Women Entrepreneurs

Women entrepreneurs are the new women’s movement. Unlike the movement of the 1970s however, where women left their homes to join the workforce, this time around women are leaving the workforce in order to open their own businesses.

In fact, the idea of women entrepreneurs is a fast growing one – for the past 20 years, women have been creating and building their own businesses at a faster rate than men, even more so in the past couple of years. It’s predicted that women will own half of the 9.2 million expected at home start-up companies by the year 2018, and considering that only 16% of the total jobs in the U.S in 2010 were women owned businesses, this is a huge jump.

Women Entrepreneurs

So why the sudden surge in celebrating women entrepreneurs? Surprisingly it’s not the idea of making more money that many women are rushing toward.
Women who have strived to make their home run businesses the best they can be have stated that the most important factors to them in becoming entrepreneurs is the freedom, flexibility, and control they have, followed closely by creativity, fulfillment and passion. Followed only then by the idea of money. Women are tired of their strict and regulated work life, and are starting to become more aware of the opportunities for entrepreneurship in their lives.

A definite factor of this is the growing number of women role models for others to look up to – women entrepreneurs such as Oprah, Tory Burch and Diane Von Furstenberg are excellent examples of how possible it is for women to become
successful in whatever they do. More and more women and at younger and younger ages are seeing themselves as their own heroes for others to look up to.

And don’t make the mistake of thinking that women entrepreneurs are the same as their male counterparts. In fact, men and women differ greatly in the subject.

Women tend to be more optimistic when it comes to their companies – in a survey of business owners, seventy percent of women expected their revenue to rise over the next year. Only 66% of men did. 56% of women plan to hire more into their company, while only 50% of men reported the same. 68% of women plan to expand their companies, while only 63% of men plan to do the same. In this same survey, women also reported facing different challenges than men in opening their own businesses – with 29% reporting having less access to money and 32% reporting having less access to new business opportunities.

Perhaps the most startling aspect in the differences between men and women entrepreneurs is the types of businesses they open. Women are more likely to open a company that provides educational services, administrative services and
waste management services. They are also more likely to open a company involved in the arts, entertainment or recreation.

With women starting, on average, 1,288 new businesses a day, it’s easy to see the idea of women entrepreneurs is becoming a swift flowing movement capable of encouraging other young women to become more confident and proud of what they can accomplish.

When I started working in real estate as an agent in 1987 at Dolman and Associates in Honolulu, Hawaii, the owner (Vi Dolman) believed that women had a definite advantage working in real estate, because of their personality traits, compassion and dedication to helping (service.) During the time working at Dolman and Associates I have met some of the most successful women entrepreneurs, who were consistently top producers on the island of Oahu.