Project on Women entrepreurnship

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This report is an attempt to analyze the role played by Confederation of Women

Entrepreneurs (COWE) - a NGO which helps the women to face and tackle various problems

and the factors which prevent growth and development of women to start their business .This

project also throws light on the role of this organization in promoting women

entrepreneurship in Hyderabad.

Women empowerment has been increasing so rapidly all over the world and women are

starting their own business to seek greater control over their personal and professional lives.

The rapid change in socioeconomic circumstances has led to the emergence of women

entrepreneurs.

Over the last decade, the role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in development

of the women has been widely recognized. The NGOs play an important role in bridging the

gap between the human and physical resources. Thus creating appropriate entrepreneurial

environment and generating new opportunities. Recent studies suggest that women face more

hurdles of different magnitude when compared to men entrepreneurs.

The NGO’s should strive to help the women in less developed countries especially those

women who are seriously faced with poverty and for these women entrepreneurship is one of

the practical solutions to survive. The NGO’s and the private sector should take up this

objective domestically as well as globally to promote women entrepreneurship.

COWE provides vivid illustration of financial assistance, training and emotional support to

women entrepreneurs. The goal of the organization is to expand women's opportunities

through the promotion of access to and participation in economic processes like their Trade

Carnivals. NGO’s such as COWE are simultaneously strengthening Indian society by helping

the socioeconomic circumstances and autonomy of women.

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1.1 RESEARCH PROBLEM

The research problem in view is the role of the NGO in promoting women

entrepreneurship. The activities performed by COWE in solving the problems of women

in setting up the business. The project also determines the motivators for women in

venturing into entrepreneurship.

1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

This report gives an overview on the role of a NGO in promoting the women

entrepreneurship. The report analyses the problems faced the women in setting up a

business and also the motivational factors for the women. The significance of this report

is that it will help COWE in better understanding the women and empowering the

women.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

a. To know the historical background of COWE

b. To understand the role of the organization in encouraging the women

c. To determine the marketing strategies and awareness of COWE

d. To analyze problems unique to women in setting up and running their enterprises.

e. To give relevant suggestions and conclusions

1.4 METHODOLOGY

In view of the objectives of this report which are listed above, a simple random

sample as research design has been adopted to study the problems faced by women

entrepreneurs, a structured questionnaire covering different aspects of women

entrepreneurs was shaped and sent to the sample women entrepreneurs.

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1.4.1 SAMPLE DESIGN

Out of the 500 women registered with COWE, only 150 women were approached by

the way of questionnaire, out of which 100 responses were recorded. The research

methodology by the way of the questionnaire was hindered by the reluctance of the

women to receive any E-Mails and also the remaining women could not be

approached due to lack of technical know-how, i.e. E-mail.

1.4.2 SOURCES OF INFORMATION

This report includes collection of data from both primary and secondary sources. The

primary data has been collected by conducting a survey among the sample women

entrepreneurs with the help of a well-structured questionnaire.

The secondary data has been collected from various NGO’s journals, newspapers,

research projects, research papers, articles and internet.

1.4.2 TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES OF ANALYSIS

The data collected for this report has been analyzed to arrive at meaningful

conclusions. The statistical tools like simple percentages have been used to prepare

various graphs and pie-chart. Three factors have been structured in the questionnaire,

which are the obstacles faced by the women in staring their enterprise, the role of the

NGO and the problems faced by the women presently in running their business. Then

these factors with their sub classification are rated on Five point Likert rating scale

(invented by Rensis Likert), where 1 denotes least important & 5 denote most

important.

1.5 SCOPE

This report is mainly limited to the women entrepreneurs engaged with COWE in Hyderabad.

It provides the details of the problems faced by women in starting an enterprise and the

factors motivating women to become women entrepreneurs. The NGO has around 500

members out of which only 100 responses were collected for this project.

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CHATPER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter will give an overview of the women entrepreneurship, the problems faced by the

women in starting a business and the different motivational factors which influence the

women to start their own business. This chapter also includes one of the report’s objectives,

which is to know the historical background of the NGO.

The word ‘entrepreneur’ first appeared in the French language at the beginning of 16th

century and was applied to leaders of military expeditions. Richard Cantillon, the first person

who introduced the term, ‘entrepreneur’ to mean “an agent who buys means of production at

certain prices in order to combine them into a product, which he is going to sell at prices that

are uncertain at the moment at which he commits himself to his costs”.

“You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women”

- Jawaharlal Nehru

The emergence of women entrepreneurs and their contribution to the national economy is

quite visible in India. The number of women entrepreneurs has grown over a period of time.

While women entrepreneurs have demonstrated their potential, the fact remains that they are

capable of contributing much more than what they already are as women contribute

significantly to the running of family businesses mostly in the form of unpaid effort and skills

In most of the countries, regions and sectors, the majority of business owner/managers are

male. However, there is increasing evidence that more and more women are becoming

interested in business ownership and actually starting up in business, especially in countries

like Asia.

The motivational factor to start a business enterprise differs from woman to woman. Women

face a lot of problems in starting a business and there are many NGO’s which help these

women to eliminate the obstacles.

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Motivational factors for women entrepreneurship

In recent years there has been a lot of debate about the development of entrepreneurship

amongst women. Due to various cultural and social reasons, women in different parts of India

have different motives, aspirations, social status, needs and urges for starting a business.

Varied motivation needs and interests force women entrepreneurs for establishing an

enterprise. The main motives are fulfilment of ambition and pursuits of own interests which

is evident in almost all women entrepreneurs. Factors that normally make women to be

entrepreneurs include:

1. To earn money,

2. Power and Self Achievement

3. Family occupation (Second generation entrepreneurs)

4. Social Status

5. Did not want to work for others

6. Want to take independent decisions

It is essential for every women entrepreneur to assess the business management skill before

she starts her business as it provides the knowledge of one’s strengths and weaknesses.

