourage and appreciate them so that they will be able to achieve even more.
It is said;
there is always a powerful driving force inside every woman that once unleashed, can make any vision, dream or desire a reality
Whether it is a market of tech or entertainment or education, female entrepreneurs are facing challenges and hardships to uplift them and something productive and beneficial for the betterment of society.
Let’s have a look at the set of challenges that female entrepreneurs usually face:
No one takes them and their Idea Seriously:
This is one of the biggest major challenges in starting a business that female entrepreneurs face at the initial stages of their journey when so much courage is needed.
Mostly, females are considered to be the fool and stupid person in the male dominant society, so due to this reason, no one considers their idea and take it seriously.
They have to do so much struggle to be taken seriously because most of the time, they have been taken for granted and so does their idea.
Instead of focusing more on their idea, they have to struggle hard for convincing people that they can do.
The initial stage is the stage where instead of receiving appreciation, females are getting negative remarks coming from everywhere around them.
So the best female entrepreneur is who face these negative remarks and non-serious attitude from the people all around, and prove them wrong by working hard.
It is said;
the best protection any woman can have is courage
Funding Issues for Business:
It is comparatively harder for the women in business facts to do the funding for her business as to that of men.
Looking back at the very first challenge, no one takes them and their idea seriously, so the next big challenge is convincing people to fund her business.
If no one is willing is to consider their idea, they will never agree to fund their business. There are usually three people who can fund the business and those are friends, family, and fools.
So the biggest challenge for females is that their near and dear ones do not consider their idea so that’s why they face hurdles in funding for the business.
Female entrepreneurs find very limited access to the funding due to the reason that investors never believe in women-led businesses and do not consider it worthy enough.
So to resolve this issue, there must be females that should be agreed to invest in women-led businesses which will not only help their businesses to grow but will also encourage females to the next level.
But it will be only possible if you invest your hard work and dedication in your idea, only then others will consider your idea.
As it is said;
the more hard work you put in your idea, the more people will be willing to invest in your idea
Hardships in Team Building:
A very famous saying can defend the importance of the team in a much better way;
nothing of greatness can ever by achieved without a team
No business can perform all internal and external operations alone because a master in all is a master in none.
So there must be a proper team where each team member must be dedicated to performing a proper set of tasks and this is exactly the big challenge for female entrepreneurs to build a strong team.
Reasons could be many like there may come trust issues, they can not include anyone in their team. There might come some social obstacles that limit her, that’s why she must be very selective and sharp in choosing members for her team.
Hardships in expanding Network:
To excel in your business, business owners need to network efficiently. Females usually find it hard to socialize and to build networks with the people of the market in which they are working too.
Building a supportive network with authoritative and highly experienced business persons and entrepreneurs is one of the most important things that every business demands and this is the big challenge for females and the point where many females lack behind.
It is not easy for females to search for the correct and useful network for their business that can benefit their business in a great way.
Females can find both online and offline networks but there are drawbacks in networking for females.
So to network effectively, you must be wise enough and strong enough and you must be very specific regarding your business idea so that people would love to talk and listen more about your work.
Mismanagement of Finances:
Finance is one of the most important and sensitive parts of any business and it is one of the major challenges that usually female entrepreneurs face. They often find it difficult to manage their finances and secure money.
Females not having any prior finance experience or background can give their business a huge loss because they sometimes mix the revenue and expenses due to the mismanagement of their finances.
Mismanagement of Time:
Time is one of the most precious things that a human being can ever have but at the same time, it is one of the biggest challenges for female entrepreneurs to manage it which is often the most difficult task for them.
Due to extreme work pressure, it becomes so difficult for them to balance their work-life and family life because, for females, their families must be a top priority for them.
Family demands them to be responsible enough for the proper upbringing of their children, for the proper take care of their spouses and other many related things.
Whereas, on the work side, many business operations demand their time so such sort of pressure is a big challenge for them. It’s not about managing your time well, its actually about yourself well.
A very well said quote regarding this is stated below;
time management is really a misnomer, the challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselve
Lack of Support:
Professional jealousy is one of the most common factors that is usually found in every second professional of our society.
One of the major challenges faced by female entrepreneurs is that they do not find any reliable support.
There is an inadequate system of support in our society. If one female supports the other one and shares the knowledge that they have as per their experience, so many people would easily prevent themselves from many hurdles and thus the chain goes on.
It is the social responsibility of successful entrepreneurs to guide the female entrepreneurs so that they feel their work more enjoyable and less challenging.
It is said;
when women support each other, incredible things happen
Fear of Failure:
Females are passionate enough to grow their business and losers enough to take and bear risks. As compared to that of men, females are fewer risk-takers, therefore, the challenge that they have to face being a female entrepreneur is that they always have a fear of failure in their mind and heart.
Failure is a possibility which we all know but the fear of failure should not exceed that much that they even fear to make a try.
If they step up in business, then they should surely learn to cope up with the failures that might come their way over time.
It is said;
it is not the failure itself that holds you back, it is the fear of failure that paralyzes you
Unable to Implement proper Marketing Strategies:
This is one of the biggest challenges that many entrepreneurs face because marketing is one of the first and foremost things that your newly started business needs.
Females strive hard to market their business but unfortunately, it is even harder for her to market their business.
Many of the women-led businesses fail due to improper implementation of marketing techniques. Because if you do not market it well, then you can not do it well.
Marketing is the thing which is the need of your business right from day one and even your business reaches the level of success, marketing is mandatory at that point too.
good marketing makes the business look smart
Discouraging remarks from Society:
Some people will always let others down by passing discouraging remarks and this is the major challenge for an entrepreneur to face the discouraging remarks despite doing so much hard work.
Instead of appreciation and positive remarks, some people try to spoil them by passing out an extreme level of disgusting and discouraging remarks.
So female entrepreneurs who are passionate and dedicated towards their work keep themselves to stay focused and do not let themselves get discouraged easily.
It is said;
she was unstoppable not because she did not have failures or doubts but because she continued to work on to prove herself
Hardships in Beating Competitors:
Being a female entrepreneur, it must be your first and foremost goal to beat your competitors and a challenge for the females as well.
They have to focus more and more on advertising their business to gain visibility as well as the credibility of their target market.
Female entrepreneurs should consider their competitors as a big challenge because according to my perspective it is the only way that drives us and gives us the strength to perform our level best.
It is said;
competition is a good thing, it forces us to do our best
Females are Emotionally Weak:
Last but not the least, females are extremely weak from the emotional point of view which is one of the biggest challenges for them as well.
They make decisions based on their emotions. There are very few females who have effective decision-making abilities and take wise decisions.
Being emotional is one of the major weak points of females which sometimes acts as a hurdle and can take away several opportunities from them.
So a strong woman should always do the decision-making from the mind, not by heart because females are considered to be weak people from an emotional point of view.
FINAL THOUGHT:
Being a female entrepreneur, whether you are running a business or doing some sort of entrepreneurial activity, challenges will come alongside your way. The only thing that you have to do is to keep yourself steadfast and not to lose any hope.
As it is said;
never lose hope, tomorrow could be the day you have been waiting for
In my upcoming articles, I will be sharing more content about the entrepreneurial journey and how successful entrepreneurs have gone through such hardships and proved themselves to be the most competent and dedicated part of the society.
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