Women Entrepreneurs Prove It’s Not Just A Man’s World
Women Entrepreneurs Prove It’s Not Just A Man’s World
In most fields, the standard for success is a man. Men make up 51.7% of US CEO positions and 67% of Fortune 500 CEOs. In the last four years, only 10% of women-owned business startups were successful. However, more and more women are embracing entrepreneurship as a way to combat this imbalance and prove that it's not just a man’s world. Here are some stories about these pioneers:
Sarah Seidman founded, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network in 2015 after successfully running three start-ups in Canada at the age of 22; Mariya Kuznetsov founded Bagsby Inc. in 2014 and achieved $38M in revenue within three years; and Brittany Rubel co-founded the Doon Clinic in 2015 and grew it to 300 staff members.
13.4% of women are starting new companies, compared to 8.9 % of men.
30% of female entrepreneurs say their gender holds them back from making a success of their start-up while only 27% of men feel that way. © ASSOCIATED PRESS A young woman starts her own company © AP Photo/Gregory Bull 18 percent of businesses founded by women close in the first year; 35 percent close within five years; 26 percent (11 percent more!) survive 10 years or more.
Women entrepreneurs have lower capitalization rates, higher failure rates and more funding gaps.
Kathryn Minshew founded The Muse in 2012 to help millennials build a network of their own through social media, and it’s reached over 9 million users; Sara Horowitz founded the Freelancers Union in 1997 to protect the rights of freelancers (which makes up 35% of the workforce now) and has worked with over 250,000 members since; and Kristina Halvorson started Brain Traffic to promote web usability.
In 2014, 69% of Google’s tech employees were men. Yet 52% of these women were assigned to non-tech jobs within Google management teams.
Women entrepreneurs, on average, out-earn men by $5,000 to $6,000 a year. Source: "Women’s Business Enterprise Report," U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Women's Business Council
COO of Etsy Inc., Jennifer Finnigan described why women founders need their own space for meetings, to solve problems and get work done: "The “office” is in Silicon Valley at the headquarters itself is a massive open area with a bunch of desks around in rooms... The whole idea of this is that there’s not a defined place that you have to go to every day for work. We can work from anywhere from the beach to Starbucks. So I think that people feel a little more comfortable to step outside their stereotypes of what a leader looks like and talk about the things that we’re really passionate about."
National Business Incubation Association, Deborah King, said, “Women-owned businesses have proven themselves as equally adept at surviving and thriving. When you control for all the factors that would otherwise obscure their success, women-owned firms are just as likely as male-owned firms to survive when they first start out.”
© ASSOCIATED PRESS A young woman starts her own company
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/women-entrepreneurs-prove-its-not-just-a-mans-world-2016-3
The key takeaways from this article are:
1) Starting a business isn't much different than playing the lottery.
Despite what you read in the news, statistically, becoming a successful entrepreneur is more like winning the lottery than earning a college degree. About half of all new businesses fail within their first five years. The lifetime probability of owning a successful business is between 7% and 12%. In addition, nearly 25% of women entrepreneurs say their gender is holding them back from making a success of their start up. This is nearly double the percentage of men who say the same.
2) Women are more likely to own businesses that have less funding, higher failure rates, and lower capitalization rates.
Women are more likely to start businesses that have less funding, higher failure rates, and lower capitalization rates. According to Forbes magazine “In 2014, 69% of Google’s tech employees were men. Yet 52% of these women were assigned to non-tech jobs within Google management teams.”
3) Women entrepreneurs are less optimistic about their success than men by a factor of 2:1.
4) Women earn less money than men and their businesses are more likely to fail.
Women entrepreneurs make 27% less on average than men. Moreover, the median earning of women-owned business is $43,000 while the median earnings of men-owned businesses are $48,000. And 31% of women-owned businesses fail within the first five years’ time. According to “Women’s Business Enterprise Report," U.S. Department of Commerce and National Women’s Business Council: "When you control for all the factors that would otherwise obscure their success, women-owned firms are just as likely as male-owned firms to survive when they first start out.
5) Women entrepreneurs are less likely to be optimistic about their chances of becoming successful.
6) Women entrepreneurs are more risk averse than their male counterparts.
7) The “office” is in Silicon Valley. According to COO of Etsy Inc., Jennifer Finnigan, “The “office” is in Silicon Valley at the headquarters itself is a massive open area with a bunch of desks around in rooms... The whole idea of this is that there’s not a defined place that you have to go to every day for work. We can work from anywhere from the beach to Starbucks.”
8) There are many successful women entrepreneurs who are running their business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
9) Women entrepreneurs don't share the same traits that men have. Women entrepreneurs have less risk aversion, more optimism about their chances of success and more risk taking. In addition, women entrepreneurs tend to be younger than men.
10) The failure rate for female-led businesses was 31% in 2014. By comparison, male-run businesses had a failure rate of 17%.
A business plan is a written description of how you will start and run your business. If you are serious about starting your own business, you need to take some time to develop a good business plan.
Business plan: A written description of how you will start and run your business.
For instance, if you are planning to open up a brick and mortar store, a good business plan will include specific details such as the location, size of the store, what items you will sell and at what price points in order to attract customers. In addition, a good plan should include marketing plans that outline social media strategies and how much money it will cost to run ads on Google or Facebook.
Conclusion
In this article, we have shared the top 10 reasons why women entrepreneurs fail. Starting your own business is a risky proposition. However, it is no more risky than going to college and landing a $60,000 a year job after graduation without having any useful skills or employable experience under your belt.
If you are serious about starting your own business, you need to think long and hard about what kind of business you want to start.