Management skills required for women entrepreneurs are she need to know how to deal with

people (especially the trade unions), manage day to day operations, organizing and planning

business strategy, be good at idea generation and product innovation. The other things which

are required are securing the capital required for the business, product promotional strategies

with proper market research and management development and training.

A woman with challenging attitude and firm determination will certainly manage her

enterprise successfully. Women are dreamers and confident of their abilities to deal with

problems and they believe that hard work is a sure ingredient to success in entrepreneurial

ventures. Successful women entrepreneurs have high need for achievement; they are risk

takers and have high personnel efficiency. Women are initiative and independent with

commitment of conviction.

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Success depends on one’s ability to prove the best by putting more efforts to succeed. Though

women have the traits of being an entrepreneur such as achievement-oriented, responsible,

moderate risk factor, success-oriented, energetic, forward looking, organized, still the number

of women entering the entrepreneurship is very low. The reason for the minimum number of

women entrepreneurs is because a woman is given lower status in the society. Though

women are considered as weaker gender physically, mentally they are more capable and alert

in managing things. Women are easily accessible to management techniques and they adopt

them quickly with utmost sincerity and honesty. The Governments is also utmost importance

to the enhancement of women status in all sectors and walks of life. Effective strategies,

policies are being formulated and implemented to encourage women entrepreneurship.

Problems faced by the women

Women entrepreneurs face a series of problems right from the beginning till the enterprise

functions. Being a woman itself poses various problems to a woman entrepreneur.

The problems of Indian women pertain to her responsibility towards family, society and

work. The tradition, customs, socio cultural values, ethics, motherhood, subordinates,

physically weak, feelings of insecurity are some peculiar problems that the Indian women are

coming across while they jump into entrepreneurship.

1. Family ties: Women in India are very emotionally attached to their families. They are

supposed to attend to all the domestic work, to look after the children and other

members of the family. They are over burden with family responsibilities which take

away a lot of their time and energy and hence it becomes difficult for the women to

devote more time to the business.

2. Male dominated society: Even though our constitution speaks of equality between

sexes, male chauvinisms still the order of the day. Women are not treated equal to

men. All these factors put a break in the growth of women entrepreneurs.

3. Lack of education: Women in India are lagging far behind in the field of education.

Most of the women are illiterate. Due to lack of proper education, women

entrepreneurs remain in dark about the development of new technology, new methods

of production, marketing and other governmental support which will encourage them

to flourish.

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4. Social barriers: The traditions and customs prevailing in Indian societies towards

women sometimes stand as an obstacle for them to grow and prosper.

5. Problem of finance: Women entrepreneurs suffer a lot in raising and meeting

the financial needs of the business. Financial institutes don’t come forward to provide

financial assistance to women borrowers on the ground of their less credit worthiness

and more chances of business failure.

6. Low risk-bearing capacity: Women in India are by nature weak, shy and mild.

They cannot bear the amount risk which is essential for running an enterprise.

7. Limited mobility: Women mobility in India is highly limited and has become a

problem due to traditional values and inability to drive vehicles.

8. Exploitation by middle men: Since women cannot run around for marketing,

distribution and money collection, they have to depend on middle men for the

above activities. Middle men tend to exploit them in the guise of helping. They add

their own profit margin which results in less sales and lesser profit.

9. Lack of self confidence: Women entrepreneurs because of their inherent nature, lack

of self-confidence which is essentially a motivating factor in running an enterprise

successfully.

There has been a tremendous change in the women entrepreneurs in last five decades, the

women entrepreneurs of the fifties where compulsive factors led to the creation of women

entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs of the sixties were where women began to aspire but

also accepted the social cultural traditions. In the seventies, the women opened up

new frontier as they had not aspirations but ambition. In eighties women were educated in

highly sophisticated technological and professional education and they became equally

contributing partners. In the nineties the concept of women heir was talked about for the very

first time. And women entrepreneurs of the 21stcentury are considered to “Jill of all trades”.

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs (COWE), a Hyderabad-based national level

organization and country's premier institution for women thoroughly devoted towards

entrepreneurship development.

COWE was inaugurated on 22nd November, 2004 by honorable chief minister of Andhra

Pradesh then, Dr. Y.S.R. Reddy. The NGO has emerged as a well organized and established

organization working towards their goal of liberating women by making them financially

independent and vibrant.

COWE in a short span has achieved recognition with Government, bankers and industrial

associations & bodies. From 20 members as on the date of commencement, today the

membership is over 500 women. Altruism or selfless concern for the well being of women

prompted the founders to come together and start the organization. The NGO is a not for

profit organization was launched to empower women through entrepreneurship, believing in

the philosophy ‘Of the women, for the women & by the women’.

The women achieve the following as the members of the organization.

Networking amongst members

Negotiating with large retailing chains

The best incentives from the state & central governments which help the women

to reach world markets.

By being a part of COWE portal the women earn global mileage.

The main objective is to enhance women’s opportunities in achieving the vision by creating a

resource base of technical know-how, management, marketing skills, finance, infrastructure

and equipment to promote entrepreneurship. COWE is in the process of strengthening the

data base by setting up a Business Consultancy Cell at Hyderabad.

The vision of COWE is to build a women force that is economically empowered, valued

citizens of the nation. By pooling the dormant talent, skills, practical knowledge and

resources of a woman and combining it with her intrinsic quality of dedication and

commitment, we will achieve this. They reach out to women from all sectors and all

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segments and all ages by awareness building workshops both in the COWE office and in

colleges.

COWE, with an unstinting support from the government of Andhra Pradesh, banks like SBI,

SBH, SIDBI, ZDH /SEQUA partnership program of Indo German Chamber of Commerce

has conducted many training programs, seminars / conferences, exhibitions. Some mega

projects like developing industrial clusters for engineering and food sectors in model

industrial estates are also being a reality with COWE.

