Business and entrepreneurship now are seeing a completely different dynamic. Women entrepreneurs are now a force to reckon with. And this is especially a more practical phenomenon for women who are not the breadwinners of the family.
The main problem with starting a business is the risk involved. Most businesses fail in their first year. But if you’re a woman who has no issues in terms of earning for livelihood, starting up a business is more viable. There is not much at stake, and experimentation can be an option. Also, you can always start working from home in order to slowly transition your family into a full working day.
In India alone, many women are housewives with or without higher education, but they possess ideas or skills that make them fit for starting up and running a small-scale business at least. Instead of working corporate jobs, they can invest their time and energy into getting something started for themselves. This not only is practical in terms of timings and schedules, but it’s also a great source of confidence.
Starting small is the best way to go. Biting on more than one can chew is not recommended when you will be the sole worker for the business initially. You need not have a heavy investment initially; you can risk with part of your own savings, or take a loan. Starting small is always better.
The key point to note is balancing the home with work. Women are natural at multi-tasking, so that should not be an issue. However, keeping that in mind; deadlines should be given due importance. No business will thrive if the owner is too laid back or caught up to be able to get to meetings and reach deadlines.
Since this will be a no-pressure venture for the women, they will be able to explore options they never could, taking up riskier projects. Men, unfortunately, do not have this kind of luxury unless they’re already loaded with cash. Starting up any entrepreneurial venture is a risk, and it gets even riskier if the product or service is already in the market, one of a kind, or unusual.
Other than the basic know-how of business, online research can help a lot, there is no excuse to now having knowledge. The most important quality required in a businessman/woman is the ability to handle money and be creative. There are women all over the world that have started businesses from scratch and now are minting money and having a stable home life too.
One can gather a lot of inspiration from these women, and also learn a great deal. Numerous articles on the web can enable us with business solutions, and tips and tricks from the ones who’re in the field. Ideas too can be gathered and polished via research.
This may sound very interesting and doable, but it requires a lot of hard work and perseverance. It’s not at all easy to build something from the ground up. Managing people, interacting with clients and customers can drain all energy out of you.
Not to mention the world’s bias toward working women or women in general, it’s all going to happen in a day’s work. Keeping the eye on the prize, and being wise, will eliminate all these hurdles and a new businesswoman will be born who is sharp, precise, and graceful in accomplishing all her day’s tasks while balancing home.
Indra Nooyi, Shahnaz Husain, Oprah Winfrey, Delia Smith, Rachael Ray are the few successful female entrepreneurs whom I am talking about.
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