business strategy
for women-led businesses across all
sectors and niches than ever before.
Women are starting businesses
because they want to solve the
problems they face every day that
have continued to be ignored, and
they are craving flexibility, autonomy
and recognition for their knowledge,
skills and expertise; something they
aren’t getting in their corporate jobs.
With all the hype around women-led
businesses, the thousands of pink-
coloured photos tagged #girlboss
on Instagram, and women-focused
accelerator programs and co-working
spaces, it’s easy to believe that most
women are killing it in business.
After seeing the Facebook post
mentioned above, I realised I never
hear or see male business owners
asking other men to come up with
taglines, logos, business plans, fix
websites, and the list goes on, for free
or token amounts. I asked a few of
my female entrepreneur friends and
they said the same. So why are women
doing it? I think it has a lot to do with
gender inequality and the pay gap.
Women say that financial constraints
are the biggest barrier to starting and
running a small business.
Many women are being pushed into
starting a business due to the lack of
well-paid, permanent work and the
allure of financial stability. However,
most women struggle to replace their
corporate salary and still earn less
than male business owners. Perhaps,
this is why I wasn't shocked when
I read that 39.2 per cent of women
believe that women are disadvantaged
when it comes to starting a business.
I know so many female business
owners who are exhausted, broke,
and are ready to call it quits. They
lower their rates to compete, work
from home to save money, and put
off hiring staff to the point where
their business isn’t viable mentally,
physically or financially.
This all tells me that women-
led businesses aren’t solving the
problems (like unconscious gender
bias, the need to “prove your worth,”
and work-life balance) that women
face in the traditional business world.
This is why this particular Facebook
post made me so angry. In my mind,
the read-between-the-lines message
was “I’ll go through the process of
hiring a male developer to create my
website but I’ll use a female developer
to fix it for basically free and fast so I
can get on with my busy day.”
I’m sure the woman who posted
asking for help didn’t mean for it to
come off this way. And I’m sure the
women who put their names forward
appreciated the job opportunity.
But that’s not really the point. When
female business owners see these
kinds of posts online every single
day, it’s no wonder they think it’s
acceptable to do work for free and ask
others to do the same.
If we truly want to support each other,
we have to start paying each other.
Awareness, visibility and championing
fellow female entrepreneurs aren’t
enough. Imagine how many more
women-led businesses would succeed
if we bought each other’s services
and products instead of offering
them for free or for token amounts.
Imagine what we could achieve
and the problems we could solve if
we believed we were all worthy of
investing in.
AUTHOR
RACHEL KURZYP
RK Consulting
[email protected]