The most significant problems faced by Indian female entrepreneurs are, in order of importance, establishing credibility, having difficulty raising financing, and not having a professional network.
Women entrepreneurs in India continue to encounter a number of problems that are unique to their demographic, notwithstanding the start-up ecosystem’s rapid expansion.
The leading challenges that Indian women business owners face include not being taken seriously, having difficulty raising capital, not having a professional network, and not having access to mentorship.
The leading challenges that Indian women business owners face
35.1% of the women who participated in the poll indicated that they are subjected to prejudice and biases in their professional activities due to the fact that they are not taken seriously.
The study, which was based on the opinions of women who represented over 200 different companies, found that in addition to facing prejudice and stereotypes, female entrepreneurs face challenges when it comes to raising capital. Specifically, 29.4% of respondents stated that they find it difficult to secure funding for their businesses.
Women company owners in India face a significant obstacle in the form of a lack of access to financial resources, which severely restricts their capacity to grow their companies and remain competitive in the marketplace. In addition, respondents stated that a lack of mentoring (14.9%) and a lack of professional networks (20.6%) continues to be a barrier in the Indian start-up ecosystem.
“The start-up and entrepreneurial ecosystem in India is seeing significant expansion at the present time. As we examined the system more closely through the lens of gender, we found that although there has been improvement, there has also been an increase in the number of obstacles. “What the ecosystem needs now is a shift in thinking.”
“One of the suggestions is to encourage entrepreneurship among students and to offer them with the appropriate tools, such as access to money, mentoring programmes, training resources, and more. This is included as one of the proposals. In addition, the government should institute regulations that encourage gender equality in business and ensure that all prospective female entrepreneurs have equal access to resources. These policies should also be promoted. With these efforts in place, we will be able to establish an environment in India that is more egalitarian for enterprises that are run by women.
According to the findings of the study, encouraging more women to operate their own businesses in India may be accomplished by learning from and adopting proven and established business techniques that have been successful in other countries while keeping cultural variations in mind.
For instance, Sweden and the United States have developed financial support systems for women-owned firms, whereas Canada and Mexico provide mentorship and training programmes for their respective entrepreneurs. Countries such as Australia have established legislation to encourage gender diversity on boards, while Rwanda has made initiatives to promote gender equality in general in their country.
