Women Entrepreneurs Face Gender, Culture Issues

Across the globe, women’s entrepreneurship is increasingly important for creating new jobs and contributing to the social and economic growth of societies. According to the 2019/2020 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report, 231 million women launched or operated businesses in the 59 economies around the world. As noted in a 2015 McKinsey Global Institute report, if women were to play an identical role in the global labor market to that of men, it is estimated that $28 trillion, or 26%, could be added to the global gross domestic product (GDP).

While the overall perception of female entrepreneurship may seem positive, the underlying reality of the success or failure of women entrepreneurs continues to be dynamically shaped by gender and culture. According to University of Delaware Professor of Management Amanda Bullough, both the business world and society-at-large need to pay more attention as to why these conditions persist. Read more at udel.edu.

The 10 Mompreneurs to Watch in 2021

With more and more females breaking into the world of entrepreneurship, there is one thing that becomes inevitable: more Mompreneurs. Women all around the world are breaking the mould more than ever, taking control of their lives and destiny through the vehicle of entrepreneurship. Despite what people may think, mompreneurs don’t take their foot off the gas once they’ve had kids – many push even harder, as they know the livelihood of their kids depends on them.

According to Boost Media Agency, mompreneurs play an enormous role in the future of female entrepreneurship, paving the way for the next generation. Each with their own unique businesses and areas of expertise, Read about the 10 mompreneurs to watch in 2021 at Finance.Yahoo.com.

Building supportive ecosystems for Black-owned US businesses

Entrepreneurship and business ownership—particularly of community-based businesses—are crucial ways to develop community wealth, for both business owners and the people they employ. Healthy Black-owned businesses could be a critical component for closing the United States’ Black–white wealth gap, which we project will cost the economy $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion (in 2018 dollars) per year by 2028. The COVID-19 crisis, however, has further stressed Black-owned businesses and may cause the racial wealth gap to widen. This gap includes a $290 billion—and growing—opportunity to grow overall wealth by achieving revenue parity between Black- and white-owned businesses in addition to providing aid to small and medium-size businesses (SMBs)—those with up to 500 employees—with nonwhite owners.

Black business owners have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic-linked economic downturn, partly because they were more likely to already be in a precarious position, including more likely to be located in communities with business environments that are more likely to produce poor business outcomes. Indeed, about 58 percent of Black-owned businesses were at risk of financial distress before the pandemic, compared with about 27 percent of white-owned businesses. The pandemic contributed to tipping 41 percent of Black-owned US businesses into closure from February to April 2020. More than 50 percent of the owners of surviving Black businesses surveyed in May reported being very or extremely concerned about the viability of their businesses. This concern may be linked to having a more difficult time accessing credit since the COVID-19 crisis began; 36 percent of Black business owners responding to the survey said they had experienced this, compared with 29 percent of all respondents. Read more at McKinsey.com.

“We are a nation of communities… a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.” – George H.W. Bush

Latino Entrepreneurs Face — and Can Overcome — Funding Obstacles

Recent research by the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative offers detailed insights into the difficulty Latino entrepreneurs often have finding funding for their businesses — and points to some ways these entrepreneurs may be able to improve their odds of success.

The 2020 State of Latino Entrepreneurship report found that Latino-owned businesses are significantly less likely than similar White-owned businesses to have loans approved by national banks. The report is based on a survey of “employer” businesses that have at least one paid employee other than the owner.

Overall, the survey found that 20% of Latino-owned businesses that applied to national banks for loans over $100,000 received funding, compared with 50% of White-owned businesses. The discrepancy was even larger when looking at firms with annual revenues over $1 million who were requesting similar-size loans: 29% of Latino-owned businesses got the loans vs. 76% of White-owned businesses. Even after controlling for business performance measures, the odds of loan approval from national banks were 60% lower for Latino-owned businesses. Read more at GSB.Stanford.edu.

Five Ways To Raise Money To Launch Your Own Startup

While there are tons of obstacles along the road of setting up your own business, raising funds could be the number one cause (after mis-planning, of course) for the failure of your new business venture.

A lot of entrepreneurs are faced with many challenges when setting up a new business venture, but the most common one? Garnering the right amount of resources and funds necessary to kickstart the business. While there are tons of obstacles along the road of setting up your own business, raising funds could be the number one cause (after mis-planning, of course) for the failure of your new business venture. Read more at Entrepreneur.com.

Practical Guide To Running A Single-person Startup

Being an entrepreneur is amazing. But just like any other profession, there are ups and downs. You’re always faced with the question of “How do I keep going?” The truth is, entrepreneurship is hard. It’s a lot of work, a ton of stress, and not a lot of financial rewards (yet). But if you want to be successful, you have to push through the hard times.

Similar to Oprah Winfrey’s story, even when she had an awfully rated show, she was able to turn her misfortune into good fortune. Oprah gained recognition and was awarded her own show for her efforts “The Oprah Winfrey Show” which earned a full hour spot and became the top daytime talk show in the United States. Oprah has never given up and only moved onto greater things.

It’s better to think of the entrepreneurship journey as an extreme sport. That doesn’t mean you can’t take breaks, but it’s best to keep pushing through the hard times to the good ones. To do this, you have to establish your foundation in the beginning. You can do this by getting a handle on your finances and keeping good records (and sticking to them). As far as your industry, it’s not a bad idea to learn about it as early as possible, as you can use it to find your market or to assess the competition. When you do find your market, look for clients who can afford your product (you’ll want to set prices high enough to cover your overhead). The whole idea here is to keep your prices as low as possible while still delivering the right services. Read more at Medium.com.

6 Things Women in Business Know That Men Don’t

A dear friend of mine once said, “Life turns you into an expert at things you never chose to become an expert at.” This resonates with me a lot as an entrepreneur and mother of two. It’s one of the worst stereotypes these days to see a businesswoman who is also a mother and ask, “How do you do it?” Do men ever get asked that?

The fact of the matter is, female entrepreneurs have a whole different skill set than their male counterparts, and this is out of necessity. Far be it from me to look at this and think that we’re forced, kicking and screaming, to learn to work harder, smarter, and more efficiently than our male peers. In my experience, it’s best to approach the challenges by thinking, this is a gift.

Let’s explore six things that female entrepreneurs know about business and life that men don’t necessarily not know, but can never understand to the degree that women do. Read more at AllBusiness.com.

My Ideal Client Became My Worst Nightmare: 5 Lessons For Freelancers

After years of handling online marketing for local small businesses, I decided to pivot and help musicians with their marketing. Except I knew nothing about the music industry.

My lack of experience didn’t matter. I’ve always been passionate about supporting independent artists so I’d learn along the way. After all, I credit music with having saved my life when I was a youth dealing with mental health issues.

Despite venturing blindly into the music industry, my journey has been surprisingly great so far as a music marketing freelancer. Read more at YFSmagazine.com.

How to Start a Young Entrepreneurs Book Club

Inspired to start your own book club? From one young entrepreneur to another – education outside of the classroom is essential to growing as a business person. Whether you choose to read my book or choose from the hundreds of other value-packed entrepreneurship reads, it’s important to constantly learn new things.

Whether you want to host a book club for a small group or bring together a larger group of young entrepreneurs, the first step is to find out who will be involved. Although there are pluses and minuses to both bigger and smaller groups, I typically recommend petite gatherings. They can be more intimate and allow you to connect and learn a lot more from your book club and its members. Read more at Influencive.com.