COWE has 30 Acres of industrial estate near Medchal, Medak District, 1000 sq yards &

2000 sq yards plots are available for general industries. It is the first of its kind in Asia and in-

turn COWE completing the Sale Agreement with all the women entrepreneur allottees of the

individual plots in COWE’s industrial and engineering estate.

COWE has received the In-Principle sanction from the department of MSME for a grant

applied under the Integrated Infrastructure Development (IID) scheme to develop the

engineering Park at Toopran, Medak District. COWE earning a member seat on the Board of

Department of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME) Ministry of MSME, and

Government of India. The NGO has signed an MOU with National Small Industries

Corporation (NSIC) on 12th October 2010. University of London and COWE are joining

forces to create a trusted circle of cooperation to support female ventures to trade in the

global market place. The successful female owned venture DegreeArt.com in London (UK)

has donated the fully functioning online innovative platform to support the cooperation of

COWE and the BRIC centers of excellence, to ensure access to the global market place for

female designs, artifacts and or services. COWE has also extended a Branch at New Delhi.

COWE Umbrella constitutes the activities initiated since inception with certain ultimate

objectives for the benefit of women. Some of them are briefed below.

COWE members participated in many seminars, both National and International. They have

interacted with CII, BYST, ZDH-SEQUA, GOAP-IT, NCEAR, World Bank, HYSEA,

NASSCOM and so on.

COWE has conducted International seminars in big forums like GITEX which was supported

by IT&C department. Government of Andhra Pradesh, parallel to sessions being conducted

by NASSCOM, HYSEA, & CII.

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Delegates have visited other countries to participate/learn from the workshops, seminars and

trade fairs there with the support of ZDH-SEQUA, MSME & NSIC. COWE members have

made their presence in Australia, Germany, Italy, Srilanka, Egypt, Malaysia, Thailand,

Slovenia, Spain and United States of America. The varied profile of the delegates has been

appreciated. COWE members also benefited from the B2B contacts, meeting with various

chambers and officials of important government bodies of the respective countries. The

wealth of information is passed on to the COWE office and it percolates down to members

who want specific information.

One of the major activity of the COWE is a yearly Trade Carnival which is a platform for

Women Entrepreneurs to display and market the products to a wider and large section of the

society. The trade carnival has been a great support to small women entrepreneurs. The major

feature of this trade carnival is that it not only is a platform to exhibit & market the products,

but it also creates an environment to interact with the people who can guide and lead them to

be a leading entrepreneur. They have conducted the carnivals successfully from 2007 to

2011. The amount of the stalls was subsidized for COWE Members enabling even small

traders/manufacturers to participate. This facilitated a market for the products and provided

year long B2B contacts. Promotion and publicity improved their visibility. Other states have

also participated and women organizations have sent their delegates to study the organization

of Trade Fairs.

Bio-Technology Park and Food Park are in the offing. COWE assists members by providing

incubators. A few members started their business through these incubator facilities and later

shifted into their own offices. Incubator facilities have facilitated easy start-ups.

COWE initially financed 5 looms in Dharmavaram and they have with their repayments set

up 24 more looms. The NGO also provided marketing support to them besides giving them

the designs and advice. COWE also facilitated micro-finance in Jadcherla.

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2.1CITING OF PAST WORK

The first part of the literature review provides a glimpse of the socioeconomic factors that

hinder the growth of women entrepreneurs. The second part reviews studies on the role of

NGOs in promoting and helping the women entrepreneurship development. It also gives an

insight on the motivational factors for women to start an enterprise.

OBSTACLES

Rathore and Chabra,1 (1991) in the paper on “Promotion of Women Entrepreneurship

Training Strategies” states that Indian women find it increasingly difficult to adjust

themselves to the dual role that they have to play as traditional housewives and compete with

men in the field of business and industry. Working women are often tossed between home

and work and experience mental conflicts as they are not able to devote the necessary amount

of time and energy to their home and children and find it mostly difficult and sometimes

impossible to pursue as a career. It showed that the married migrated women entrepreneurs

coming from nuclear families experience greater role stress than the unmarried local women

entrepreneurs coming from joint families. The paper also lists economic backwardness, lack

of family and community support, ignorance of opportunities, lack of motivation, shyness

and inhibition, preference for traditional occupation and preference for secure jobs as the

factors that inhibit promotion of grass root entrepreneurship among rural women.

Carter et al2 (2001) in his “Women Business Ownership: A Review of the Academic” states

that women entrepreneurs experience many obstacles, which include traditional cultural

barriers. They are treated differently and the level of their education, way of life and position

given to them also varies than men. Women in India are confined to household activities and

their involvement at workplace is also limited. In our society, the male child is given more

priority; hence, there is lack of schooling and proper training of females. Also, women face a

lack of confidence as they do not get the appropriate support from their friends and family

which obstructs their growth in the corporate world. They do not get access to many

resources such as transportation, education and literacy, technology and financial resources

for carrying on their entrepreneurial activities. According to the article, the main barrier faced

by women entrepreneurs is male domination, excluding the women from various

communication networks, due to which they are not able to develop contacts with other

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individuals and organizations which affects their working. Also, family responsibilities upon

them adds to the lack of experience in the particular field and also gets in the way of the

growth female entrepreneurs

ROLE OF NGO’S

Kirve and Kanitkar3 (1993) the article "Entrepreneurship at the Grass Roots: Developing the

Income Generating Capabilities of Rural Women", talks about the experience of a Pune-

based Non-Government Organization (NGO) Jana Probodhini (JP) in helping the rural

women through skill training in technical and business areas. The study revealed that the

techniques, which were incorporated as part of the training input, proved extremely useful for

the trainees. Later interactions with trainees during the evaluation showed a definite change

in most of the trainees. It was also found that certain issues, apparently small, assume

significance in the dynamics operating in the villages, for example the refusal of the family

members to encourage the purchase of an asset by unmarried women in the house points to

slight but invisible gender-related discrimination. In conclusion the author recommends that

Entrepreneurship Development Agencies need to get involved in income-generating

activities. Nothing else would serve the cause of entrepreneurship better than the

development of the rural sector.

