Challenges facing female entrepreneurs.

Some years ago, entrepreneurship was considered a man’s territory, but as time goes by more women are in the journey to lead their own companies. This does not mean that the play field is level. Men still dominate this area as the graph below on share of registered firm in Africa by gender illustrate.

Women entrepreneurs inspire other women, but many female business owners still face significant obstacles because of their gender. Many of these challenges have to do with perception.

A report done by IFC indicated that the average growth rate of women’s enterprises is significantly lower than the average growth rate for SMEs run by men. The researchers identified that the strict legal, cultural and regulatory environment hinders the development of women entrepreneurs.

Below are some of the top challenges that female entrepreneurs need to overcome in order for their businesses to be more successful as a whole.

Inadequate access to finance: The IFC report on women owned SMEs in developing countries identified that lack of finance as a Key barrier for women entrepreneurs. It becomes an issue sometimes due to lack of collateral to secure loans. A small percentage of women own property and that makes it very difficult for women to provide collateral to secure bank loans. Finding the finance to get a new business going, or to grow an existing one is a challenge. Women entrepreneurs have financial social demands that compete with business capital, leading to a diversion of capital away from business needs.

Emotions and nurturing skills can affect women’s businesses: By nature, women are more emotional and nurturing, which can sometimes be a hindrance to running a business. Usually, men are judged by how well they do in their careers while women are judged by how well they excel with family, friends and their career. It’s a struggle to find enough time in the day to focus on them all. “We get emotionally connected, and that can hold us back from making the tough decisions,” said Delia Passi, CEO of WomenCertified.

Multiple responsibilities: Family obligations are met from resources earned in the business. Their demands tend to drain the savings and income made by the business, since such finances would have been used in the enterprise for expansion and growth.

A work-personal life balance is often a goal of many entrepreneurs, but mothers who start businesses have to simultaneously run their families and their companies.

Lack of support from other female business leaders: Despite the quickly growing number of female executives and business owners, finding fellow women entrepreneurs to connect with isn’t always easy.

Self-Limiting thoughts and Actions: Women entrepreneurs are challenged to rise above social structures that limit their mobility. For women, success relies on overcoming an additional layer of challenges, which can be self-limiting.

The International Finance Corporation 2011 report noted that barriers to women entrepreneurs affect both incumbent and new entrants. Although there are a couple of non-financial barriers, the report also noted that they can ultimately influence the financial barriers facing a woman entrepreneur.

Tabitha Karanja, who founded Keroche Breweries, the first ever private brewery to be owned by a Kenyan, faced many challenges, including competition from multinationals, high taxation and meddling from high powered government officials but her resilience has seen the business grow into a respected company. She is a perfect example and role model to all upcoming women entrepreneurs today.

Sharon Rowlands, CEO of digital marketing firm ReachLocal, urges women to be confident with their ability. Speaking to Business News Daily Rowlands also noted that women have qualities to make them successful entrepreneurs. “I had confidence in my abilities to run the business. I just made sure that any initiative I was trying to move forward was backed up by a solid business case. I [also] think many women naturally have extraordinary common sense, a sharp intuitive sense and a great focus on people. These are extremely valuable in business and can help to set us apart as leaders.”

Entrepreneurship is hard for any person who decides to venture into it. Even if women tend to face a unique set of challenges, they have got what it takes to be even more successful than their male counterparts.

In their 2010 research paper, Daphne Halkias, et al. noted that although there are no or few significant differences shown to exist between male and female business owners or managers once they have already started an enterprise, there is a strong indication that Africa has sizeable hidden growth potential in its women.