- INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurship has traditionally been defined as the process of designing, launching, and running a new business, which typically begins as a small business, such as a startup company, offering a product, process, or service for sale or hire, and the people who do so are called entrepreneurs. It has been defined as the capacity and willingness to develop, organize, and manage a business venture along with any of its risks to make a profit. While definitions of entrepreneurship typically focus on the launching and running of businesses, due to the high risks involved in launching a start-up, a significant proportion of businesses have to close, due to a lack of funding, bad business decisions, an economic crisis or a combination of all of these or due to lack of market demand.
Entrepreneur: The entrepreneur has been defined as a person who starts, organizes, and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk. Rather than working as an employee, an entrepreneur runs a small business and assumes all the risks and rewards of a given business venture, idea, or good or service offered for sale. The entrepreneur is commonly seen as a business leader and innovator of new ideas and business processes. Previous studies state that entrepreneurs tend to be good at perceiving new business opportunities and they often exhibit positive biases in their perception (i.e., a bias towards finding new possibilities) and a pro-risk-taking attitude that makes them more likely to exploit the opportunity.
Concept of Women Entrepreneurs: Women Entrepreneurs may be defined as women or a group of women who initiate, organize, and operate a business enterprise. The Government of India has defined women entrepreneurs as an enterprise owned and controlled by women having a minimum financial interest of 51 percent of the capital and giving at least 51 percent of the employment generated in the enterprise to women. Women entrepreneurs engaged in business due to push and pull factors which encourage women to have an independent occupation and stand on their legs. A sense of independent decision-making in their life and career is the motivational factor behind this urge. Saddled with household chores and domestic responsibilities women want to get independence. Under the influence of these factors the women entrepreneurs choose a profession as a challenge and as an urge to do something new.
Global Context for Women’s Enterprise: Women enterprise as international or global context: -
In 2016, an estimated 163 million women were in India starting or running new businesses in 74 economies around the world. In addition, an estimated 111 million were running established businesses. (Women’s Entrepreneurship 2016-2017, GEM 2017).
At every level of entrepreneurship, women are at least 20% more likely to cite necessity rather than opportunity as their motivation. But most are still opportunity-driven, particularly in innovation-driven ventures, where women are over three and a half times more likely to cite opportunity motives than necessity motives. (Women’s Entrepreneurship 2016-2017, GEM 2017).
An estimated 48 million female entrepreneurs and 64 million female established business owners currently employ one or more people in their businesses; seven million female entrepreneurs and five million established business owners are expected to grow their ventures by at least six employees in five years. (Global Report on Women and Entrepreneurship, GEM 2012).
In every single economy included in the study, women have lower capabilities perceptions than men. In every region, women have, on average, a greater level of fear of failure than men. (Global Report on Women and Entrepreneurship, GEM 2012).
Around 30% of all US businesses are majority female-owned. The number of women-owned businesses continues to grow at twice the rate of all US firms, and they are increasing in economic clout.
In 2004, the average level of female total entrepreneurial activity (TEA) rate across the 34 GEM countries varied from 39.1% in Peru to 1.2% in Japan. (Global Report on Women and Entrepreneurship, GEM 2004).
Status of Women Entrepreneurs in India:
An entrepreneur is someone who is involved in economic activity and takes the initiative to start a business with revolutionary ideas. Entrepreneurship gives massive opportunities for self-growth as well as serves society. All around the international, Entrepreneurs offer huge employment opportunities by putting in Micro, Small, and Medium enterprises