Arvinda4 (2001) in the report “Women Entrepreneurs: An Exploratory Study” takes a sample

of 100 women entrepreneurs who were selected by random sampling technique. The twin

cities Hyderabad and Secundarabad were chosen for the study, as the area is the capital of the

state. The report covered women entrepreneurs who are involved in different kinds of

enterprises. The selected respondents were divided into three basic groups – service, trading

and manufacturing sector. The results concluded that 37 respondents were in service and

trading sectors, 26 respondents were in the manufacturing sector. The responses obtained in

this study in a way suggest that there is an absolute need for more entrepreneurship

development programmes and societal support for women. Women entrepreneurs in general

face conflicts of work and home roles. The main conflicts in work role pertained to, failure to

expand the enterprise and utilize optimum skills which are available. Non-availability of time

to spend with family and being a good spouse were the conflict areas faced by many of the

women. The report concluded that women entrepreneurship requires help from the

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government in the form of NGO’s to help the women in motivating and facilitating them to

take up entrepreneurial careers.

MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS

Eleanor Brantley Schwartz’s 5 (1976) the article, “Entrepreneurship, A New Female Frontier”

is based on the interviewing 20 female entrepreneurs. In the article Eleanor combined

exploratory and descriptive research in her efforts to identify individual characteristics,

motivations, and attitudes that these women had in common. She concluded that the

motivators for the women to start a business in this sample were the need to achieve, job

satisfaction, profit generation and independence to take own decisions. This was the first

notable article on women’s entrepreneurship which appeared in the mid-1970.

Rani6 (1986) in her study “Potential Women Entrepreneurs”, found that the desire to do

something independently was the prime motivation factor to start a business activity amongst

the 30 sample respondents. For study purpose the respondents were selected during a training

programme for potential wom]]raen entrepreneurs, held at Hyderabad in October 1985,

organized by APITCO. The respondents were mostly from the twin cities of Hyderabad and

Secundarabad. Most of the respondents were in the age group of 21-30 years and the

respondents came from middle class families. The objective of her study was to find out the

factors that prompted women to start their own businesses. She concluded that the desire to

do something independent was observed as the prime motivating factor, some women viewed

entrepreneurship as a tool for earning money. Other factors were that women wanted to take

independent decisions.

It can be concluded that the women face a lot of problems for starting an enterprise. Some of

the problems are lack of family support, lack of motivation and securing finance. NGOs play

a major role in helping the women in motivating and facilitating them to take up

entrepreneurial careers. Also the prime motivating factors many women took up

entrepreneurship for earning money and also take independent decisions.

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CHAPTER III

COMPANY PROFILE

This chapter gives the profile of the NGO- COWE (Confederation of Women

Entrepreneurs).It also gives an insight to the role of the organization and the different

marketing strategies adopted by the organization. Later in the project the data analysis also

show the extent to which the organization helps the women in setting up a business

enterprise.

COWE is a benchmark platform for women entrepreneurs in the country. The objective of the

organization is to foster the 'Economic Empowerment of Women', particularly the SME

segment, by helping them to become successful entrepreneurs and to become a part of the

main stream industry. The NGO is engaged in the social and economic upliftment of women

through entrepreneurship. The slogan “Gearing women power” stands for the democratic

structure of COWE and stands for

“Of the women, for the women and by the women”

Entrepreneurs from varied fields and those dedicated to the promotion of entrepreneurship

amongst women, got together to form COWE. They work un-relentlessly towards providing

opportunities for women in Industry, Trade, Retail, Franchising and Service sectors.

Traditional professions are also encouraged and hand holding support is given wherever

required. The expertise and experience of seniors in the field is sought and passed on to the

members.

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The following table 3.1 gives an insight about the company profile.

Table 3.1 Company Profile

INAUGURATION 22nd November, 2004

LOCATION Hyderabad, India

MISSION

Mission of the NGO is to enhance women's

opportunities in achieving the vision by

creating a resource base of technical

knowhow, management, marketing skills,

finance, infrastructure and equipment to

promote entrepreneurship.

VISION

The Vision is to build a women force that is

economically empowered, valued citizens of

the nation. By pooling the dormant talent,

skills, practical knowledge and resources of a

woman and combining it with her intrinsic

quality of dedication and commitment.

MEMBERS Above 500

PARTNERS ZDH &SEQUA,SICAN and WECAN

FOUNDING MEMBERS

The founding members of the organization are

Ms Shylaja Reddy, Ms Suman Kumar, Ms

Uma Ghurkha, Ms Sandhya Reddy, Ms P.

Soudamini, Ms P. Girija and Ms Sangeeta

Reddy.

*Source – Official COWE Website

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COWE was inaugurated by honorable chief minister of Andhra Pradesh then, Dr. Y.S.R.

Reddy. They have emerged as a well organized and established organization working towards

their goal of liberating women by making them financially independent and vibrant.

COWE has in a short span, achieved recognition with Government, Bankers and Industrial

Associations & Bodies. From 20 members as on the date of commencement, today the

membership is over 500 women. Altruism or selfless concern for the well being of women

prompted the founders to come together and start the organization.

COWE has partnership with associations to better help the women to enhance business

opportunities for them. COWE has partnership and MOU’s with the following:

ZDH and SEQUA

The ZDH/SEQUA partnership programme in India supports the development of small and

medium enterprises (SMEs) by building up the capacities of business membership

organizations ‚ Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Associations and Federations of business

organizations to provide improved and sustainable services to their members especially to the

SMEs. COWE has been supported by ZDH through its programmes in strengthening COWE

by part funding its programmes – GITEX, Trade Carnival, Seminars and Workshops and

Study Tours. Experts in Consultancy and Training have been hired by ZDH in assisting and

upgrading the member partners.

