Women in Small Entrepreneurial Ventures in Kolkata : A Study of Motivational Factors and Challenges

Women's entrepreneurship is a relatively new phenomenon in India, despite the fact that entrepreneurship is a centuries-old phenomenon. From the viewpoints of many socio-demographic variables of women's entrepreneurial life, the present study has been done to investigate the motivating factors and various reasons for women entrepreneurs adopting their own business, together with the challenges they face. This analysis will be helpful in showing a way to success if these identified factors are managed well through proper training with an emphasis on the ways of handling them. The demographic profile of women entrepreneurs have also been studied in connection with the push and pull factors, as well as the problems that women face in their business. Different motivating push factors, such as need of security, lack of job opportunity, lack of education, lack of appreciation, sometimes compel women to start their own business. However, the revenue generation, flexibility, financial independence, social acknowledgement, ambitiousness, aspiration for authority are the strong attributes that pull women entrepreneurs starting their business The major hurdles of small-scale sector women entrepreneurs include lack of finance, lack of awareness of government schemes, stiff competition etc. Poor work-life balance, lack of me-time and dependency on male family members for various legal and administrative formalities have been identified as other significant challenges they face. The study employed various statistical procedures, such as analysis of variance, chi-square tests, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, etc., for meaningful conclusions