Summary

Are you prepared to take your entrepreneurial aspirations to new heights and surmount the obstacles frequently confronting female business owners? Financial boundaries and societal biases present distinctive challenges for female founders wishing to expand their ventures. Access to capital and unintentional preconceptions often impede scaling efforts. 

However, an advanced business education in innovation leadership provides tools to surmount such obstacles.  Consider pursuing an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Rushford Business School. This customized curriculum supplies participants with the requisite expertise, insights, and connections necessary to effectively address and overwhelm issues involved with expanding operations. Embark on an illuminating educational experience empowering innovation, leadership, and triumph. Come join us as we collaboratively forge women’s roles as entrepreneurs going forward.

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Everyone has those moments when we only need a bit of motivation, right? Definitely when you are on the path to being an entrepreneur or already a business startup!

If people doubt how far you can go, go so far that you can’t hear them anymore – Michele Ruiz

Just picture yourself, standing on the shoreline of a giant ocean peering down at your dreams and staring back up from the glimmering surface. You know that the land of your dreams is somewhere beyond all this, on the other side- and yet there are gales in the waters. The voyage is long overdue to get rough! This is a great metaphor for how many women entrepreneurs feel trying to scale. Behind their tenacity and talent, however, is a series of barriers that uniquely challenge them to ascend. So, we work through these barriers and what can be done to help women win those battles for their largest successes.

More than 25 years ago the social psychologist Faye Crosby stumbled on a surprising phenomenon: Most women are unaware of having personally been victims of gender discrimination and deny it even when it is objectively true and they see that women in general experience it.

Most women have spent their careers trying to get gender out of the way to be recognized for their skills and talents. Furthermore, if organizations have gender-biased policies and practices this may imply that they are powerless to decide their success. Asked why more women are not advancing in their organizations, they opined:

Most high-level female CEOs who have made gender diversity a business priority are not seeing success from prioritizing the higher number of women rising to leadership roles, mandating diverse candidates for top jobs, and implementing programs bringing mentorship and quality job training. They and their corporations invest money, resources, time, and well-intentioned energy in initiatives to create a stronger pipeline of women who can rise upwardly – but little does.

Their approach to these leaders is that they do nothing to assist in the fragile process of trying on and being seen as leaders. Being placed in a position to lead, and learning new skills and tactics that are required of the role you have chosen is only one part of developing yourself as a leader. It marks a shift in core identity. Organizations support implicit stereotype maintenance when they counsel women to lean in – seek leadership roles and speak out more frequently, without directly addressing policies that send messages about how the average woman’s face does not match up with what leaders are expected/allowed to do.

Thousands of women entrepreneurs across the globe are running and successfully managing their small businesses. A lot of entrepreneurial women like the idea of creating a life and working around what they want, having the freedom to grow as BIG as they can when it comes to their success.

Being liberating, running a small business is equally as painful.

Barriers to scale for women entrepreneurs

Cultural Assumptions and prejudices

The sad truth, globally women own and operate millions of businesses; yet in many markets, entrepreneurship is still seen primarily as a male occupation.

There is a sequence of countries where beginning an own business is impossible for a woman, without a male family member aiding the process. However, even in those countries that do not support the idea of a man supporting a woman, the attitude towards starting businesses majority differs significantly. Referring to data, provided by the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index, in 2013, in the UK 45 women started a business per 100 men. Meanwhile, this number is 71 in the US, 85 in Australia and 112 in the Philippines.

We must support female entrepreneurs around the world by addressing the underlying issues limiting their access to opportunities and buying their products and services and by celebrating their successes. Initiatives including women-centered venture capital organizations, networks of angel financiers, and government-sponsored grants or loans are critical in narrowing the chasm in capital acquisition. Such efforts intend to furnish female founders with the monetary means critical to broadening their enterprises. 

Additionally, mentorship programs pairing novice women entrepreneurs with seasoned business leaders supply invaluable counsel regarding strategic planning and pitching to potential backers. Academics researching funding disparities find that implicit bias among traditional investors likely contributes to the scarcity of dollars allocated to the female population. With the promotion of gender-balanced investment panels and education combating preconceptions, the discrepancy in backing between genders may ultimately diminish.

The Funding Gap

While financial backing has long been unequally accessible, new data illuminates the persistence of this divide. Venture contributions spanning the globe a lot less than a fifteenth to teams headed by females. In developing regions, the inequity grows starker, with research by McGraw Hill Financial revealing seven in ten women-owned small enterprises there lack funds. 

Elsewhere, traditional lending routinely rejects prosperous initiatives solely due to gender, ignoring ingenuity and will in favor of bias. Equitable support remains a dream deferred.

