In 2019, we did come across stories celebrating the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Regional India. In fact, women entrepreneurs from beyond the metros are showing the way when it comes to innovation. As we step into 2020, what are the expectations for women entrepreneurs?
They would look for these options to open up:
Building the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Active corporate partnership and assistance will be required by entrepreneurs to create an entrepreneurship ecosystem and easy market access. And the government must also recognise that the corporate and entrepreneurial sectors need to collaborate to develop solutions to meet India’s challenges.
Available resources, as women entrepreneurs are constantly reaching out. The two most important resources for entrepreneurs are financial capital and human capital. And, investors normally look for a robust regulatory environment that ensures market protection.
Provision of infrastructure.This remains a major barrier to entry for many cash-strapped entrepreneurs. It’s expensive to start a business and to conduct business. This is a macro-level problem, and the government could play a bigger role in addressing it. For small manufacturers in India, the cost of transportation can lead to disproportionate operating costs.
A favorable business environment. Here the government needs to step up its key role of creating an environment conducive to business formation: making it easy to launch and operate a business. Government plays a role in three primary areas: facilitating the ecosystem, enabling capital to flow smoothly, and forming regulations to facilitate establishing new businesses; this should be enhanced.
On a realistic note, Indian culture hasn’t traditionally celebrated ‘entrepreneurialism’ where risks are aplenty. So, there needs to be a greater tolerance for failure, to encourage ‘risk-taking’.
Today, India’s business needs more of entrepreneurs, without any gender variant. So, if government pitches in, a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem could flourish. And, even provide the solution to India’s intimidating employment challenge!