Impact of Management Skills/Education on Successful women entrepreneurs

Abstract:

Women entrepreneurship development is an essential part of human resource development. .All women are endowed with innate power that can make them successful entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurship is inherent and also a natural process. Women are naturally endowed with the qualities of entrepreneurship. Women empowerment becomes reality by nurturing their innate qualities of entrepreneurship. When an entrepreneur creates an enterprise it generates employment, create wealth. Entrepreneurship is a prerequisite for the development of any nation. . When women bring life into this world, it contributes to the society. Hence the contributions of women entrepreneurs are a prerequisite for nation building.

This paper speaks about the successful women entrepreneurs, the status of women entrepreneurs, their identity, and especially of their role taking and breaking new paths, how management skills/education helps them as an entrepreneur, and the problems faced by them when they ventured out to carve their own niche in the competitive world of business environment. “It is said that educate a woman and you will educate a family. We are saying, empower a woman to become an entrepreneur and you will create an entire family of entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurship is the need of the nation right now. It’s the surest and the quickest way to make India a superpower”.

Introduction:

In the era of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization along with ongoing IT Revolution, today’s world is changing at a surprising pace. Political and Economic Transformations appear to be taking place everywhere—as countries convert from command to demand economies, dictatorships move toward democratic system, and Monarchies build new civil institutions. These changes have created economic opportunities for women who want to own and operate businesses. Today, women entrepreneurs represent a group of women who have broken away from the beaten track and are exploring new avenues of economic participation. Among the reasons for women to run organized enterprises are their skill and knowledge, their talents, abilities and creativity in business and a compelling desire of wanting to do something positive.

Today’s women are taking more and more professional and technical degrees to cope up with market need and are flourishing as designers, interior decorators, exporters, publishers, garment manufacturers and still exploring new avenues of economic participation. It is perhaps for these reasons that Government Bodies, NGO’s, Social Scientists, Researchers ‘and International Agencies have started showing interest in the issues related to entrepreneurship among women in India. Women entrepreneur’s explore the prospects of starting a new enterprise; undertake risks, introduction of new innovations, coordinate administration & control of business & providing effective leadership in all aspects of business and have proved their footage in the male dominated business arena. This report focuses on the concept of woman entrepreneurs in India; how Management Education helps to explore their traits in business, the problems faced by them when they set up and make some suggestions for future prospects for development of Women Entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs:

The term “Entrepreneur” is derived from the French word known as “Entreprendre”, which means to “Undertake”. Entrepreneurship is the process of starting a business or other organization. The entrepreneur develops a business model, acquires the human and other required resources, and is fully responsible for its success or failure. Entrepreneurship operates within an entrepreneurship ecosystem. Entrepreneurs play a key role in any economy. These are the people who have the skills and initiative necessary to take good new ideas to market and make the right decisions to make the idea profitable. The reward for the risks taken is the potential economic profits the entrepreneur could earn.

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Women Entrepreneurs:

Women entrepreneurs may be defined as the women or group of women who takes initiative to set up a business enterprise and to run it smoothly. According to Schumpeter’s concept, “Woman who innovates, imitate or adopt a business activity is known as women entrepreneurs”. Government of India defined women entrepreneurs as owning and controlling an enterprise with a women having a minimum financial interest of 51% of capital and giving at least 51% of the employment generated in the enterprise to women. Women entrepreneurs are key players in any developing country particularly in terms of their contribution to economic development.

Women Entrepreneurship in India:

Traits of women entrepreneurs:

A successful woman exhibits the following 10 traits. They're a part of women entrepreneurs’ character.

Perceptive communication: The ability to communicate in any language—verbal or not —is one of women’s most dynamic talents. Women are natural communicators—it’s not just their ability to talk; they are also aware of what others are thinking. In fact, this innate gift applies to all of women’s senses; touch, smell, taste, vision and hearing.  According to Helen E. Fisher*, these traits along with other observations that women instinctively notice, such as body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice, collectively represent their ability to be perceptive communicators.

Inclusiveness: Women run their companies like a loosely defined “family unit.” They interact with every person in their organization and their suppliers and customers as well. By treating every employee as a unique person, women are able to create a positive working atmosphere almost immediately. When people come first the morale and productivity of the company improves materially.

