Rise of Women in Entrepreneurship

The recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) found 126 million women starting or running businesses, and 98 million operating established businesses, that’s 224 million women impacting the global economy.

When I came across this data, I started thinking why many women still had a fear of being part of a start up. Then I started my research and found that “women entrepreneurs constitute only 10 percent of the total number of entrepreneurs in India and it is mainly because of the gender-based barriers to starting and growing their businesses, like discriminatory property, matrimonial and inheritance laws and cultural practices, lack of access to formal finance mechanisms, limited mobility and access to information and networks, etc.”

For many women, starting a new business can be a daunting task so through my blog I would like to add some of the essential skills you should develop if you are an aspiring Women Entrepreneur.

Goal Setting

Learn to make a clear, achievable and realistic goal that will give you a long term focus and enable you to keep moving in the right direction. Stay motivated and committed to the goal and map out a plan for how you will achieve each goal and set deadlines. Try to spend some time visualizing a long-term goal for your business, and find an image or symbolic item that reminds you of where you want to be so that your goals should set the tone for your business and help guide you toward reaching your stated objectives.

Time Management

Many women Entrepreneurs struggle with time management to maintain work-life balance so developing your time management skills will definitely help you to maximize productivity and effectiveness.Keeping an activity log of appointments, meetings, tasks, telephone calls, and other important events will enable you to analyze your current working style and plan improvement strategies and by avoid wasting time on unimportant tasks such as unsolicited phone calls and checking email by delegating the task can help you focus more.

Negotiation

Research shows that women are less likely to negotiate than men, and men initiate negotiations about four times as often as women. Negotiation skills are extremely important and can be useful when negotiating with vendors and customers or negotiating business contracts and securing investment capital.First, it’s important to develop a certain comfort level when it comes to negotiating so choose a negotiation style that makes you feel comfortable.It’s also important to set your expectations prior to the negotiation phase and don’t be reluctant to ask for what you want

Most importantly be willing to say “No” and don’t be afraid to walk away. So when going into negotiations remember to leave your emotions at the door. Don’t take it personally. Learning solid negotiation skills can mean the difference between success and failure.

I insist all the aspiring Women Entrepreneurs to apply for Women Entrepreneurship Quest (WEQ). It is a flagship program by a non profit named ABI with a mission of getting women into technology. As part of the WEQ program, every year 10 women founders are taken on an all expense paid exposure trip program to Silicon Valley. It is a comprehensive platform that provides mentoring, learning and networking opportunities for real business growth. Yet another program is empoWer,an initiative by Zone Startups India, for supporting women entrepreneurs. It is India’s first tech accelerator for women entrepreneurs and empoWer provides mentorship, industry connects, peer network, investor meets through a 6-week​ ​accelerator​ program​ ​followed by a 1-year support program​.

When I did my preliminary research on Women Entrepreneurship, I came across the story of two super women who really motivated me , so I encourage all of you to read about them.First one, Anu Aga who led Thermex Ltd. Even though she faced so many struggles in her personal life including the death of her husband and son, she was strong enough and she paved an enviable growth spree in a male dominated engineering world as within 8 years she converted the turnover of Thermax from ₹605 crores to ₹1281 crores.Another one which really strikes me is the journey of D Anila Jyothi Reddy from a field worker in Warangal who earned Rs 5 per day to the the CEO of Key Software Solutions in the US.

Finally, I would like to thank Mr. Sijo Kuruvilla, founding CEO of Startup village for changing my perception about Startups and giving me opportunity to interact with two strong ladies namely Ruby Peethambaran, Co-founder of Fourth Armpit Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and Meera Radhakrishnan, Director of Sales Operations, Full contact Inc. who really inspired me and helped me overcome my cognitive bias about Women Entrepreneurship.