Answer
For women entrepreneurs, there are more hurdles than for men entrepreneurs. They have to be preparedto break the social expectations and social roles that are ascribed on them. They have to win confidence of their family. Theycannot neglect their traditionalroles completely and hence they have to continue to manage their traditional roles also. They have to take the family, friends into confidence. However, entrepreneurship is better than doing job as they are able to perform their traditional roles better with these roles. Thus entrepreneurship is preferred by women now a days. They can avail of support from the government through various schemes / financing options. They must undertake thorough market survey and get some work experience before starting their business enterprise. They must hire trained manpower to support them in the business organization. Every entrepreneur must undertake market survey and prepare detailed project report (DPR) before starting his project. The project report must be based on market surveys. Market survey or a market assessment must be made before setting up a project. The prevailing price, the level of competition and the quality of your product must be seen and examined before deciding to set up a unit. Experience has shown that SSIs do well in markets in the following conditions:-
Where markets are local and the unit can cater to local tastes As part of a larger chain whereby the SSI product is used by a larger unit. Where the SSI is able to meet a specific requirement for a specific scheme commonly known as niche requirements. Any SSI unit must try to place itself in any of these three categories. It must also register with NSIC under its Single Point Registration Scheme to take advantage of Government’s Price and Preference Policy. In some States, the Small Industries Development Corporation plays an active role in promoting SSI units. SSIs can also join together and form a consortium to market their products jointly. To attain global standards “bar coding” should be adopted. To facilitate adoption of bar coding my micro and small enterprises the Government has launched a support scheme.
SSI unit must get proper guidance from marketing experts also. it must also contact NSIC, SIDO, Khadi and Village Industries Board and other government bodies for availing support.
In order to promote products, there are two essential things – proper publicity and proper brand building. for these the entrepreneur must participate in exhibitions, trade fairs, conferences, exhibitions and must take advantage of all government support system for this. MSMEs participate in a limited number of international exhibitions every year. For this purpose, Office of DC (MSME) books space, and selected SSI units are given the facility of free display space and free shipment of their exhibits from Mumbai to the fair and back. To get selected for participation, the unit must be registered and be producing goods, which are export worthy. A team of SISI Officers of your State who will recommend participation of your unit assesses export worthiness. Preference is given to units, which are ISO-9000 certified. You may also attend the fair in your individual capacity after availing shipment from O/O DC (MSME) at your own cost or through financial assistance under the Market Development Assistance (MDA) scheme of the Ministry of Commerce. O/O DC(MSME) has also launched its own scheme called SSI-MDA to encourage SSI entrepreneurs to participate more actively in international exhibitions. These schemes are available to women entrepreneurs in more number and there are more support options for women entrepreneurs. Thus there is a need for support and trainng for women entrepreneurs so that they may come to know about the different schemes available for their development and they may start their business organization in a systematic process.
There is need of entrepreneurship development programmes to be conducted in schools and colleges. There is also a need to set up funds to support the students who come up with innovative ideas and projects. IIM Ahmedabad and IIT Bombay were the pioneer in setting up such funds and they are able to convert their students into entrepreneurs. Now many business schools are setting up such incubation centres which provide funds and support to the budding entrepreneurs. These initiatives will help us in accelerating entrepreneurship. There is also a need to promote venture capitalists in our country. We must welcome venture capital firms. There is also a need to recognize women entrepreneurs, so that they may expand their busineses and present a role model to others.
The first step is to create better information about women on the market and women’s entrepreneurship in particular. Despite the recent developments reported here, we still have a lack of information about the economic impact of women entrepreneurs. At the moment, we know that independent of the nature of the economy observed women represent a substantial part of the entrepreneurial part of the economy. However, they still are underrepresented relative to men and can therefore be said to represent an untapped resource. In order to better utilise this resource, we need to know why women are underrepresented.