Resourcefulness: Women have the ability to think 360 degrees, not just “outside the box.” They are not held back by conventional rules and management theories which give them an advantage when it involves serious problems. Women are able to weigh more factors and float lots of “what ifs” around in their heads and explore many possibilities before they conclude that a solution is “impossible.”

Improvisation: Women improvise all the time, and business is no exception.  By using unconventional methods and thinking up original ideas, they often are able to surprise the competition.

Building professional relationships: Women build their business relationships in a much broader context than men. Their business circle includes customers, consultants and salespersons who represent products that are relevant for their company, clients, buyers and local authorities with whom they do business. Through these “transactional” relationships, and in many cases friendships, they are able to expand their business, products, customers and financing sources.

Risk-taking: Risk means uncertainty. It is the condition of not knowing the outcome of an activity. A woman entrepreneur takes calculated risk. She faces uncertainty confidently and assumes risk. She has

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States No of Units Registered No. of WomenEntrepreneurs

Percentage

Tamil Nadu 9618 2930 30.36Uttar Pradesh 7980 3180 39.84Kerala 5487 2135 38.91Punjab 4791 1618 33.77Maharashtra 4339 1394 32.12Gujarat 3872 1538 39.72Karnataka 3822 1026 26.84Madhya Pradesh 2967 842 28.38Other States & UTS 14576 4185 28.71Total 57,452 18,848 32.82

to tie up capital and wait for good returns. A woman entrepreneur likes to take realistic risks because she wants to be a successful entrepreneur.

Good organizer: The most critical skill required for industrial development is the ability of building a sound organization. A woman entrepreneur assembles, co-ordinates, organizes and manages the other factors namely land, labour and capital. She obtains factors of production from the society and supplies them finished product.

Self-confidence: It is essential to be a self-confident for a woman entrepreneur. She should have faith in herself and in her abilities. She should have the confidence to implement the change and overcome any resistance to change. A woman entrepreneur should have courage to own the mistakes and correct them.

Decision-maker: The main function of a woman entrepreneur is to make decision. She takes various decisions regarding the activities of her enterprise. She decides about the type of business to be done and the way of doing it. A woman entrepreneur must be clear and creative in decision making process.

Visionary: A woman entrepreneur is one who incubates new ideas, starts her enterprise with these ideas and provides added value to society based on their independent initiative.

Hard worker: A distinguishing feature of a woman entrepreneur is the willingness to work hard. She has to follow the principle, “Hard-work is the key to success”.

Achievement oriented: A woman entrepreneur is an achievement oriented lady, not money hungry. She works for challenge, accomplishment and service to others. Achievement orientation is a drive to overcome challenges, to advance and to grow.

Optimistic: A woman entrepreneur must be optimistic. She should approach her venture with a hope of success and attitude for success rather than with a fear of failure. The positive thinking of woman entrepreneur can turn the situation favourable to her.

Technically competent: The success of an enterprise largely depends upon the ability of woman entrepreneur to cope with latest technology. Technical competency refers to the ability to devise and use the better ways of producing and marketing goods and services.

Bold and brave: Women entrepreneurs face the adversities boldly and bravery. She has faith in herself and attempts to solve the problems even under great pressure.

Mentally sound: A woman entrepreneur is energetic, single-minded, having a mission and a clear vision. She should be a lady of creative thinking and analytical thinking. She must be intelligent, adaptable and problem solver.

Leadership: Leadership quality is one of the most important characteristic of a woman entrepreneur. It is the process of influencing and supporting others to work enthusiastically towards achieving objectives.

Management Studies:

Masters in Management Studies is a postgraduate program for management studies offered by many universities throughout the world. The course allows women to obtain the knowledge and skills to be assume management positions in a wide range of organizations. Management studies programmes provide women with a solid foundation in organizational behaviour and human resource management while electives in labour management relations, negotiation, conflict resolution, compensation systems and development allow women to develop deeper knowledge in specific areas of interest. In addition to business management course, it will equip women to understand how organizations work, how they are managed, and how they interact with local, national and international environments. This course gives a brief introduction to the critical management skills involved in planning, structuring, controlling and leading an organization. It provides a framework to help women understand managing and being managed. Thus, leading them to become a more effective contributor to organizations that they join, Women can develop a system view of organizations through examining organizations as part of a context. It aims to train the learners to diagnose and suggest the suitable solutions to various managerial and organizational cases.