Fortunately, increasing funds are starting to funnel towards lady female entrepreneurs through pro-woman angel, seed, and venture capital assets. The bases for modification are in place. We simply demand to quicken the rate of progress, especially for female entrepreneurs in unfolding markets, where the administration necessities to work with corporates and entrepreneurs to pinpoint means of concentrating support the female entrepreneurs.

 Initiatives for example women-focused venture capital companies, angel financial specialist systems, and administration presents or loans are crucial in bridging the support opening. These undertakings intend to furnish women entrepreneurs with the budgetary backing expected to scale their organizations. Alternately, in certain instances, a slower refinement may in reality be preferential. While hastening alteration seems advantageous, forced quickening can undermine establishment and sustainability. Steady yet persistent efforts focused on empowerment and opportunities are most likely to produce lasting positive change.

Lack of practical experience

Women and men alike tend to obtain their entrepreneurial acumen through experience rather than academia. Consequently, innumerable women seldom envision embarking on entrepreneurship until well into their vocations. At that point, circumstances sometimes compel such a choice instead of volition—a redundancy, for instance. Yet others seize opportunities early, defying expectations through pluck and innovation. Against the odds, they establish thriving enterprises while blending career and family. While experience primarily teaches many, many more individuals access guidance that inspires venturesomeness from any starting point.

While parents, schools, and institutions of higher education each contribute to advancing entrepreneurship as a proactive, rather than reluctant, career path by cultivating necessary entrepreneurial abilities within individuals, we as a society must also highlight the accomplishments of women entrepreneurs. By elevating female role models for young women to emulate, we can help ensure greater representation and inspiration. Though various societal actors play a role, changing mindsets and inspiring the next generation of potential business owners, particularly young women, should be a shared priority.

Insufficient networks

There is good reasoning behind why so rarely does one refer to the “Old Girls’ Network” – it simply fails to exist in the very same manner as the notorious “Old Boys’ Network” unfailingly does. Within numerous countries and industries – take for example private equity, venture capital, and investment banking – where invariably the longstanding networks remain dominated by men and female entrepreneurs become intentionally or unintentionally shut out.

Networking proves itself vital for female entrepreneurs because through this they gain access to potential supporters offering funding, mentorship, and clients. Mentoring networks dedicated to women have already found achievement in boosting the growth and survival rates of startups. Lengthy have been the days too of the solitary female founding her startup without a web of support as networking creates connections that provide the resources necessary for weathering the challenges that will assuredly come.

To navigate expansion challenges, women entrepreneurs would be wise to construct solid business networks and seek guidance from experienced mentors. Obtaining market research and capitalizing on government trade advancement programs can furnish important insights and assistance for flourishing market entrance. While networking selections exist for enterprising female business owners who wish to connect with others possessing similar passions, such as Dell’s Women Entrepreneur Network, females necessitate extra backing in this region. They also need to welcome into men’s networks. We all must reflect on unintentional bias in the groups and occasions we lead to consider whether they inadvertently exclude women or individuals with youthful families. 

Alternatively, establishing strong cross-gender relationships and prioritizing inclusive atmospheres can potentially open beneficial doors for women entrepreneurs that might otherwise remain shut.

Media stereotypes

At its upper echelons, the media remains an industry dominated by men whose newspapers, radio programs, and televised networks are all too often guilty of perpetuating outdated and diminished views of women. However, the media holds immense power to reform how female entrepreneurs are perceived through its far-reaching influence. 

When profile features and news articles spotlight women business owners with the same frequency and flattering terminology as their male counterparts, viewpoints across cultures can truly be transformed for the better. Though change remains gradual, every journal that chooses to highlight success stories of women leaders over stereotypes brings society closer to a day when gender is no longer a factor in how ambition and innovation are regarded.

A Call to Action

We have certainly made strides towards gender equity over the decades, yet a vast disparity remains. The World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Gap Report reveals a sobering truth – full parity will not be achieved for over a century if changes don’t accelerate. Five generations is an unacceptable length of time to wait, extending well beyond the 2030 deadline set by the United Nations. Progress has slowed precipitously in recent years, leaving us at risk of falling short of the crucial Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets.

 As leaders across industries and communities, we must collectively redouble our efforts to close enduring gaps. Educators must prioritize inclusiveness, politicians craft responsive policies, the media broaden representations, and all allies promote visibility. If we rally now to support women in entrepreneurship through every available resource, imagination, and drive, our societies will be rewarded in short order with flourishing businesses and economies. The time to fast forward is upon us – we cannot afford to lag for even one more generation.

Interested in converting your entrepreneurial visions into truth? Contemplate chasing an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Invention from Rushford Business School. This course equips you with the talents, insights, and connections to navigate and defeat the challenges in the entrepreneurial domain. Submerge into a transformative wisdom experience that empowers you to revolutionize, lead, and flourish.