Good Afternoon and welcome back! Today’s focus is going to be on the set-backs women face in small business and entrepreneurship. This is a topic of great concern to me because I am constantly faced with the monster of failure. I was sure that my research would lead me to something like, gender biases in financial backing from banks. I also assumed there was some cosmic reason I face so many trials in my own small business. However, my research has been very eye opening on the contrary. I researched a scholarly peer reviewed article called, “Business as Plan B.” by Sarah Thebaud. This journal article was written about women just like me. The focus of this article was to point out the reason women enter entrepreneurship in the first place. In our society it is a norm that women are the primary caretakers of children and family. More often than not it is a work-family conflict women have with the wage/salary workforce that drives them to entrepreneurship. Thus owning a small business becomes a fallback strategy for balancing work and family. (Thebaud, 2015)

One setback women face using the Plan B strategy is often low growth and revenue in their business. This makes them no better or even worse off financially, than remaining in the wage/ salary workforce. Another setback to the fallback strategy is women often don’t set high goals to maximize growth. Compared to our male counterparts women are said to lack the social network, managerial skills and financial capital, which are vital to start-up businesses. When women open a business they are typically segregated into crowded, competitive industries such as food service, retail and interpersonal care. Being forced into these industries makes these women owned businesses financially vulnerable. (Thebaud, 2015)

It is said that women entrepreneurs often feel inadequate because of the gender norm in society a mindset in which entrepreneurship is masculine. In an environment rich with women executives and managerial positions, women entrepreneurs are said to thrive. However, this is not usually the case in the United States. There is much headway to be made in the opportunities afforded to women in the American culture. Many senior or executive positions in the U.S. are held by men because one simply has to be, “married,” to their work to hold this type of position. (Thebaud, 2015) In conclusion, I feel there is a deep correlation to the wage/ salary workforce and women entrepreneurship. It can be concluded that it is women themselves that often, “shoot themselves in the foot,” when it comes to entrepreneurial set-backs. Women leave the workforce hoping to find balance with work and family and end up finding a new set of problems.

My research this week was fairly easy to come by as soon as I narrowed down the subject header. Again my frustration was with the several revisions I had to make to my subject line, to find a relevant article to this week’s topic. Finding a scholarly peer reviewed article is something I am familiar and comfortable with. I find myself searching this type of information above all others, in all my classes.

This week’s focus on setbacks is somewhat comforting to me. I am finding in my research that I have fallen into just about every statistic when it comes to women in small business. Although that may not be such a great thing, it’s comforting. I think understanding where you are and where you’ve been is the only way to find where you are going. Next, I am hoping to focus more on success strategies. Perhaps, there is research that I need to be conducting on women friendly programs for entrepreneurs.

References

Thebaud, S. (2015). Business as Plan B. Administrative Science Quarterly; Vol. 60 Issue 4, p671-711.

I am making great headway into the research for Women in Business! My research into what makes women entrepreneurs successful was insightful. It isn’t always the case but overwhelmingly it can be concluded when women entrepreneurs are successful, they have had a support system. This support system ranges from, a word of advice, to financial backing.

I found a very insightful book through the Brandman online library system. The problem was searching for it. I have found that my topic is broad in the sense many other topics are related to women in business. The more I tried to narrow it down the more roadblocks I came across. Finally, I was able to find specific subject headers related to my topic by selecting a title that was somewhat relevant. I found this to be extremely useful.

One frustration I had with using the Brandman library is the e-book selection is limited. I actually didn’t find the book I’m using for my research within the e-book listings in the school library. The actual university library is in another state and it would take too long to request the material through the mail. This forced me to purchase an e-book through amazon.

As I continue to research my topic and read my rental book, I am hoping to really dig into the set-backs faced by women in the world of entrepreneurship. The book I’m using I believe will help me do just that!

Welcome back to the Women in Small Business blog! My research into American women in small businesses is underway. I wanted to center this week’s focus on women’s impact on the small business forefront. I also wanted to focus on what drives women to owning a business and possible set-backs they face along the way.

First, I’ve found that 90% of women-owned small businesses in the U.S. have no other employees other than the owner. (U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation , n.d.) This speaks volumes to me because I fall within this statistic. Furthermore, only 2% of women-owned firms employ 10 or more employees. (U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation , n.d.) If women-owned businesses are to have greater impact on the economy and create jobs, these percentages must change.

Women have fundamentally different reasons for becoming entrepreneurs compared to men. Entrepreneurship is often seen as an ideal balance of career and family among women. Narrowed down, most women start a business for a sense of achievement, a traumatic event such as a divorce, pregnancy discrimination or the corporate glass ceiling. Most men become entrepreneurs for growth opportunities and profit potential. (Enclycopedia of Small Business, 2007)

One of the biggest set-backs for women entrepreneurs is the lack of financing. There is a definite gender gap between the traditional financing opportunities of men and women. (Enclycopedia of Small Business, 2007) This difference leads most women to use credit cards and savings to fund their start-up businesses. (U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation , n.d.)

The research gained this week provides great insight into the broad topic of women in business.

The research for this week’s great information was not easy to come by. It took some digging to find credible, accurate information. I used the e-books section located within the Brandman University online library. I was given a list of reference libraries that contained e-books. From there I had 18 different titles related to my topic. I strategically combed through the subject headers to find statistical data about women entrepreneurs. I then researched for successful women in business on Google. The task of finding credible, accurate information on Google was surprisingly difficult and I had to revise my search topic several times. I used the advanced Google search link and tried to narrow down my search by location (United States), language (English) and domain (.edu or .org). I finally prevailed in finding current, relevant, authoritative, accurate and purposeful information.    

This week’s research makes me more inclined to dig further into what has helped women become successful entrepreneurs. I aim to focus on what women, specifically, have been successful and what helped them reach their level of achievement. On the contrast I want to investigate more possible set-backs women are faced with, when they venture out to becoming American small business owners.  

Welcome to the Women in Small Business blog. This blog is intended to research and provide insight on the successes, failures and statistics of American women in small businesses. I am currently pursuing my Bachelor's degree at Brandman University. A milestone I am set to achieve in June of 2017. I will then further my education by completing an MBA. While the topic of women in small businesses is of great interest to me, it affects me personally. You see, I am an American woman, small business owner. I still have a great deal to learn about being a small business owner and feel the research conducted in this blog will be informational to you, the reader, as well as helpful to me.

There are many aspects of women in small business. I aim to focus on women who have paved the way to success. I will conduct research on what has made them successful. I will also develop insight into the failures of not only women in small business but small business failure in general. I will compare and contrast women and men in small businesses, along with measuring strengths, weaknesses and setbacks. I feel the more I understand about women in small business, the greater my chances are for success. I am also an advocate for women in my community. Therefore I hope my research will encourage and strengthen other women into becoming bigger players in the realm of American small businesses.  

There are challenges I hope to overcome while conducting my research. I find that it’s hard to cite reliable sources. Many of the information we come across in the technological age is online and often times it’s unreliable. On the other hand, the only access I have to confirmed scholarly sources is within the Brandman University online library. I want to improve my knowledge in finding reliable, credible sources. I also want to broaden my knowledge on where to locate scholarly and peer reviewed articles related to my topic.