Successful Entrepreneurs:

Chanda Kochhar:

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A living inspiration for today’s woman, Chanda Kochhar is the managing director and Chief Executive Officer of ICICI bank, India’s largest private and overall second largest bank in the country. She also heads the Corporate Centre of ICICI Bank. Chanda Kochhar was born on November 17, 1961 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, Kochhar completed her Bachelor of Arts degree from Jai Hind College, Mumbai. Later, she earned a Masters in Management Studies (Finance) from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai and is a Cost Accountant from the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India.

Kochhar kick started her career as a Management trainee with ICICI in the year1984 and has thereon successfully risen through the ranks by efficiently handling multi-dimensional assignments and heading all the major functions in the Bank at various points in her life. After nine years of hard work, she was handpicked as a part of the core team to set the ICICI bank in 1993, when it decided to venture into commercial banking. She got promotion in 1994 & 1996 as Assistant General Manager and then Deputy General Manager respectively.

In 1998, she was promoted as the General Manager and entrusted with handling relationships with ICICI’s top 200 clients. In April 2001, she was promoted as Executive Director, heading the retail business in ICICI Bank. In the year 2007, she was appointed as the Joint Managing Director & Chief Financial Officer (CFO). She was also the official spokesperson for ICICI Bank. Apart from being on the Board of ICICI Bank and various group companies, she is a member of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade & Industry.

Within a year the bank had increased its capital adequacy, improved its share of current and savings account deficit and prevented slippages in non-performing assets (NPA). Today, ICICI is India's largest privately owned bank with assets of nearly USD 80 billion and an expanding global reach. The group's story is not just one of growth, but of transformation: ICICI has evolved from a development bank to become a corporate and then a retail bank, meeting the needs of a newly prosperous population. It now aims to achieve sustainable economic growth.

Within a year the bank had increased its capital adequacy, improved its share of current and savings account deficit and prevented slippages in non-performing assets (NPA). Today, ICICI is India's largest privately owned bank with assets of nearly USD 80 billion and an expanding global reach. The group's story is not just one of growth, but of transformation: ICICI has evolved from a development bank to become a corporate and then a retail bank, meeting the needs of a newly prosperous population. It now aims to achieve sustainable economic growth.

Considering the growth opportunities, the bank is still in the expansion mode and plans to have a network of at least 4,000 branches and 12,000 ATMs. Kochhar feels that the Indian economy would continue to witness robust upward momentum in the years to come and the lender is well prepared to leverage from the potential growth opportunities.

The 49-year-old bank chief in recent years has won so many awards and accolades that she has lost count. She was conferred with Padma Bhushan award in 2011 for her contribution to establish ICICI Bank as a leading player in the banking industry. She clinched the 20th spot in the Fortune's List of Most Powerful Women in Business, 2009. She was awarded the ‘Business Woman of the Year’ 2005 by The Economic Times of India and the ‘Retail Banker of the Year’ 2004 by The Asian Banker. In year 2007, she ranked 33rd in the Fortune's List of ‘Most Powerful Women in Business’. Under Kocher’s leadership, ICICI Bank won the ‘Best Retail Bank’ in India award consecutively for four years (2004-2005) awarded by the, The Asian Banker.

A firm believes that the woman force in an organization can grow only through merit; Kochhar leads by example by not expecting any special privileges for the fairer sex. An eternal optimist she does not shriek away from challenges. She believes that new entrants cannot disrupt large banks and that competition provides the best value to consumers. For her challenges are no more confined to achieving scale but of aligning strategy of organization with changed environment.

A mother of two, Kochhar efficiently juggles her career with family. She never slacks in her 24-hour schedule and utilises her breathing time to go through mails, telephonic conferences or to catch up on sleep. Her appointment as the head honcho of ICICI is an inspiration for all the women aspiring to make a mark in the corporate world.

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How Management Studies Helps Entrepreneurs:

Entrepreneurs are often seen as risk-takers. In pursuit of new ventures, they are willing to sacrifice almost everything – their comfort, income, good standing in society, et al. However, this does not mean that the entrepreneur has insatiable tolerance for any kind of risk. Instead, the successful entrepreneur is one that takes informed risk. In other words, he/she is able to determine the level of risk that is right for a specific endeavor. In this way such a person accepts enough risk to be able to initiate as well as create, but will not jeopardize the business by taking on too much that this activity becomes unprofitable at the end of the day.

It provides us with useful resources that will help you in business: Granted it has been said over and over again by those who vehemently oppose any relevance of this degree to entrepreneurship, as well as those in tacit support of it, that this degree does not make you into an entrepreneur.

