As a woman entrepreneur my eyes have opened to anything to do with the subject female entrepreneurship, and I realise there is a lot out there! I recently found out that there is a group in the European Professional Women’s Network that arrange meetings and information for fellow entrepreneurs. A couple of weeks ago there was a comment in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten about “why do so many women run away from companies to become entrepreneurs” and today I found an interview on an American site asking two successful lady business owners “why aren’t there more women entrepreneurs?”. Two rather different angles in two different countries.
Women are considered to be risk averse. Yet according to a study quoted in BBC News 21 February 2011 “Compared with men, women were found to aspire more to running their own company than achieving higher rank within a firm.” And according to the same news channel in 2008 “Women are twice as likely as their male counterparts to set up businesses following big life changes such as ill-health, divorce or moving house.” Across the world, we see more and more women starting up business, but bottom line, there are more men than women entrepreneurs.
So what attracts the women that are NOT risk averse to get into this new territory? Or are they still risk averse, there are just other attractions? Speaking for myself, I was attracted to choosing my tasks, or “following my passion”. I was attracted to working with several clients as opposed to working in one corporate culture. And I was attracted to taking my own decisions, without going through an authorization process to implement an idea. And in my case, I do take calculated risks from time to time. Talking with other women, words like “freedom” and “flexibility” do tend to pop up.
I have read in various media that women today are more attracted to starting up a business due to the lack of flexibility with their employer and also hitting the “glass ceiling”- or the “sticky floor”. In developing countries, support is given to women entrepreneurs as they are more likely to return the money they borrow and the whole family benefit from the income.
Other than being risk averse, women tend to have some typical traits that could be a blocker for start-up; e.g lack of self-confidence and experience in self-promotion. But I have found that there is a lot of help out there:
– Numerous books; examples being “100 Ways To Boost Your Self-Confidence: Believe in Yourself and Others Will Too” and “Self-Promotion and the Making of a Brand” or “How to Start and Run Your Home-based business”
– Even better, there are companies that sell “how to set up business” (financials, bureaucracy, law, sales, how to grow business, coaching, etc etc). Some of them focus on women entrepreneurs only.
So are we moving into a new era of women entrepreneurs? Well, as we are getting more and more role models, and an infrastructure to help setting up business, it is a possibility. A tip, though, spread the message!
