Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
Mothers naturally develop and learn certain mindsets and skills that are invaluable in entrepreneurship; ergo, moms make great entrepreneurs.
According to a 2017 entrepreneurship report published by Global Entrepreneurship Management (GEM), it was reported that 163 million women were running their business across the 74 countries. Studies conducted by Kauffman Foundation and the Dow Jones company have found that venture-backed companies that are led by women produce 12% higher revenues on average. They also found that women-led ventures get launched with just two-thirds of the capital. Evidence also suggests that such ventures are more resilient when facing financial and market crises.
Unfortunately, the culture among startups, especially tech-based ones, has been hostile against working mothers. Although issues such as sexual harassment and pay discrimination are slowly getting addressed, women who return to work after embracing motherhood have to deal with their own set of challenges as well as biases.
Research conducted by UK psychologists revealed that women are adept at multitasking as compared to men. It is needless to state that when one starts up, multitasking cannot be avoided even if there are fixed roles assigned. Incidentally, when female start-up founders from Latin America were asked whether motherhood hindered their professional growth, they responded that by having children they had been able to acquire skills which translated exceedingly well into entrepreneurship. Let us look at some of these traits:
You don’t know what working under pressure is until you have had to manage children.
It is time for you to start for a meeting and you are ready to step out – and you hear your child shout that he is not able to find his favourite t-shirt. He wouldn’t step out till he finds it. You go in to help him, and right then the baby starts screaming. You know you are going to be late, so you take your phone out to message and find a message from your babysitter. She will not be coming in today, she is sick. Yes, that is exactly what running a start-up is.
Do you find negotiating a deal with a client difficult? Do you think they take too long to close? Well, try feeding a 5-year-old vegetables. If you have a child, you already have mastered all the tools you could use for negotiating a deal.
One of the natural abilities that moms develop is to empathize with the little one. They can understand what the child feels even before she expresses herself, and know how to respond.
Empathy is an essential ingredient to running a successful business. This training lets you understand how clients feel and pitch to them in the best possible way. This also allows you to empathize with your employees and find the best way to motivate them.
A mother always works for the best of her child. A few bumps on the way do not matter. They may give up on themselves, they may grow into teenagers who are angry with everyone around them – but mothers never give up.
This persistence, the patience to wait for things to turn around, is something every entrepreneur needs as well. Remember that 90 per cent of the businesses fail within the first year. To be successful, entrepreneurs must fight on, pivot and carry on. An ability all moms have.
There could be times when the relationship with one’s child might get strained. Either due to misunderstandings or frayed tempers or arguments, the child might be upset with her mother. But the mother knows it is not her. She keeps investing in the relationship and keeps nurturing the child. And sooner or later, the child comes around.
The same attitude helps when facing rejections in business. Your intention should be clear. When failure comes, an entrepreneur must know that she may have made some mistakes – but she isn’t a failure. One should never give up and should always believe that they can make a difference, and success is bound to come their way sooner than later.
Therefore, it can be concluded that motherhood is neither a break nor the end for pursuing entrepreneurship. In fact, it could just be an auspicious beginning or better still, a tremendous upgrade of one’s entrepreneurial skills.
A version of this was first published here.
Image source: shutterstock
KARISHMMA V MANGAL Director and Trustee, Thakur International School – Cambridge Karishmma V Mangal has established herself as an educationalist par excellence over the last decade. Thanks to her vision, dedication, integrity and humble demeanour she read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
Please enter your email address