SEQUA - The main project focus is the promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises,

the development of private sector organizations and the support of vocational training in the

partner countries. ZDH-SEQUA Partnership programmes have been immense support to

member associations and chambers like COWE.

SICAN

COWE is in the forefront to form a group of 14 partners association – South Indian Chambers

and Associations Network (SICAN) and start a common portal, which will promote exchange

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and interactive communication and programmes and provide a marketing tool to reach out.

This is aimed at facilitating not only intra and inter communication between and amongst

members but would enhance the opportunities for individual entrepreneurs in each by

reaching out to a wider segment. Common problems would be addressed and solutions

worked at as a group utilizing the experience and expertise of the chambers and association.

WECAN

Women Entrepreneurs & Associations India (WECAN) is a consortium of 4 woman

association partners of ZDH – COWE (Hyderabad), AWAKE (Bangalore), FKCCI

(Woman’s wing, Bangalore) and GCCI (Woman’swing, Goa). The objective is to create a

training and development institution fostering and nurturing entrepreneurial abilities of

women and promoting entrepreneurship growth and excellence. To maximize the efficiency

of these organizations and to have a collective voice on issues that concern women in forums

that discuss policy formulations, is the primordial objective of WECAN.

MOUs

COWE has many Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) with different associations in

order to help the women in promoting their enterprises and help them start an enterprise. The

MOU’s of COWE are as follows:

Federation of Madhya Pradesh Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FMPCCI)

Faridabad Small Industries Association (FSIA)

Indian Industries Association(IIA)

Mohali Industries Association(MIA)

Ramky Group(ADRASL)

National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC)

Ceylon Chamber Of Commerce

AWAKE, FKCCI & GCCI

Galle Chambers of Commerce, Srilanka(Women’s Wing)

Egyptian Business Women Association (EBWA) , Egypt

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http://www.nsic.co.in/

http://www.ebwa.info/

Role of the NGO in encouraging the women

COWE has various schemes which help the women in starting a business, helping them to

develop entrepreneurial skills and it also acts as a medium to reduce the problems faced by

the women.

Rajiv Gandhi Udyami Mitra Yojana (RGUMY)

COWE has been empanelled as Udyami Mitra under RGUMY; it is a scheme by Ministry of

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Government of India. This scheme helps and

guides the potential first generation entrepreneurs as well as existing entrepreneurs by

supporting them, particularly during the initial stages.

Marketing Intelligence Cell

The objective of this cell is to collect and distribute both domestic as well as international

marketing intelligence for the benefit of MSMEs. This cell maintains database and distributes

information of bulk buyers, contractors, Indian exporters, international buyers and technology

suppliers.

Goldman Sachs 10000 women initiative

This is a social initiative of Goldman Sachs which aims at training 10,000women in 20

different countries free of cost. The training is conducted at ISB for a period of 16 weeks.

The training is a partial class room type which is balanced through mentoring.

MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises)

The focus on MSMEs has been increasing rapidly and various institutions and banks are

encouraging the MSMEs through finance and counseling support.

The New Industrial Policy of Andhra Pradesh 2010

The new Industrial Policy 2010-15 of the Andhra Pradesh Government has given a big boost

to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Manufacturing and Food Processing

Sectors. This has increased the employment rates in Andhra Pradesh.

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The NGO provides the women with different entrepreneurial development programmes

which help these women in better running of their enterprises. COWE provides the women

with training sessions, seminars, study tour, entrepreneurial development program and trade

carnival.

The NGO’s major activity which helps the women is the trade carnival which is organized

every year end in people’s plaza, Hyderabad. This carnival helps provides women

entrepreneurs opportunities and guidance under one roof through Business to Business (B2B)

meetings with public and private sector giants. The activities of the organization are as

follows:

EDP

Entrepreneurial Development Program provides the knowledge and the ability of being a

successful entrepreneur. EDP has become a basic requirement for every entrepreneur before

starting an enterprise. EDP is one of the main activities conducted by COWE, beside the EDP

course, the organization also counsels and provides financial support. EDP has become

compulsory for anyone who is starting an enterprise and it is also useful for existing

enterprises as it helps the entrepreneur to have proper training in the field.

EDP’s are for a time period of 4-6 weeks and the organization has an experienced faculty,

representing various reputed institutions. At the completion of the program the participants

are validated with the certificate of completion. COWE has successfully conducted EDPs on

the following fields since its foundation. The areas are as follows:

Medical Transcription

IT & IT support services

Food

General EDP

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Seminars

Seminar generally is a form of bringing together small groups for frequent meetings, focusing

each time on some particular subject and in which everyone’s participation is required.

COWE has conducted regular seminars on subjects of prominent interest and requirement for

its members and anyone who wishes to gain more information and knowledge. The seminars

which have already been held by the NGO are as follows:

Information Technology

Building Market Linkages through Exhibitions

Quality Control Seminar

Seminar on Lean Manufacturing

Seminar on Franchising Opportunities

Retail Seminar

Trainings

One of the core believes of COWE is updating knowledge base of its members. Besides the

ongoing EDPs, COWE conducts trainings in different fields and the organization also takes

major steps in encouraging members to participate in the training workshops. The NGO has

conducted training sessions on the following:

Training on IT & ITES

Training on Capacity Building

Training on Team Building

Training on Quality Control

Lean Manufacturing

Training on Franchising Opportunities

Building Market Linkages

Workshop on Retail Management.

