The extremely competitive business environment presents enormous obstacles. This essay will examine the world of female entrepreneurs and the obstacles they face when trying to succeed. This article offers a thorough analysis of the current state of female entrepreneurs and their difficulties when starting businesses. Entrepreneurs now make up a larger portion of India's GDP and have a stronger impact on the socioeconomic situation of the country; women's economic participation will accelerate economic growth.

INTRODUCTION

The most notable aspect of India, which is the seventh-largest country in the world and home to some 15 million doctors, engineers, and scientists, is its size. India is a country rich in diversity, cultural legacy, and values. On the other side, the country has a somewhat higher than 50% literacy rate. India is a young nation; 40% of its citizens are between the ages of 23 and 44. India is more demographically prepared due to the stark urban-rural gap. India opened its economy in 1991, and since then the forces of change have affected virtually all Indians, both personally and professionally. Almost all Indians have an opinion about these changes in the economic policies, and are quite vocal in advocating or opposing these changes. India is a developing country and its development is truly the hard work of its people. India has shaped many great scholars, scientists, intellectuals and even entrepreneurs. The sense of achieving is deep rooted in Indians and that’s the reason Indians are doing great works in almost all countries. India has produced many successful entrepreneurs who have raised the standards and placed made India globally.

CONCEPT OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

Women entrepreneurs are described as individuals or a group of individuals who start, plan, and run a business. Women entrepreneurs are those who "own and control an enterprise with a minimum financial interest of 51% of the capital and give at least 51% of the employment created in the enterprise to women," according to the Government of India. Due to forces pushing and pulling them to work independently and stand on their own two feet, women are starting businesses. This need is driven by a desire to make independent decisions about their lives and careers. Women who are burdened with domestic duties and household chores desire independence. These characteristics have an impact on the career decisions made by female entrepreneurs who want a challenge and a desire to try something new. Pull factors are used to describe this circumstance. While under pressure, women participate in economic activities out of obligation to the family and because it is expected of them.

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN INDIA

The Constant development and globalization have boasted the Indian start-up industry, making more women folks turning into entrepreneurs and chasing their dream of success & becoming global leaders. One such wonder woman is Kalpana Saroj, of Kamani industries. She is the first female corporate entrepreneur in post-independence India. As per the Sixth Economic Census, this was conducted between January 2013 and April 2014.

Out of 58.5 million businesses counted by that census, 8.05 million were owned by women, which correspond to a rate of 13.76 percent of women among the total number of entrepreneurs in India. According to a World Bank Enterprise Survey, the percentage of women in leadership positions in 2014 was as low as 9 percent. The top five states with the highest percentage of women entrepreneurs are Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Maharashtra. In a recent study by World Bank, it’s observed that in 2012, only 27 % of adult Indian women had a job, or were actively looking for one, compared to 79 %of men. In fact, almost 20 million women had dropped out of the workforce between 2005 and 2012. Indian women entrepreneurs are sub dived in three categories.

1. First Category

Established in Big Cities
Highly Educated
Sound Financial background
Affluent Entrepreneur

2. Second Category

Established in towns and Cities
Educated
Little Financial Support
Self-Entrepreneur

3. Third Category

Established in Villages
Illiterate
Financially Weak
Rural Entrepreneur

PROBLEMS FACED BY THE WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN INDIA

The expansion of women's entrepreneurship has been constrained by the issues and limitations faced by these businesswomen. Women in India struggle mightily to advance in the business world. From the very beginning, till the business is operating, women entrepreneurs deal with a number of challenges. A woman entrepreneur faces many challenges simply by virtue of her gender. Every woman needs a favorable environment in order to instill entrepreneurial values and participate actively in company affairs. However, it is difficult for women in India to advance their careers in business.

Family ties

Women in India are very emotionally attached to their families. They are supposed to attend to all the domestic work, to look after the children and other members of the family. They are over burden with family responsibilities like extra attention to husband, children and in laws which take away a lots of their time and energy. In such situation, it will be very difficult to concentrate and run the enterprise successfully.

Male dominated society

Even though the constitution speaks of equality between gender male chauvinism is still the order of the day. Women are not treated equal to men. Their entry to business requires the approval of the head of the family. Entrepreneurship has traditionally been seen as a male preserve. All these put a break in the growth of women entrepreneurs.

Lack of education

Women in India are lagging far behind in the field of education. Most of the women (around sixty per cent of total women) are illiterate. Those who are educated are provided either less or inadequate education than their male counterpart partly due to early marriage, partly due to son's higher education and partly due to poverty. Due to lack of proper education, women entrepreneurs remain in dark about the development of new technology, new methods of production, marketing and other governmental support which will encourage them to flourish.

Self-Confidence

In India women have lack of self-confidence in their strength and ability. The family members and the society are unwilling to stand beside their organizational growth. To a certain degree, this situation is changing with Indian women and yet to face an incredible amend to boost the rate of growth in entrepreneurship.

Socio-Cultural Barriers

Family and personal obligations sometimes works as a great barrier for succeeding in business career of women entrepreneurship. Only few women are capable of managing both home and business efficiently, giving sufficient time to perform all their responsibilities in priority.