However, most if not all are in agreement that it does provide the business person with some useful resources. It will equip Management graduates with business functions. They will learn accounting, finance and marketing. These are business functions that the average start-up entrepreneur needs.

It may be required to advance your business: Sometimes getting a MANAGEMENT Degree may be what separates you from the rest of the pack in your chosen line of business. For instance, if you have started a consulting firm and know your onions because of your natural ability and the experience you have had over the years, you know that becoming a Management graduate will only help to put you in a better position or at least at par with your competitors as far as education qualification is concerned.

Doing so may help you get into another line of business: Another good reason that should make any start-up entrepreneur get the back-pack and head for MANAGEMENT classes is if he/she decides to start a business that requires having this degree. There are a number of businesses that are finance-related, which may require this.

There are some additional benefits attached to it: Apart from all that has been stated above, attending MANAGEMENT classes has been known to bring certain benefits. Programs at such business schools as Harvard, Stanford and Wharton or Pepperdine can help provide mentoring, exposure, etc. In addition, you will also be able to leverage the experience of your colleagues during classes, most of whom may even be willing to give your products or service a trial.

What are the Managerial Skills gained by woman through Management studies?

Conceptual Skills: Conceptual skill is the ability to visualize (see) the organization as a whole. It includes Analytical, Creative and Initiative skills. It helps the manager to identify the causes of the problems and not the symptoms. It helps him to solve the problems for the benefit of the entire organization. It helps the manager to fix goals for the whole organization and to plan for every situation. According to Prof. Robert Katz, conceptual skills are mostly required by the top-level management because they spend more time in planning, organizing and problem solving.

Human Relations Skills: Human relations skills are also called Interpersonal skills. It is an ability to work with people. It helps the managers to understand, communicate and work with others. It also helps the managers to lead, motivate and develop team spirit. Human relations skills are required by all managers at all levels of management. This is so, since all managers have to interact and work with people.

Technical Skills: A technical skill is the ability to perform the given job. Technical skills help the managers to use different machines and tools. It also helps them to use various procedures and techniques. The low-level managers require more technical skills. This is because they are in-charge of the actual operations.

Communication Skills: Communication skills are required equally at all three levels of management. A manager must be able to communicate the plans and policies to the workers. Similarly,

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he must listen and solve the problems of the workers. He must encourage a free-flow of communication in the organization.

Administrative Skills: Administrative skills are required at the top-level management. The top-level managers should know how to make plans and policies. They should also know how to get the work done. They should be able to co-ordinate different activities of the organization. They should also be able to control the full organization.

Leadership Skills: Leadership skill is the ability to influence human behavior. A manager requires leadership skills to motivate the workers. These skills help the Manager to get the work done through the workers.

Problem Solving Skills: Problem skills are also called as Design skills. A manager should know how to identify a problem. He should also possess an ability to find a best solution for solving any specific problem. This requires intelligence, experience and up-to-date knowledge of the latest developments.

Decision Making Skills: Decision-making skills are required at all levels of management. However, it is required more at the top-level of management. A manager must be able to take quick and correct decisions. He must also be able to implement his decision wisely. The success or failure of a manager depends upon the correctness of his decisions.

Problems faced by Women Entrepreneurs:

There are some umpteen problems faced by women at various stages beginning from their initial commencement of enterprise, in running their enterprise. Their various problems are as follows:

Arrangement of Finance: For every business undertaking Finance is said to be the “life blood”, whether it is large, medium or small enterprise. Women entrepreneurs face the problems of shortage of finance on two important bases. Firstly, women do not in general have property on their own names to use that as collateral securities for obtaining loans/funds from banks and other financial institutions. Thus their access to external sources is very limited .Secondly, obtaining the support of bankers, managing the working capital, lack of credit resources are the problems which still remain in the male’s domain.

Shortage of raw-materials: Women entrepreneurs encounter the problems of shortage of raw-materials and necessary inputs. On the pinnacle of this, is the high prices of raw materials, on one hand and getting raw materials at minimum discount rates are the other.

Cut-throat Competition: Lot of the women entrepreneurs have imperfect organizational set up to drive in a lot of money for canvassing and advertisements. They have to face severe competition from organized industries. They have also to face a stiff competition with the men entrepreneurs who easily involve in the promotion and development area and carry out easy marketing of their products with both the organized sector and their male counterparts. Such a competition ultimately results in the insolvency of women entrepreneurs.

