The National Association of Women Business Owners in the U.S. said over 11 million firms in America are owned by women; they employ about 9 million people and generate about $1.7 trillion in sales. The problem, however, is that the majority of these women entrepreneurs face significant business challenges that almost trump those faced by men.
1. Limited business funding
Startups owned by women usually have difficulty raising necessary funding than those owned by men. The reason for this is largely because of the stereotype that women cannot be as good as men in business; but this is not true, women can be better than men in business. Women entrepreneurs have limited access to business funding and they do not come about capital as easily as men do.
2. Balancing business and family life
Considering that women have to raise/train their children and cater to the needs of their husbands amidst other domestic chores, many women have difficulty balancing business and family life. When women are not able to balance business and family obligations, the startup established by the women suffer and risk collapse.
3. Fear of failure
Women are always conscious of their position in society and many see themselves as inferior to men even though they are business entrepreneurs. Based on this complex, many women fear to fail at their businesses, and the fear either motivates them to strive harder to success or to cringe back to eventual failure.
4. Business a support network
Many women do not have access to professional support network necessary for entrepreneurial success. When women do not have a support group to help with their businesses, they lose essential access to business advisers and mentors that could provide guidance for their business growth.
5. Struggling to be taken serious
We live in a world where women are not taken seriously, at home and in business. Men are respected when they want to do the impossible, but women are disdained when they attempt to do the unusual. So women have a hard time trying to convince a male-dominated world that they can do something and excel at it with all profits.
6. Defying social expectations
The society expects women to sit back at home and await handouts from their husbands. The society expects women to tend to the children and cook the family meals. The community wants women to remain as second-class citizens where male dominance is in question. But for a woman to excel as an entrepreneur, she must defy all social odds and beat all expectations to succeed. Unfortunately, many women fall into the stereotypical male attitudes of competitiveness and aggression to prove they are as capable as the menfolk.
7. Owning their accomplishments
Many women have a tendency of downplaying their accomplishments because they don’t want to offend male sensibilities. When a woman downplays her accomplishments, she is actually downplaying her economic and social worth in the eyes of people from whom she seeks acceptance.
“When I talk about the company, I always find myself saying ‘we’ instead of ‘I,'” said Molly MacDonald, founder and CEO of The Mobile Locker Company. “Using the first person to discuss successes feels to me as if I’m bragging, and I cannot shake the idea that if someone knows it’s just me in control, the value of what we do will go down. As I grow the business, I am making an effort to own what I’ve accomplished.”