Women - A Conglomerate Extrovert |
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Development of Women Entrepreneurs – Recent Trends All women who have accomplished great things have had a great aim have fixed their gaze on a goal which was so high. This is the secret behind the
success of every women entrepreneur who had thrown away the fear in their thought and transpires out with thundering spirit. Several national and international organizations and agencies have appreciated the need
for and importance of developing women entrepreneurs in recent years. A brief review of it is given here. The United Nations declared the decade 1975-85 as the Decade for Women. The
World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women held at Copenhagen in Denmark on 30th
June 1980 adopted a programme aimed at promoting full and equal opportunities and treatment of women in employment and their access to non-traditional skilled trades. The First National Conference
of Women Entrepreneurs held at New Delhi in November 1981 advocated the need for developing women entrepreneurs for the overall development of the country. It called for priority to women in allotment of land, sheds, sanction of power, licensing etc.
The Second International Conference
of Women Entrepreneurs organized by the National Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs (NAYE) held in 1989 at New Delhi also adopted certain declarations involving women's participation in industry. The
Government of India has been assigning increasing importance to the development of women entrepreneurs in the country in recent years. The Sixth Five Year Plan, for example, proposed for promoting female
employment in women-owned industries. The Government moved a step forward in the Seventh Five Year Plan by including a special chapter on Integration of Women in Development. The chapter suggested: The percentage of business started and operated by women in the U.S. is less than those started by men. However, the number is increasing at a rapid rate. For
example, the number of female sole proprietors was 3,104,029 or 22% of all sole proprietors, according to the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Women entrepreneurs can also hire professionals, trained under Small
Industry Management Assistant's Programme (SIMAP) of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). Ranks of Business Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs
Area Rank
Cosmetics and Beauty Parlors 01 First Woman Entrepreneur in the World Rita Singh, founder of the M'escos (Mid-east Shipping Company)
group, is one of the first woman entrepreneurs in the business world. Starting from scratch about 20 years ago, she now exports trendy M'escos shoes, owns a fleet of state-of-the-art- helicopters and ships, and Rs.450 crore steel plant. The M'escos group with an annual turnover of over Rs.1500 crore, employs more than 7,000 people.
The only daughter of a Punjabi college professor who migrated from Sargodha in Pakistan to Nagpur after Partition. With only a degree in science, she set up a small dairy farm with two buffaloes near the Hindon air station
and a sulphur plant at Hapur. She sold off their small farm and started exporting rice and tapioca. Then she went into shipping in a small way, within a year, her annual income crossed Rs.50 lakh mark. In the
coming years, she entered into steel, aviation shoes, etc. Clandestine of Success "Attribute my success to one thing – never run away from life. Face it boldly. Dare to be different".
Women Entrepreneurship in India Out of total 940.98 million people in India, in the 1990s females comprise 437.10 million representing 46.5% of the total population. There are 126.48 million women
workforce (28.9%of the female population). But as per 1991 census, only 1,85,900 women accounting for only 4.5%of the self-employed persons in the country were recorded. Majority of them are engaged in the unorganized
sector like agriculture, agro-based industries, handicrafts, handlooms, and cottage-based industries. Participation of women as industrial entrepreneurs, however, is comparatively a recent phenomenon – commencing from 70s
onwards. There were more than 2,95,680 women entrepreneurs claiming 11.2% of the total 2.64 million entrepreneurs in India during 1995-96. This is almost double the percentage of women (5.2%) among the total population
of self-employed during 1981. Feat of Women in Business. Women placed their foot and thrived in almost all ventures. The following is the list that divulges the successful entrepreneurs in
diverse fields.
Tribulations Faced by Women Entrepreneurs Life for a woman entrepreneur is not a bed of roses. The individual woman entrepreneur single-handedly
faces a plethora of seemingly endless problems. The grievances are: Women, especially in our country, face certain problem, which are different from their male counterparts, in the course of starting and managing their own businesses. The management of domestic commitments and child care support are the two issues where women have to play a greater role. 2. Marketing Problems Marketing is another area, which very often proves to be the graveyard of many small-scale women entrepreneurs. It has been found that the small-scale entrepreneurs, owing to their high achievement orientation, generally set higher goals in terms of marketing of their products or services but later on find them difficult to achieve because of heavy competition, incurring huge advertisement cost and many other extraneous factors. 3. Occupational Mobility Problems Occupational mobility, such as shifting from one product line to another is an area where women entrepreneurs are generally found to be more at a disadvantageous position than their male counterparts. 4. Government Assistance Problems The women entrepreneurs were exasperated by the indifferent attitude of government officials of all the small industry related departments like taxation, labour, power, etc. i.e. when the authorities come to know that the unit is being run by a woman, they discourage allotting sales tax number and giving electricity connection. Above all they have ignorance about various procedures, laws, and complicated bureaucratic set-up while dealing with entrepreneurial support organizations. 5. Financial Problems
Typically women entrepreneurs of small scale enterprises start well but some where down the line in their day-to-day operations they miss the route to success. In more than half such cases the reasons
identified can be attributed to financial mismanagement. Financial support as well as financial viability, therefore, is the most important considerations of any business proposition. Production in a manufacturing enterprise involves coordination of a number of activities. While some of these activities are in the control of entrepreneur there are others over which she has little control. Improper coordination or unintended delay in execution of any activity is going to cause production problems in the industry. 7. Personnel Problems Efficient management of human resources is an important factor in determining the growth and prosperity of business enterprise. This is particularly true in case of small industry where the owners have to forge a close and more personal association with their employees. The women entrepreneurs also expressed their inability to change the negative attitude of labour force while some of them complained of unionism amongst them. Moreover the women entrepreneurs admitted the lack of experience and self-confidence on their part to deal with personnel working in their organizations.
Following are tips to help women business owners to succeed: * REMEMBER WHY YOU STARTED YOUR OWN COMPANY . Women can quickly lose site of their desire to have a balanced life in the face of a demanding new business. * NETWORK, BUT IN A WAY YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH . Many people who go into business for themselves flock to networking groups because they believe it's the smart thing to do. This is true for men as well as women. But depending on their personality and preferences, these groups may not be the best forum for networking. * DON'T BE AFRAID TO PROMOTE YOURSELF . If the business is to thrive, women must market themselves and take credit for their achievements. If women don't market their business, no one will know what they have to offer. Programme for Empowerment of Women Women's Empowerment is critical to the socio-economic progress of the community. Bringing women into the mainstream of national development has therefore been a major concern of the Government. Conclusion "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile". Yes. Today there is a greater awakening among
women. In education, they have not only excelled but also become top makers. Likewise, in office and industry, many have shown brilliant results. Even in rural India with education, women have shown better
performance. Educating women is absolutely essential in straightening her personality. The need of the hour is to provide an opportunity in a conducive atmosphere free from gender differences. The need for
awareness motivation and courage to correct the faults of male counterparts are great challenges today. It is, therefore, encouragement of the growing intensity of motivation amongst educated young women for
coming in the entrepreneurial stream and extends support with scientifically designed package of the technical and financial assistance. The non-governmental organizations have a bigger role in stimulating
and nurturing the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst women. |
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Source: E-mail October 18, 2006 |
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