Promoting women's entrepreneurship
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Salahuddin Ahmed
DEVELOPMENT requires participation from all categories of people. Countries like Bangladesh face tremendous obstacles to ensuring involvement of all people in the development process; especially, women in Bangladesh face social and economic impediments to contributing to its development process at the fullest. It is obvious that given the potential of the women workforce, it is possible to promote, on an accelerated spree, women entrepreneurship that could change the face of our development in a multi-faceted way. Bangladeshi women do have a great propensity to stepping away from traditional economic roles and venturing into new businesses.
Women in Bangladesh face two-fold challenges in their lifetime: one relates to a culture and tradition tending to keep them inside family homesteads and the other is fashioned by increasing poverty that forces them outside the wage employment opportunities. But the stirring news is that women in Bangladesh have started to play a very important role in moulding country's development. We need to accelerate this for their better participation through some pro-active policies and actions.
What should women in Bangladesh do initially to start a business or what do they need to do to be successful entrepreneurs? First of all, it is very important to build the reserves. How is it going to be possible for Bangladeshi women? Through the effort of Grameen bank we have seen the potential of women. Various banks and financial institutions should have separate wings for promoting women's entrepreneurship. It is very important for such entrepreneurs to have working capital for, at least, six months, before they launch a business.
The next step women entrepreneurship needs is to ask: why and for whom to start a business? They simply do not need to start it on an impulse; they need to identify the need for the product they are going to launch. With this end in view, small and medium enterprise (SME) units of various government and non-government organisations can set up training centres exclusively for such women to help enlighten them about small and medium enterprises and various businesses they can launch.
Initially, both male and female entrepreneurs face the same challenges, but there is one challenge which is, without any doubt, exclusively before the women. The challenge is about balancing a fledgling company and a fledgling family. Whether it is in New York, or in Bangladesh or in any other place, female entrepreneurs all over the world struggle over how to be both a good mother and a CEO. In Bangladesh, this challenge is more daunting for women. The women earners in Bangladesh are disadvantaged, in terms of their monthly income. A study suggests that the average monthly income of men was Tk. 2,135 ($30.94) compared to just Tk. 706 ($10.23) for women. All government development programmes must target women as equal partners to men. In fact, government assistance should be maintained through women for reaching the entire household effectively.
Financial requirements is one of the key issues that women entrepreneurs need to assess properly, in order to achieve better success in their businesses. Before embarking on a business, a female entrepreneur needs to develop a personal plan of saving and spending. First of all, such entrepreneurs need to identify and write down fixed expenses for each month for the next year. Once all fixed expenses have been identified, monthly fixed expenses can be worked out and then the annual fixed expenses have to be computed. In the next step they need to identify flexible expenses and write them down for each month. Once all the flexible expenses have been identified, monthly flexible expenses can be estimated and then the annual ones can be calculated. Now they need to subtract total fixed expenses and total flexible expenses for every month and year-round on the basis of expected monthly and annual incomes.
In Bangladesh the role of mentors can be a crucial factor to help promote women entrepreneurs. Such mentors are experienced business women who can assist other women ready to start or to set up businesses. A mentor is one person in front of whom every question is a good question and in front of whom it is not required for others to be conversant with all related matters, as long as the new women business entrepreneurs are trying to learn.
In our country, any policy regarding women should be implemented in the right way. It is useful for an organisation to balance a policy on gender, with a strategy outlining the implementation of policy as well as related action programmes. Additional technical advice or expertise is needed to implement the organisation's commitment to gender equality. An effective strategy for mainstreaming is to ensure that gender sensitivity is included as a criterion in all development agenda. A strong monitoring and evaluation mechanism should be developed to ensure that all women benefit from various development efforts.
A good number of Bangladeshi women, through their entrepreneurial efforts are already contributing to a larger extent to the economy. The government and other organisations should provide them with more supports so that more and more women can come forward to set up new ventures in a conducive business environment to put in their best to the development of their own families and the economy.
The writer is an MBA student and Graduate Assistant at Ashland University, OH, USA.