Risks Related to Market

Tuff competition in the market and lack of mobility of women make them dependent on middle man essential. Many business women find it very difficult to capture the market share and make their products well popular and accepted by customer. They are not fully conscious of the changing market environment conditions and hence can effectively exploit the services of media and internet

Mobility Constraints

Women in India have to face lot of restriction on their mobility, our society still have some conservativeness, and due to that career of women is limited to four walls of kitchen. Though women faced lots of problems being mobile in entrepreneurial activity, the mobility problem has been eliminated to very certain extent by the expansion of education awareness to all.

Business Administration Knowledge

Women must be educated and trained continuously to acquire the skills and understanding in all the required functional areas of business venture. This will make women to excel in decision making and develop good business skills.

Financial Assistance

Most of the women especially in rural areas are not aware about the financial assistance provided by various institutions. The efforts taken for Women entrepreneurs may not able to reach the entrepreneurs in rural and backward areas.

Training Programs

Depending upon the needs, duration, skill and the purpose of entrepreneur there are various workshops and training programs available the social & welfare association. Such kinds of programs are really helpful to new and young entrepreneurs who desire to start a small and medium sized business on their own.

Cost

Some business has highly production and operation cost that adversely affects the expansion of women entrepreneurs. The installations of new machineries during expansion of the productive capacity and like similar factors discourage the women entrepreneurs from entering into new areas.

THE CONCERNS NARRATED

The women of today represent educated, contemporary, working women who have families to take care of, children to feed, along with a job in hand. Women typically succeed professionally and personally without jeopardizing their reputations, finances, or taking significant risks. There are numerous circumstances that can lead a woman to become an entrepreneur, including: motives for women entrepreneurs.

Decrease in Private or Public Job availability
For Change in Life Style / Life Style expense
Financial independence or Compulsion
Inflation
Enhance Family income

The availability of microfinance has ameliorated women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship and 98 percent of businesses owned by women are micro-enterprises, where approximately 90 percent of them operate in the informal sector. India is steadily rising up the ranks when it comes to a favorable start-up ecosystem with solid backing from the Government. Challenges for female entrepreneurship Today’s world is advancing in terms of empowering women in various.

Being a Woman

India is a land, which worships female-deities from centuries. However, the evils of society have brought up immense challenges of being a woman in India. Be it as a mother, a working woman, or even a small girl. Women are abused, ill-treated, harassed and demoralized.

Funding and Financing

Major setback or problem in Women led start-up is the Funding and Financing arrangements. It’s not easy for women to get a collateral free loan or clear financing as most of the Banks and Financial institution don’t voluntarily consent them to grant loans.

Limited Mentoring Opportunities

Women’s need Support and Guidance to establish them in this Male dominant competitive market. Absence of such guidance, Skill, and knowledge creates a gap. Recently many initiatives have been taken by government and many NGO & SHG have accepted this challenge and helping women’s in both rural and urban areas of our country.

Lack of Workspace

A single lady looking for an office space often ends up in trauma. Finding a workspace near home is again a big challenge; the latest trend in start-ups is the shared office space, Co-working Spaces.

Lack of access to technology

Women need technology for the same reasons as men: to develop their marketable skills, enhance their economic opportunities, participate in informed decision-making, network, promote themselves as individuals or simply to have fun. Women need technology to participate in the modern world as equals.

Mobility issues

Women usually prefer closer work places, most of the Indian women are engaged in home-based businesses like Pickle dealers, Papadum , Ornament , handlooms , mostly small scale businesses.Travelling frequently.

Non Awareness of facilities offered by government

Women Entrepreneurs are backed by various government schemes in India to grow their small business; however most of the women’s are unaware of these benefits. Some of the schemes are – Annapurna Scheme for Catering Business, Stree Shakti For Entrepreneurship Development Programme, Dena Shakti Scheme For Manufacturing Business, Orient Mahila Vikas Yojana For Small Businesses. etc The governments at the center and the states have established a number of specialized institutions to cater to the needs of women entrepreneurs but they still face many problems.

CONCLUSION

India has produced several successful female business owners, including Chanda Kochar, Indra Nooyi, and Ekta Kapoor, to mention a few. Women will need to overcome obstacles and achieve. Innovating, fostering economic growth, and creating jobs can all be supported by promoting the full potential of female entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial counseling, promotion, and well-thought-out market studies are required. First, it's crucial to support education and leadership abilities at all levels in order to close the gender gap and advance equality for everybody. Women should be able to start their own businesses because of policies that encourage women to hold senior and leadership positions. Second, women business entrepreneurs in all categories should be aware of and have access to any government programmes that are accessible to them. There should be ongoing campaigns and media coverage showing that business can also be a world for women. All women's inspiration of financial or non-financial constraints should reach the scheme center for support, per the Ambassador for Women drive's endorsement.

Women in business have numerous challenges in the areas of family, finances, marketing, and health. Following independence, the law promised women equal rights and opportunities in employment and education. The main factors that drive women to succeed as business owners should include psychological support from their husbands and families, in addition to financial aid and government programmes. Despite government support in some financial areas, women may not succeed as business owners without the moral encouragement of family and friends. When it is a business, business is all about profits, losses, and tensions. To prevent issues, someone should always provide constructive support. This help will benefit many people, not just women. Due to rising levels of self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-motivation, women entrepreneurs' expectations are rising nowadays. The number of people who are literate is steadily rising, and as people become more knowledgeable about everything, more women will have goals for the future.

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REFERENCES:

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