Johannesburg - Globally, women experience many barriers preventing them from participating in economic activity, including a lack of access to funding opportunities for those wanting to be entrepreneurs.
According to Gugu Mjadu, a spokesperson for the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year competition, sponsored by Sanlam and Business/Partners, this presents a significant stumbling block to economic growth which will never be realised without the contribution of women entrepreneurs.
Mjadu said in the past one needed to own property to be able to go into entrepreneurship. Women didn’t fit into this category and therefore didn’t qualify for finance.
In terms of research, it is women in their mid-40s to early 50s who show the highest occurrence of entrepreneurial activity, hence the numbers are very low.
“I came across stats from the MasterCard Index for women entrepreneurs, which states that of all the business owners that we have in South Africa, 18.8% are female entrepreneurs. Which is quite low."
“But I think maybe we’re also missing the point of women who have not necessarily registered their businesses but are operating. I never want to discount those. Running my small catering business still makes me an an entrepreneur. I may not have registered it because I am informal."
“So I don’t think it’s as low as 18%, but it is low relative to men.”
But, she said, women also tend to have a high fear of failure, while with men it’s an arrogance that makes them feel like they can succeed.
“Once a mother has had her child and feels secure enough and has enough knowledge to go into business, that’s when she’ll open her business, whereas with men there’s less family responsibility, therefore they can go into entrepreneurship early."
“We haven’t encouraged women enough to go into entrepreneurship, and therefore we don’t celebrate women entrepreneurs."
“We talk about the top entrepreneurs in the country."
“The best I’d mention would be men, but add women secondary to the list."
“We also look at people like Basetsana Kumalo who make entrepreneurship look glamorous, and I think of those types of people going into business, still looking great and juggling motherhood and family responsibilities succeed."
“We can go along with encouraging women and breaking the stereotypes of what constitutes an entrepreneur.”
Mjadu said we need to break down the cultural barriers that keep women from going into entrepreneurship.
We need to show them examples of successful entrepreneurs to show them it is possible to be successful in entrepreneurship.
“It’s nice when you hear about women like Rapelang Rabana, who is in information technology. When she speaks, you are blown away."
“So women like that make women in those sectors feel confident about going into it.
“So it’s mostly construction, but lifestyle businesses. Mostly businesses that are secure in terms of background support, a franchise for instance, people who are running restaurants and consulting businesses and not traditionally the male businesses.
“That’s not to say they’re not there, but they are not necessarily businesses that women start out in.”
Mjadu says they look at different stages of entrepreneurs and categories.
These include the Emerging category, for people who’ve been around for a year to five years and should have a turnover of R5million or less; the Small Business category, which requires a turnover of above R5m but below R30m; and the Medium-Business category, which requires a turnover of R30m.
“Because we are celebrating 30 years, we want to bring in people who have won in the past, and it becomes a celebration with all of them.
“Hopefully, we will launch a book which talk about their journeys and where they are now.”
Entries for the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year competition close at the end of May and the official ceremony will be held in September.
@LesegoMakgatho