20

Exhibitions

COWE’s trade carnival is one which strives to facilitate trading opportunities for its

members. The organisation saw its first annual trade carnival in the year 2007. The three day

trade fair held by the organisation have helped in opening up new territories and segments

there by increasing the opportunities for the women. The exhibition is usually conducted in

the last quarter of every year and till now COWE has organised 5 annual trade carnivals.

COWE saw its first trade fair in the year 2007. COWE assists its members to participate in

other trade carnivals by taking COWE Pavilion and providing it to its members for free of

cost. The members of the organisation have participated in International Trade Fairs. The

NGO also has a strong networking link with other organisations and it interacts with Women

Associations across the world, this helps act as a catalyst for facilitating trade linkages and

improves import and export relations for its members.

Study tour

COWE believes in enhancing the opportunities for its members and it provides its members

with opportunities overseas through study tours. These study tours emphasize on experiential

learning and self-directed activities that enable the women to explore new territories, cultures,

and people. This kind of exposure has widened the vision and has helped the women to deal

better. Another importance of study tour is that it maximizes the opportunities and narrows

the time-length for firming trading contracts. So far, the study tours that COWE delegates

have participated in, with the support of ZDH, were at Australia, Germany, Srilank, Egypt,

Bangkok and Kaula Lumpur

21

CHAPTER IV

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

This chapter will bring about the analysis of the questions in the questionnaire which was

sent to the women registered with the organization. Bar graphs, pie diagrams, statistical

formulas and Linker’s rating scales have been used to analyze the responses from 100

women. The different parameters used in the questionnaire are the present age of the women,

the age at which they started their business, family status, marital status and the educational

background of the women.

4.1 Present Age Category of the women

Graph 4.1 Age Category

*Source – Questionnaire (Fieldwork)

The above graph 4.1 depicts that 40% of the women in my sample survey are of the age

category 30-39 years. 26% of the women belong to the category of 20-29years, 24% of the

sample size women fall in the 40-49 years category. 9% of the women fall in the range of 50

years and above. Out of the 100 respondents only one woman belongs to the category of

under 20 years.

This analysis shows that the rate of young entrepreneurship is increasing with the years and

entrepreneurship demands dynamisms and innovation.

22

Under 20 years

20-29 years 30-39 years 40-49 years 50+ years0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

1%

26%

40%

24%

9%

Age Category

4.2 The age at which the respondents started their ventures.

Graph 4.2 At what age did you start your own venture?

10 -20 Years 20-30 Years 30-40 Years 40-50 Years0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1

55

41

3

At what age do you start your own ven-ture?


From the above graph 4.2 we can conclude that the 55 women who fall in the age group of

20-30 years are the maximum number of women from the sample who have started their own

venture. In the age group 30-40 years 41 of the total women have started their enterprise and

3 women in the age group of 40-50 years. The analysis brings out there is only one women

who in the age category 10-20 years.

Using the statistical formula the mode of the data has been calculated. Mode depicts the most

frequently occurring value in the data. Out of the 100 respondent’s majority of the women

have started their own enterprises when they were 26 years old.

23

4.3 The family status of the women

Figure 4.3 Family Status

Nucle-arFam-

ily66%

Joint Family34%

Family Status

*Source- Questionnaire (Fieldwork)

The above figure 4.3 shows the family background of the women. Out of the 100 women

surveyed 66% of the women come from nuclear families and the remaining 34% of the

women belong to joint families.

24

4.4 Marital Status of the sample size

Figure 4.4 Marital Status


Figure 4.4 depicts the marital status of the sample women. Out of the 100 recorded

questionnaires 50% of the women are unmarried whereas 42% of them are married. The other

4% of the women are single parents and out the remaining 4% women 3 women are widows

and one woman is a divorce.

One of the main reasons for the major percentage of unmarried women who are into their

own business is because they can focus and devote their maximum time in developing their

enterprise.

25

Married42%

Unmarried50%

Single Parent4%

Divorced1%

Widow3%

Marital Status

4.5 Educational Background of the respondents

Figure 4.5 Educational Background


The above diagram 4.5 illustrates the educational background of the surveyed women and

according to the graph 51% of the total respondents have done a graduation, where as 43% of

the women have gone further more and completed their post graduation and acquired a

University Degree. Whereas 3% of women have done just basic schooling and other 3% have

stopped school after secondary education.

26

3%3%

51%

43%

Educational Background

Basic Schooling

Secondary Ed-ucation

Graduation (Col-lege Education)

Post Graduation

4.6 Is the present enterprise the first enterprise of the respondent?

Graph 4.6 First Enterprise


The chart above shows that 76% of the respondents stated that their current enterprise is the

first one they owned and the remaining 24% of the women stated that they had previous

enterprise ownership experience.

The 24 women who responded with a no to this question had to further answer another

question which is related to the reasons for the closure of the previous enterprise.

27

Yes

No

01020304050607080

76%

24%

First enterprise?

4.7 If No, what happened to the previous business?

Graph 4.7 What happened to the previous business?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

4 %

21 %

46 %

63 %

33 %

Went of out business Financial Problems(Losses) Has been sold Lack of manpower Others

Previous business


Graph 4.7 is a bar graph which is used to observe what happened to the previous business of

the women, whose present business is not their first business they owned. Out the total

questionnaires recorded 63% of the women had financial problem with the business. 46% of

the women had to sell their enterprise, 33% of the women mentioned that they went out of

business and 21% of the women faced lack of manpower. The remaining 4% of the total data

said that they had other reasons for the closure of the business, the reasons being new idea

generation, trade unions issues and destruction of the business premises.

