We talked to Frances Wright, founder and Managing Director of Trinitas Consulting (Pty)
Two family members are discussing career options. One is a manager in a corporate and the other owns her own business. The manager says that she is thinking of starting her own business because she needs more time with her children. The entrepreneur laughs and tries to remember when last she managed to fit in any family time between running the business and furthering her studies so that the business world would take her seriously as a businesswoman.
It is not that the world has not caught
up to the fact that woman are holding their own in business, it is the challenge of still having to cope as wife, mother and housekeeper while maintaining friendships and some sanity in the process of establishing and building a business. Is that at all possible? Well of course it is; we are woman after all. But whether you are a woman or a man, business is challenging. It is about managing a number of
variables simultaneously, identifying which variables you can control and which you need to work around. For a woman, it is not just the macro - and micro-business environment that she has to consider; it is also work and home life, it is procuring for the business and buying groceries for the home, it is about motivating your staff while helping children with homework.
During a recent literary study it was
found that there are eighty eight variables impacting on business success. When talking about business only, there are many issues that have to be managed and controlled. When personal and family life is added to that, it becomes more complicated.
Why then do we do it? According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report of 2007, entrepreneurship in low and middle income countries is mostly need driven, thus people are starting businesses despite little or no business experience. Only 3.6% of entrepreneurial businesses in South Africa show growth potential and most do not become employers.
Despite the fact that entrepreneurial
activity is needs driven, successful entrepreneurship is still a major contributor to the alleviation of poverty and creation of employment opportunities. In the White Paper on National Strategy for the Development and Promotion of Small Business in South Africa (1995) it is stated that small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMEs) assist hugely to address the challenges of job creation and economic growth in South Africa. SMEs play a vital role in absorbing labour, penetrating new markets and generally expanding economies. But still, what is in it for the entrepreneur and, especially, for female entrepreneurs?
August 2011 | Management Today 105
Many entrepreneurs are experiencing the pain of balancing work and personal life, while trying to build the business and face all the challenges the business world bring, such as; cash flow problems, employee conflict, client satisfaction and corporate governance. The pain of entrepreneurship and management of a business is a constant and has to be tolerated by the entrepreneur. The one characteristic that will separate the survivors from the 96% of entrepreneurs that fail is tenacity and the ability to tolerate the pain.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118