Women Entrepreneurs Need To Be Accepted And Trusted In Workplace

Workplace problems may come to anybody, but the challenges can be more daunting for women, especially entrepreneurs who may need to command a sense of substance to lead their team to triumph.

Women entrepreneurs share their set of challenges, the perception of women being entrepreneurs and their leadership at the BW Businessworld’s Women Entrepreneurship Summit & Awards 2019.

Entrepreneurship is a potent drink you will ever drink. Take it if you like potency; it is not the most polite decisions but it is an amazing decision, remarked Ainara Kaur, CEO, Canvilicious Marketing Services.

Talking about challenges they faced during their journey of entrepreneurship, most of the panelists agreed about the constant need to innovate with whatever resources and get the best people to work with. Managing work with personal work was another challenge agreed upon.

However, one important observation was that of Kanika Gupta Shori, Founder & COO, Square Yards who found acceptance in real estate a challenge in the workplace. She said, “I have come up with men judging me for being in a real estate sector.”

Arushi Verma, Co-founder, Fitpass talked about her challenge in entrepreneurship, “My idea was disrupting the fitness idea. It took time for people to accept since it was coming from a girl.”

Shikha A Sharma, Director, Fat To Slim, “Women entrepreneurs need to take out time for themselves. As much as they are indulged in caring about their work and family, they also need to take themselves to the center stage and treat fitness as important.”  

Addressing the common notion that women entrepreneurs end up hiring women, Ainara Kaur refuted saying, “It is talent first always, and gender later. Merit has to be the only criteria always for hiring any workforce.”

Leadership Mantra

Women leaders don’t require any additional support, but just need an opportunity and that one progressive step towards leadership. Women entrepreneurs need to lead by example. 

Nmami Agarwal, Founder & CEO, Nmami Life says, “Everyone can be a leader. You just need to have an idea about your business and managing your work through your people.”

Responding to the workplace mantra about dressing, women entrepreneurs were of the view that dressing up in a workplace should be about their own comfort level and that it should not be a criterion to judge the quality of their work.   

Ashtar Tashi, crystal therapist & spiritual healer asserted, “People would be surprised to see me dressed in what fashion meant to be. Being a spiritual healer, they would expect me to be robed in whites or khadis. I dress in what are relaxing clothes for me and I don’t care about people presuming things about me.”

Fauzia Khan, VP, Film Audit, Spatial Access believes, “What I wear to the workplace is for myself, and it should omit confidence in the way I present myself. The important thing should be about influencing people with your aura and inspire confidence in them.”

Women are born with more than just cookies in work and they have a natural flair of empathy to lead. There will always be challenges to entrepreneurs, but what good is realized without challenges. People have started realizing it is not a male-dominated world anymore and we may see many more disruptors as the acceptance grows.