28

4.8 The sector of the business ventured in by the respondent

Graph 4.8 Sector of the business

105

101520253035404550

16%

28%

46%

10%

Primary Sector Secondary Sector Tertiary Sector

Sector


The above graph depicts the different sector of business which the women have adopted. This

analysis reviles that 46% of the women have ventured into tertiary sector, which includes

Retail and wholesale sales, transportation and distribution, entertainment, restaurants, clerical

services, media, tourism, insurance, banking, healthcare, law and so on. Whereas only 28% of

the women surveyed have a business in the secondary sector, which includes Automobile

production, textile production, chemical industries, aerospace, construction and 16% of the

women have a primary based business, which includes Agriculture, mining, forestry, farming,

grazing, and fishing. And the remaining 10% of women have ventured into other business

sector, like ITES, fashion house, Home décor.

29

4.9 The size of the business which the women own

Figure 4.9 Size of the business

Micro(1-9 Employees) 38%

Small(10-49 Employees) 31%

Medium(50-249 Employees) 21%

Large(Over 250 Employees) 10%

Size of the business


Figure 4.9 shows the size of the business using the pie chart. According to the overall

summary of replies received, majority of women entrepreneurs have micro enterprises (1-9

employees) which amounts of 38% of the total responses. 31% of the women from my

sample have small companies (10-49 employees), 21% of the women have medium sized

companies with employee’s size of 50 to 249 and only 10% of the total respondents have a

large scale business with over 250 employees.

4.10 The ownership details of the women in the sample size

30

Figure 4.10 Ownership details

55%32%

8%5%

Onwership Details

Sole Pro-prietorship

Partnership

Joint

Corporation


According to figure 4.10 we can observe that 55% of the women in sample are sole

proprietors of the business. 32% of the women have a partnership and the other 8% of the

women have a joint business venture. The remaining 5% of the women have a corporation.

4.11 The factors which motivate the women to start their own business

31

Graph 4.11 Motivation for starting the business

10

10

20

30

40

50

60

48%

27%

52%

40% 38%

3%

Self AchievementSocial StatusMoney MakingDid not want to work for othersWant to take independent decisionsOther

Motivation for starting the Buisness


The above graph 4.11 depicts the reasons for starting the business. When questioned the

reasons for starting their business, 52% women quoted generating profits (money making) as

being the most important factor which motivated them to start their business. Other 48% of

the women surveyed started their business as a part of self achievement and the 40% women

did not want to work for others. 38% of the women quoted that they wanted to take

independent decisions and hence started a business whereas 27% of them have started a

business in order to gain social status in the community. The other 3% of the women have

responded with other reasons to start their businesses.

4.12 The initial amount invested by the surveyed women

32

Graph 4.12 Initial Investment


From the above graph 4.12 it is clear that 30% of the surveyed women started their business

with an amount lying between the range of 1, 00,000 to 5, 00,000 rupees. 25% of the

women’s initial investment was around 10,000 to 50,000 rupees, 23% of the women invested

around 50,000 to 1, 00, 000 rupees initially. Only 18 women out of 100 respondents invested

more than 5, 00,000 rupees to start the business and the remaining 4% of the women have

started their business with just about 10,000 rupees or less.

33

Less than 10,000 10,000-50,000 50,000-1,00,000 1,00,000-5,00,000 More than 5,00,00005

101520253035

4 %

25% 23%30%

18%

Initial In-vestment

Table 4.1 To what extent did you face the following obstacles when you started your own

business?

Particulars Strongly Disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

Total

1 2 3 4 5

Financial Problems 1% 5% 15% 56% 23% 100Lack of information/advice on how to start a business

4% 5% 21% 55% 15% 100

Finding the right contacts for starting the business

1% 7% 16% 57% 19% 100

Managing family and work life

14% 14% 10% 36% 26% 100

Lack of self confidence

34% 24% 12% 20% 10% 100

Gender Discrimination

60% 17% 8% 11% 4% 100

Total 114 72 82 235 97 600


For the purpose of evaluating this question Likert’s rating scale has been used, in which

strongly disagree is rated as 1, disagree as 2, neutral as 3, agree as 4 and strongly agree as

5.According to the above table 4.1, 56% of the women agree that financial problems were

faced by them. 55% of the women agree that the main problem they faced was lack of

information or lack of advice on how to start a business. Also 57% of the women responded

that finding the right contacts for starting the business was the main obstacle. Only 36% of

the total women find managing family and work life as the main problem. 34% of the women

respondents strong disagree with the fact that lack of self confidence is not a obstacle to start

a business. And the remaining 60% of the also strongly disagree with gender discrimination

to be an obstacle.

34

Table 4.2 To what extent did COWE help you in starting up the business?



Total

1 2 3 4 5

Financial Support 1% 6% 12% 44% 37% 100

Legal Advice 0% 2% 12% 50% 36% 100

Market Research 0% 3% 14% 44% 39% 100

Promoting Activities0% 5% 7% 47% 41%

100

Guidance 3% 3% 14% 42% 38% 100

Training & Development 1% 2% 8% 50% 39% 100

Providing land 5% 14% 31% 26% 24% 100

Technological Support 3% 6% 26% 37% 28% 100

Personal Development 4% 8% 15% 39% 34% 100

Total 17 49 139 379 316 900



strongly disagree is rated as 1, disagree as 2, neutral as 3, agree as 4 and strongly agree as

5.Above table 4.2 depicts that 44% of the women surveyed agree that COWE helps them

financial, 50% agree that COWE helps the women with legal advice, 44 % of the surveyed

women agree that the NGO helps the women in market research and 47 % of them agree that

the organization helps them with promoting their products. 42% women from the sample

agree that COWE provides them with guidance and mentorship and 50% of them agree that

the NGO plays a major role in training and developing them only 26% of the surveyed

women are of the view that the NGO provides them with land. 37% of the women agree that

the technological support and personal development is provided by COWE.

35

Table 4.3 What are the main obstacles you are facing presently in running of your business?