He may be reached at
e-mail: sahmed@ashland.edu
DEVELOPMENT requires participation from all categories of people. Countries like Bangladesh face tremendous obstacles to ensuring involvement of all people in the development process; especially, women in Bangladesh face social and economic impediments to contributing to its development process at the fullest. It is obvious that given the potential of the women workforce, it is possible to promote, on an accelerated spree, women entrepreneurship that could change the face of our development in a multi-faceted way. Bangladeshi women do have a great propensity to stepping away from traditional economic roles and venturing into new businesses.
Women in Bangladesh face two-fold challenges in their lifetime: one relates to a culture and tradition tending to keep them inside family homesteads and the other is fashioned by increasing poverty that forces them outside the wage employment opportunities. But the stirring news is that women in Bangladesh have started to play a very important role in moulding country's development. We need to accelerate this for their better participation through some pro-active policies and actions.
What should women in Bangladesh do initially to start a business or what do they need to do to be successful entrepreneurs? First of all, it is very important to build the reserves. How is it going to be possible for Bangladeshi women? Through the effort of Grameen bank we have seen the potential of women. Various banks and financial institutions should have separate wings for promoting women's entrepreneurship. It is very important for such entrepreneurs to have working capital for, at least, six months, before they launch a business.
The next step women entrepreneurship needs is to ask: why and for whom to start a business? They simply do not need to start it on an impulse; they need to identify the need for the product they are going to launch. With this end in view, small and medium enterprise (SME) units of various government and non-government organisations can set up training centres exclusively for such women to help enlighten them about small and medium enterprises and various businesses they can launch.
Initially, both male and female entrepreneurs face the same challenges, but there is one challenge which is, without any doubt, exclusively before the women. The challenge is about balancing a fledgling company and a fledgling family. Whether it is in New York, or in Bangladesh or in any other place, female entrepreneurs all over the world struggle over how to be both a good mother and a CEO. In Bangladesh, this challenge is more daunting for women. The women earners in Bangladesh are disadvantaged, in terms of their monthly income. A study suggests that the average monthly income of men was Tk. 2,135 ($30.94) compared to just Tk. 706 ($10.23) for women. All government development programmes must target women as equal partners to men. In fact, government assistance should be maintained through women for reaching the entire household effectively.
Financial requirements is one of the key issues that women entrepreneurs need to assess properly, in order to achieve better success in their businesses. Before embarking on a business, a female entrepreneur needs to develop a personal plan of saving and spending. First of all, such entrepreneurs need to identify and write down fixed expenses for each month for the next year. Once all fixed expenses have been identified, monthly fixed expenses can be worked out and then the annual fixed expenses have to be computed. In the next step they need to identify flexible expenses and write them down for each month. Once all the flexible expenses have been identified, monthly flexible expenses can be estimated and then the annual ones can be calculated. Now they need to subtract total fixed expenses and total flexible expenses for every month and year-round on the basis of expected monthly and annual incomes.
In Bangladesh the role of mentors can be a crucial factor to help promote women entrepreneurs. Such mentors are experienced business women who can assist other women ready to start or to set up businesses. A mentor is one person in front of whom every question is a good question and in front of whom it is not required for others to be conversant with all related matters, as long as the new women business entrepreneurs are trying to learn.
In our country, any policy regarding women should be implemented in the right way. It is useful for an organisation to balance a policy on gender, with a strategy outlining the implementation of policy as well as related action programmes. Additional technical advice or expertise is needed to implement the organisation's commitment to gender equality. An effective strategy for mainstreaming is to ensure that gender sensitivity is included as a criterion in all development agenda. A strong monitoring and evaluation mechanism should be developed to ensure that all women benefit from various development efforts.
A good number of Bangladeshi women, through their entrepreneurial efforts are already contributing to a larger extent to the economy. The government and other organisations should provide them with more supports so that more and more women can come forward to set up new ventures in a conducive business environment to put in their best to the development of their own families and the economy.
The writer is an MBA student and Graduate Assistant at Ashland University, OH, USA.
He may be reached at
e-mail: sahmed@ashland.edu