Every day there are more and more women starting their own businesses and becoming their own boss. Women can run and develop successful businesses on their own, and the number of female entrepreneurs continues to grow. Although there are more women business owners and entrepreneurs, they still face many challenges and obstacles keeping them from the same opportunities as their male counterparts.
Limits on Funding
As the old saying goes––to make money, you have to spend money. To start a business, it’s essential to have funding. Unfortunately, not all entrepreneurs are lucky enough to have an investor or financier to get their business up and running. In some cases, an entrepreneur will have to rely solely on credit cards or raise capital independently. Often, it’s women-owned businesses that lack financial support and will have limited funding. Women are far more likely than men to be denied loans due to their gender and cultural bias. One great resource for any startup owner to secure financing with favorable terms is the US Small Business Administration, or SBA. Specifically, all business owners, but particularly women, may wish to research www.sba.com and look at their MicroLoan Program in more detail, which offers relatively affordable financing with reasonable terms, for amounts up to $50,000.
Gender Inequality
Whether you believe it or not, much of the business world was designed by men for men. To be successful, a woman has to work much harder all while facing stigma and discrimination. Even though there are laws and policies that attempt to create an equal and favorable business environment for everyone, there still hasn’t been much change. While a woman can overcome gender inequality and run a successful startup, the challenge can prove to be too great of an obstacle for some women-owned businesses to survive.
Balancing Life and Work
As a female entrepreneur, there is much more societal pressure to balance business and family. Parent entrepreneurs have both business and family responsibilities, and they often struggle to find ways to devote time to both. Much of the time, women will feel pressure to abandon either her business or family. The family and often society expects her to devote most of her time to the home, but the business needs her leadership and commitment. This balancing act can leave women feeling overwhelmed.
Fear of Failure From Others
Being an entrepreneur comes with great risk and there can be several unforeseen circumstances. Whether you’re a man or a woman, the fear of failure can hold you back from being successful. However, primarily as a female entrepreneur, fear and insecurities are continually being used to put them down and encourage them to not even try. It’s essential for women not to listen to the fear of failure and to not give up. A woman must learn to filter out constructive feedback from the naysayers, learn from their mistakes and hardships, and stay the course to becoming a successful entrepreneur.