Own Business vs. Common Problems

Krasnodar, 14 Мау. The number of female entrepreneurs is growing in Krasnodar krai, as it is elsewhere in Russia. Most often, women tend to occupy ‘their own’ niches in the economic life of the Kuban region – the service sphere, social projects, event-marketing and other branches where the number of men is traditionally low. 

Presently, up to 90% of socially oriented businesses and projects on children’s development and education are realized by women, the all-Russian Small and Midsize Business Association OPORA states. At the same time, women’s share in small businesses is less than 33%, despite the fact that women make up more than a half of Russia’s employable population. Experts believe that their potential must be better employed. 

It is noteworthy that Russia is the world’s leader in the number of female managers – 43% of companies are headed by women. The spheres where business ladies are engaged are: services – 58%, commerce – 28%, and production – 14%. 

“Women’s share in business is growing, most likely, because women became more self-confident due to the great support coming from the state – there are various programs and foundations that help women at the initial stage, and various startups,” Anastasia Kedrova, Executive Director of OPORA’s Krasnodar branch, says. “Due to the Presidential decree, female entrepreneurship is being actively popularized. A woman who may have been weak in the business sphere, now has got a chance to learn it, get relevant knowledge, skills and even financial support from the state.” 

Yelena Baskakova, the owner of several cafés and eateries in Krasnodar, believes that women usually become successful entrepreneurs of perforce. She considers that when there is nobody to rely on, a woman takes control of everything – but as soon as there is a chance to quit, any woman would permit herself to take a back seat. Ms. Baskakova asserts that another conceptual difference between a male and a female entrepreneur is that a man has more chances to succeed, because he can busy himself with work because he knows that a woman reliably protects his rear (the household and the children). As for a female entrepreneur, she may reckon on well-protected rear only if there are grandmas or nannies, but deep in her soul, if a woman has children, she would not be able to fully devote herself to business, Yelena Baskakova says. 

Anna Legenda, an event agency director, considers that it is not important whether a man or a woman develop their business – what is important is that a person should see an interesting market niche with minimum rivalry and be prepared to work hard to deliver a good product or service. 

“In my opinion, the difference between men and women is as follows: as far as usually more responsibility is heaped on men’s shoulders, they are obliged to search for early profitable and promising projects,” Ms. Legenda says. “Women are not fettered with such constraints, so they can get engaged in any petty project and invest many months of their effort in it. It is more like a hobby – and quite often the correct approach to any startup – that can yield a strategic win.”

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