Lack of education and prevalent levels of illiteracy amongst women: In India, around (40%) of women are still illiterate. Illiteracy is the root cause of socioeconomic barriers or hurdles. Due to lack of Knowledge of latest technological change, know-how and education creates problems before women to set up competitive enterprises.

Family Conflicts: Women also countenance the conflict of performing of home role as they are not available to spend enough time with their families. Because in India, mainly a woman’s duty is to look after her children and manage the other members of the family. In business they have to spend long hours and as a result, they find it difficult to meet the demands of their family members and society as well. Their incapability to attend to domestic work, time for education of children, personal hobbies, and entertainment adds to their conflicts.

Marketing Problems: Women entrepreneurs incessantly face the problems in marketing their products. It is one of the core problems as this area is mainly dominated by males and even women with adequate experience fail to make a dent. For marketing the products women entrepreneurs have to be at the mercy of middlemen who pocket the hunk of profit. Although the middlemen exploit the women entrepreneurs, the purging of middlemen is tricky, because it involves a lot of running about. Women entrepreneurs also find it difficult to capture the market and make their products popular.

Lack of self-confidence and optimistic attitude amongst women: Nowadays most of the women are suffering from one major problem of lack of self-confidence, determination, physically

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powerful outlook, hopefulness etc. They are always panic from committing mistakes while doing their piece of work, more over there is limited initiative of taking risk and bearing uncertainty in them. Thus all these psychological factors often obstruct their path of achieving success in the area of enterprise.

High cost of production: High cost of production undermines the efficiency and adversely affects the development of women entrepreneurs. The installation of new machinery during expansion of the productive capacity and like similar factor dissuades the women entrepreneur from venturing in to new area. Government assistance in the form of grant and subsidies to some extent enables them to tide over the difficult situations. However, in the long run, it would be necessary to increase efficiency and expand productive capacity and thereby reduce cost to make their ultimate survival possible, other than these, women entrepreneurs also face the problems of labour, human resources, infrastructure, legal formalities, overload of work, lack of family support, mistrust etc.

Limited Mobility: In our country, mobility of women is highly limited on account of various reasons. They cannot travel freely from one place to another for business reasons. In order to set up an organization, an entrepreneur has to get sanctions at varied levels from various government departments all of which require free mobility. This is not possible for women.

Discrimination in upbringing: Right from the early childhood, girls are taught not be aggressive or independent. Initially they depend upon parents, later upon husband, and in old age upon sons. They are discouraged to move out of the family and take up their business. Such type of conservative attitude of the family members makes the women week and passive in their approach. Normally others take decision for them.

Networking: An important aspect of running your own business is the ability to socialize within the Entrepreneurial network to build contacts and win customers but very few Indian women step out of their comfort zones to do so. If they do socialize, it is limited to the work they need to get done and not to build relationships. The implication of this is directly on the extent of visibility they have in the market and on the perception they build.

Absence of Entrepreneurial Aptitude: Many women take the training by attending the Entrepreneurship Development Programmes without entrepreneurial bent of mind. As per a study, involvement of women in small scale sector as owners stands at mere 7 percent. Women who are imparted training by various institutes must be verified on account of aptitude through the tests,

interviews etc.

Suggestions:

The following tips address some of the issues and concerns that are most commonly faced by women entrepreneurs.

Start a business that works for you and fits with your personal life: There are no rules as to what a "real" business looks like. For some businesspeople, success might mean an international operation with hundreds of employees and annual revenues in the tens of millions. For others, a small consulting firm or artisan business that pays a healthy salary and allows generous personal freedom might be considered the pinnacle of success. The key is to take the time early in the planning process to consider this question and decide for yourself what your ideal vision is for your business and your personal life.Remember also that small businesses can be quite profitable, particularly if they target an untapped (or under tapped) niche. It's almost always possible to find profitable niche markets if you look carefully.

Don't sweat the bureaucracy: A lot of would-be entrepreneurs, women and men alike, find themselves stuck on the verge of taking the leap into starting a business, but confused about how to tackle the legal rules of getting started. This hang-up is always grounded more in fear than reality; the truth is that clearing the bureaucratic hurdles isn't usually a big deal.You can usually start a sole proprietorship (the legal term for a one-owner business) or a partnership (a business with more than one owner) by registering with just one government office. And for business owners who want protection from personal liability for business debts -- often referred to by the legal jargon "limited liability" -- the simplest corporations or limited liability companies (LLCs) require only a couple more registration tasks to complete. In other words, once you have your business idea developed to a certain degree, all you need to do is visit a few government offices, fill out some forms, and pay some fees -- and suddenly your idea will have become an actual, legitimate business.

