Whether women are better entrepreneurs pretty much depends upon whom you ask. It can also be argued that the term ‘better’ is subjective. By saying ‘better’, are you asking if the employees of a company like female bosses better than male bosses or whose profit margins are better or who gets more credit and exposure as a business owner, your responses may flip-flop from women to men. 

Even though the number of women entrepreneurs has significantly increased over the decades, the rise in female-owned companies is not necessarily synonymous with the notion that women entrepreneurs are fairing as well as men when it comes to salaries for themselves, profits or business opportunities. 

Women are more likely than men to create service oriented businesses or businesses that have more direct customer contact. Women who have worked on at least one job were also more likely to start a business than women who have never worked before.  Women seize the reins of entrepreneurship to better their socio-economic situations and provide better lives for their children more than the desire to become “rich”. Men tend to start businesses to become rich. Because men often base their level of masculinity on their successes in life, they therefore have the undying need to be bigger, better and more successful than the next guy. 

Fear of failure as an entrepreneur was greater among women business owners than men business owners which can be attributed to a few reasons – 1) women’s overall image of themselves 2) the glass ceiling of the corporate world 3) male-dominated corporate world where they feel oppressed 4) salaries for women in the corporate world still fall short of men’s. It make be for these reasons that there is no shortage of women entrepreneur support websites on the Internet that provide relevant information, support, advice and resources for women in business. 

Women often find their own “niche” in business, much easier than men do because women tend to use their natural abilities as a way to start a business and to make money. Women, therefore often require far less capital to start their businesses compared to their male counterparts. 

No one really knows if women entrepreneurs are better than men. The answer is subjective and there is no empirical data to support an answer because “better” means something different to everyone you ask. 

The blatant truth and reality is however, women entrepreneurs are rising in numbers and are a formidable force in the business world, being billions – even trillions of dollars into world economies.

Alicia D’Amico

www.womenforwomensite.com Inspiring women to achieve their goals in business and or in their working lives.

• By Alicia D’Amico

Working from home is not for everyone. Some people are content with the daily regiment of commuting to a job, reporting to a supervisor, mingling and socializing with co-workers, friends and colleagues and coming home to their families. They achieve a sense of belonging underneath a blanket of security that they need to feel like they have accomplished a complete work day. Others however yearn to separate themselves from the traditional  brick and mortar workplace and much prefer to set up offices in their home. Whether you work on-site or from home, the corporate mind-set must still remain in tact. Working from home makes establishing patterns, routines, lunch breaks, phone calls etc…a bit more challenging. 

With the advent of technology, it is possible to work anywhere there is a viable internet connection and a computer. With equipment such as web cams and software programs such as Live Meeting, teleconferencing, instant messaging and computer conferencing (such as SKYPE), people from all over the world are able to work together with relative ease. In some cases, the most challenging problem is coordinating time zones.  

Technology has allowed corporations a way to offer more and more people the opportunity to work away from the office. Business travelers are able to continue working on their laptops from the moment they leave the office (or home), at the airport (all U.S. airports now offer wifi service for travelers), on the flight and from their hotel rooms. In years past, companies lost millions of dollars, potentially, while workers moved from one point to another. 

Approximately 41 million Americans worked from home in 2008 and that number is expected to continue to increase as technology makes business transactions and interactions so convenient. With a simple telephone, people are able to send and receive emails, text messages, photos and other documents. Over the next several years, it will be interesting to see just how convenient working from anywhere will become.

Alicia D’Amico

www.womenforwomensite.com Inspiring women to achieve their goals in business and or in their working lives.