Total

1 2 3 4 5

Lack of awareness8% 28% 42% 22% 0%

100

Low of manpower5% 32% 50% 13% 0%

100

Lack of resources8% 37% 45% 10% 0%

100

Competition6% 9% 28% 38% 19%

100

Financial/ Liquidity Problems

16% 45% 29% 9% 1%100

Gender Discrimination

69% 15% 10% 5% 1%100

Family and work life balance

38% 19% 18% 14% 11%100

Technological Problems

28% 28% 26% 16% 2%100

Total 178 213 248 127 34 800



strongly disagree is rated as 1, disagree as 2, neutral as 3, agree as 4 and strongly agree as 5.

The above table 4.3 observes the different problems the women face presently in running of

the business. There was a neutral response from 42% of the women regarding lack of

awareness of the present business.50% of the women neither agreed nor disagreed with the

fact that lack of manpower is the present obstacle. Also 45% of the women surveyed have a

neutral response for lack of resource being a problem for running their business. 45% of the

women disagree with the factor of financial problem being an obstacle in running their

business presently. 69% of the women strongly disagree with gender discrimination as a

problem and also 38% of the women strongly disagree that family and work life balance

being a problem. 28% of the women strongly disagree that they face any technological

problems in running their present business.

36

4.13 The marketing strategies of COWE

Figure4.13 Marketing Strategies of COWE

Magazine1%

Internet3%

Family8%

Newspaper20%

Friends24%

Exhibition44%

Marketing Strategy


The above figure 4.15 depicts the marketing strategies adopted by COWE to reach to the

women in Hyderabad. 44% of the women came to know about COWE through the trade

carnivals\exhibitions the NGO conducts at the end of each year. 24% of the total women

surveyed answered that they came to know about the NGO through their friends and 8% of

the women said through family. The remaining 20%, 3% and 1% of the women respondents

said that newspaper, internet and magazine respectively were the medium of communication

for them about COWE.

37

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

The NGO’s role in the development of women is has been analyzed in the project. The

women agreed that the organization helps the women financial, gives them legal advices, and

helps the women in market research as well promoting their products in market. COWE also

trains the women, supports them in technological matter, mentors them with proper guidance

and also develops their personal skills.

The summary of the analysis gives rise to the following :

Out of 100 respondents 40% of the women fall in the age category 30-39 years.

Majority of the women have started their own enterprises when they were 26 years

old.

66% of the total women come from nuclear families whereas the rest are from joint

families.

According to the marital status maximum number of women are not married which

accounts for 50% of the sample size.

The survey resulted that 51% of the women have earned a graduation certificate.

76% of the respondents stated that their current enterprise is the first one they owned

and the remaining 24% of the women stated that they had previous enterprise

ownership experience.

The tertiary sector is the major area ventured into by 46% of the women.

In the total sample size 38% of the women own micro enterprises (1-9 employees)

and 55% of the women in sample are sole proprietors of the business.

The major motivational factor for 52 women has been to generate profits (money

making).

The analysis shows that 30% of the women’s initial investment, with which they

started the business ranges from 1, 00,000 to 5, 00,000 rupees which amounts to the

highest.

Majority of the women surveyed agreed that they faced financial pproblems, lack of

information/ advice on how to start a business, finding the right contacts for starting

the business and mmanaging family and work life. And the other women strongly

disagreed that lack of self confidence and gender discrimination were not faced by

them while venturing into entrepreneurship.

38

All the women respondents agreed that COWE helps them financially, provides with

legal support, it helps in market research and also helps with promoting the products

of the women. The NGO also gives the women sessions on training and development,

guides them throughout and provides them with the required technology and land.

One of the major marketing strategy used the NGO is the trade carnival which is

conducted at the end of every year.44% of the respondents surveyed came to know

about COWE through the exhibitions.

SUGGESTIONS

One of the project’s objective about giving suggestion and recommendations are given as

below. Right efforts from all areas are required in the development of women entrepreneurs

and their greater participation to take up entrepreneurial activities. The following measures

can be suggested to improve the role of the NGO to empower the women to grasp various

opportunities and face challenges in business.

COWE should organize training programmes to develop professional competencies in

managerial, leadership, marketing, financial, production process, profit planning,

maintaining books of accounts and other skills.

Vocational training to be extended to women community that enables them to

understand the production process and production management.

On the job training should be provided to the women in fields which are included in

manufacturing industry or any process oriented job.

To establish all India forums which will discuss the problems, grievances, issues, and

filing complaints and giving suitable decisions for the women entrepreneurs.

The NGO should take measures to spread information about the schemes and

activities which it provides for the development of the women.

Thus by adopting the above measures the problems associated with women can be solved.

39

In conclusion the project gives the role of COWE in promoting women entrepreneurship. The

issues have been identified through various review of literature.

It is evident that promotion of women entrepreneurship motivates the future generation of

women and it will also solve tomorrow’s unemployment problems. The project reveals that

women are ready to face any kinds of challenges associated with setting up of business.

Women are not into business for survival but for acquire self achievement needs and to prove

their capabilities. Women education is contributing to a great extent to the social

transformation. The future will see more women venturing into areas traditionally dominated

by men. The socio background including factors, type and sector of business, training

programmes of the NGOs are the important factors influencing the emergence of women into

entrepreurship.

The greatest revolution in a country is the one that affects the status and living conditions of

its women. Promotion of women entrepreneurship ensures economic independence. Social

liberation of women gains social status. It makes women conscious of their rights and gains

equal status. It creates more respect in the family and gives self prestige, avoids gender bias

and it eliminates dowry deaths. It promotes leadership qualities among women and swells

the family income. Indian women have travelled with the times for centuries and have proved

to the world that the hand that rocks the cradle can rule the world.

It is worthwhile to conclude by quoting the words of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,

“When woman moves forward, the family moves,

the village moves and the country moves”.

40

Project on Women entrepreurnship

Education

women entrepreneurship

autonomy of women

women inventuring

development of women

women empowerment

remaining women

sample women entrepreneurs

thefactors motivating