How Women Overcome these 4 Most Common Challenges in Business

In past decades, both businesswomen and women employees have faced many obstacles and, unfortunately, it still persists today. Working women have been struggling with glass ceilings, unequal pay for equal production, and undeserved stereotypical barriers. With the emergence and growth of the internet, business ideas have shifted, so have the unique issues faced by women in the industry.

Below are five of these problems and approaches to overcome them and become successful.

Discrimination:

Gender discrimination still exists in the industry, although it is illegal. Interviewers ask three-quarters of female applicants questions about marital and parental status. Even if they are not specifically asked about their family status, a shocking 40% of all women feel that during job interviews they need to carefully protect specifics about their families.

Solution: Women living in a workplace with inequality and discrimination need to talk openly about the issue and report it to their HR. In that case, it becomes the duty of the organization to address the issue properly. The owners need to set an example by coming forward and taking stiff measures against it. They need to inform their employees about gender discrimination. They need to show them how to understand and cope with it in order to prevent these circumstances from occurring again.

Lack of Cash-flow:

Without adequate cash flow, even the most brilliant business plan will fail. Simply put, cash flow can be loosely defined as “cash in” (as created by income) and “money out” (to cover the expenses incurred to obtain “cash in.” ) Insufficient cash flow will hamper a company’s chances of success. Let’s just get real; your lenders, workers or suppliers don’t care about your cash flow problems.

Solution: To simplify and correct this problem, look at all aspects of the balance sheet and statement of income. Is there is a time lag between paying your creditors, suppliers and employees and collecting money from your customers? If so, the problem areas need to be defined and steps should be taken to address them. Don’t simply hesitate.

To Know More: 4 Researched Traits that make Women Better Leaders than Men

Knowing Your True Value:

A social psychology professor at NYU asked 100 women and men to write a computer shopping essay. When both groups were asked how much they would pay someone to produce the same composition, even though other reviewers saw their work as equal, women paid themselves 18 percent less than men. Typically, when compared to men, women underestimate their abilities and services. This study translates easily into business as women may be more likely to underestimate their pricing. This practice may make it difficult for women to take advantage of their company.

Solution: Take a look at your skills and services and start getting a sense of the typical cost of your service. This process makes it possible for you to have the confidence to ask what you are worth. Also, feel confident that you know better than anyone else about your business. If you’ve done the job, learned about your industry, and invested in learning, then you should feel ready to talk to customers and investors.

Lack of Support:

Female IT staff often report feeling as if their coworkers do not have full support. In cases where members of their family and friends still embrace cultural biases regarding women in the workforce, they also feel a lack of support at home. Attitudes about the role of women at home still prevent a healthy work-life balance from being achieved by female IT workers. In fact, new mothers also shorten their paid maternity leave because they fear that because of their absence they will lose their job or promotion.

Solution: The handling of inequality and discrimination in the workplace is hard on its own, but it makes things even harder to handle without any support for the career chosen. Working to improve the quality of family communication can go a long way in ensuring that the family member of each female IT worker understands that their job is important to them in the IT industry.

To Know More: 5 Challenges Faced By Women Entrepreneurs in India

Bottom line: Believe in Yourself:

Believing in your own success is one of the toughest parts of being a female entrepreneur. We’re afraid that if we have anything positive to say about the things we’ve done, we’ll sound arrogant or boastful. Try to be the best supporter. If you’re not sharing your expertise to sell your business, no one else will do it for you. You are a valuable investment, and you must believe it!

You must visit our CO-OFFIZ coworking space in Delhi to see how courageously the female entrepreneurs and businesswomen here manage their work and maintain a balance between personal and professional life. 

Let’s Learn & Grow TOGETHER!