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Of course, there's a lot more to launching a successful small business than dealing with bureaucratic requirements. For starters, you'll need to have a sound business idea, and you'll need to be able to develop good management skills to guide it to success. This is where you should put your mental energy and good ideas; don't waste precious brain cells worrying about the legal hurdles.

For businesses with moderate to significant overhead, it is crucial to start the business with adequate funds: Starting a business without enough money to ride out the early lean days (described as "undercapitalization") is the most common reason that businesses fail. Undercapitalization is less of an issue with small service-based businesses that don't have many fixed expenses. But businesses with overhead such as rent, salaries for employees, utility bills, inventory, equipment, insurance, or other fixed costs absolutely need to plan carefully and pull together enough funding to support the fledgling business as it works up to speed.Also, though it's important to start your business with enough capital, that doesn't mean that every business needs piles and piles of money to get off the ground. Plenty of mega-successful businesses were started on a shoestring: Apple Computer started in a garage; Hewlett-Packard started in the dining room of the Packard home; the list goes on and on. Generally speaking, a business that can find creative, thrifty ways to provide its product or service -- especially in its early days -- will typically find more success than a business that adopts a "spend more money" approach.

Select a business that you love and know something about. Being passionate about your business will help you make it during the challenges that all entrepreneurs face.

Research the product or service: Go talk to people who are in the business you are going into. If you feel uncomfortable asking questions as a potential competitor, then pretend you are a client. You can also do research at the library. Look in the business section and trade publications.

Assess the market: Is there a need for your product/service? What type of customer base do you need to stay in business? You should decide on location. (A side street with no walk-in traffic may not be the best location for your retail shop.) Also consider what will make you unique from everyone else in town.

Consult with professionals: Find some individuals who either knows something specific about your business, specialize in small businesses, or deal with women-owned businesses. Also talk to accountants, attorneys, insurance consultants, and bankers about your future.

Define the legal entity: Will your business be a sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation? Once you research the differences in liability, legal, tax, and financing tell the county clerk’s office what you decide.

Protect yourself and your business: Different forms of insurance are necessary depending on the business. Consult professionals.

Assess your finances: It’s a good idea to have some money put aside that will carry you through the beginning phases. You can often borrow from friends/family or get loans to get started.

Write a business plan: This includes a description of the business, financial projections, clearly defines the product or service, and discusses the legal entity, market, location, competition, management and personnel. There are many “How to write a business plan” guides out there for you to use.

Network: Join professional organizations, attend industry related conferences and meetings, and go to other meetings that are of interest to you. You will be surprised where you meet clients!

Be positive, patient, and flexible: It takes a good amount of time to build a business. Continue to have a positive outlook and don’t stop believing in yourself. There has never been a successful business owner that hasn’t run into some challenges.

Conclusion:

Entrepreneurship among women improves the wealth of the nation in general and of the family in particular. Women today are more willing to take up activities that were once considered the preserve of men, and have proved that they are second to no one with respect to contribution to the growth of the economy. Women entrepreneurship must be moulded properly with entrepreneurial traits and skills to meet the changes in trends, challenges global markets and also be competent enough to sustain and strive for excellence in the entrepreneurial arena. 

Women entrepreneurs faced lots of problems at start-up as well as operating stage like, non-availability of finance, restricted mobility freedom and having to perform dual role one at home and other at work.

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Technological advancement and information technology explosion have reduced the problem of women entrepreneurs. Along with technological revolution, mental revolution of society is needed to change the attitude of the society and provide women with democratic and entrepreneurial platform. Still, efforts are being made to coordinate with the enterprise activities of women and providing them utmost financial, morale, psychological support by various institutions working within the economy and world-wide.

Women have the potential and the determination to set up, uphold and supervise their own enterprises in a very systematic manner. Appropriate support and encouragement from the Society in general and family members in particular is required to help these women scale new heights in their business ventures. The right kind of assistance from family, society and Government can make these Women Entrepreneurs a part of the mainstream of national economy and they can contribute to the economic progress of India.

Bibliography:

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