Each year, more and more women set
out on the journey to become successful founders and CEOs of their own
companies. While these business-savvy ladies are inspirational to women with
dreams of launching a startup, entrepreneurship remains a traditionally male-dominated
territory, and there are still some significant obstacles that many female
business owners have to face. Here are five of the biggest challenges of women
entrepreneurs today, and how to overcome them.
Women entrepreneurs think they need to act like men.
Most
female business owners who have attended networking events can relate to this
scenario: You walk into a crowded seminar and can count the number of women
there on one hand. When women entrepreneurs have to talk business with
primarily male executives, it can be intimidating.
"When
you own a business, you're constantly negotiating deals with many different
people," said Hilary Genga, founder and CEO of women's swimwear company, Trunkettes. "Many
times, with female owners, men think they can be dishonest or give her a bad
deal because she's a woman — something they probably wouldn't try with another
man.
To
compensate and protect themselves, women often feel as though they need to
adopt a stereotypically "male" attitude toward business: competitive,
aggressive and sometimes overly harsh. But Genga believes this is the wrong
approach to take.
"Be
yourself, and have confidence in who you are," she advised. "Don't
try to be a man. You made it to where you are through hard work and
perseverance, but most importantly, you're there. Don't conform yourself to a
man's idea of what a leader should look like."
Emotions and nurturing skills can affect their business.
Though trying to act like a man doesn't guarantee success for a
female entrepreneur, allowing her "feminine" qualities to stand in
the way of getting
things done isn't
necessarily recommended, either. By nature, women are more emotional and
nurturing, which can sometimes be a hindrance to running a business.
"For men, a business is mostly about the bottom line, but
for women, it's more than that," said Delia Passi, CEO of WomenCertified,
home of the Women's Choice Award.
"We get emotionally connected, and that can hold us back from making the
tough decisions. Male board members and investors get frustrated when we're not
as quick to fire or make dramatic business
changesthat could impact employees' families."
Passi noted that
women also tend
to be very relationship-based in business, placing a high premium on building
up relationships that they hope will naturally lead to a sale. Connections are
highly important to success, and nurturing strong professional relationships
can go a long way. However, Passi reminded female
entrepreneurs to also be
direct and stay focused on their business goals.
Women often lack the support of other female business
leaders.
Long before she founded online women's eyewear boutique Rivet and Sway, CEO Sarah Bryar worked with undergraduate
female engineering students at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. These "trailblazers," as Bryar
described them, felt insecure about being in the minority as women who excelled
in math and science, and longed for more camaraderie and support from female
peers in their field.
"The
main challenge for female entrepreneurs is just like the challenge for female
engineering students: There just aren't enough of us," Bryar told
BusinessNewsDaily. "There aren't enough women to be role models, act as
sounding boards, do deals with — in short, to create normalcy for women in
leadership positions."
Despite
the quickly growing number of female executives and business owners, finding
fellow women entrepreneurs to connect with isn't always easy. Women-focused
networking events like American Express OPEN's CEO BootCamp are
good places to start, as well as online forums and groups specifically created
for women in business.
"Opportunities
to lead do exist for women," Bryar said. "We just need to continue to
support and promote women in the limelight to encourage others to come along
for the ride."
Many women have to balance raising a family with running
their business.
Work-life balance is
often a goal of entrepreneurs across the board, but mothers who start
businesses have to simultaneously run their families and their companies.
"Being
a mother while running a business is very challenging," Genga said.
"There are ways to balance your time, but the perception is that you could
be more effective running your business if you didn't have to deal with
kids."
Genga has
learned to not take shortcomings on either front too seriously, and to not beat
herself up over the little things, like missing a class trip with her children.
"Momtrepreneurs" have dual responsibilities to their business and to
their family, and finding ways to devote time to both is key to truly achieving
that elusive work-life balance.
Women entrepreneurs are afraid of failure.
According
to Babson College's 2012 Global Entrepreneur Monitor, the fear of failure is
the top concern of women who launch startups. Failure is a very real
possibility in any business venture, but Passi believes it shouldn't be viewed
as negative.
"You
need to have massive failure to have massive success," she told
BusinessNewsDaily. "You may need 100 "no's" to get one
"yes," but that one "yes" will make you more successful
tomorrow than you were today."
Bryar
offered similar advice for female entrepreneurs, encouraging them to work
through the moments of self-doubt that every business owner faces.
"Work
hard at ignoring that inner voice that may discourage taking action, speaking
up or getting outside your comfort zone," she said. "It's something I
struggle with myself, but I know fundamentally that I wouldn't be a CEO today
if I hadn't taken chances to assert myself."