How Women Entrepreneurs can Overcome Challenges and Succeed Striking work-life balance is key

Women entrepreneurs are the fastest growing segment in the small business community. Although they are creating businesses at a fast pace, there are some significant road blocks that they face which are different from what their male counterparts have to deal with.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, women have many odds stacked against them. But the instinct to face insurmountable challenges has made women entrepreneurs who they are – successful and a force to be reckoned with.

The many hurdles

There are plenty of reasons the entrepreneurial route is more tough for women – for some, it's getting a foothold in what is still essentially a boy's club. For others, it's finding investors who take them seriously. But to top them all is the proverbial work-life conundrum, a balance that is expected only from women.

So how have women entrepreneurs reached where they are now? How did they face each challenge, each obstacle, and every thorn in the path? And more importantly, what did they learn from the challenges and how did they overcome them? These are questions worth pondering over.

The real fight

The biggest weapon an entrepreneur has to win the fight is to keep oneself committed towards the idea which one thinks will bring change to her life, to the business market, to the world. From the outside, an entrepreneur's journey looks glamorous and sorted, and passion runs high at all times; but in reality, it's riddled with hurdles. Deep inside, however, there is hope to execute a new idea, a new service that an entrepreneur knows will change the world, and it is not be adopted the day it comes out, especially if it's a paradigm shift.

One has to build the market from the ground up and has to struggle incredibly hard to build a market for their product. In this time-taking process, some people will join your vision early on, some in the middle, and many will leave. Money flow will get slow and tight, and hope will get replaced with hopelessness.

But one has to keep their hopes up and overcome all odds.

Question yourself and win

Whenever you feel something is impossible, ask yourself: are these challenges impossible to overcome? The answer should be no. Such reconfirmation to self gives clarity. Similarly start picking up small wins, find answers for next steps. This will allow you to take decisive steps in a specified direction.

Most of the time, a woman is stuck between her responsibility towards her work and home. And there's this added pressure of that the work has to be very much in consent with her family and society.

A woman entrepreneur has to understand and remind herself that she cannot let the society decide her priorities, and she has to be strong and audacious enough to prioritize her career, her choices and her way of life over everything else. She would also have to develop an understanding with her family to make them realize the prominence of her decisions and priorities. All this is extremely important because till the time you are not happy, you can't keep others happy, and also dedicate your energies fully to the work you want to do.