Female entrepreneurs outpaced male entrepreneurs for the first time

Starting a business is never easy and when it comes to a woman it is a little bit more difficult. Lack of reference, reconciliation or birth problems are the main difficulties for those who start their own project.. Business ventures are traditionally run by men, who often occupy the highest management positions in companies’ organizational charts. Moreover, only 2% of companies founded by women exceed one million euros, according to European Commission data. But trends are here to break. In 2021 the percentage of women involved in entrepreneurial ventures was higher than men for the first time in Spain, 5.4% compared to 5.6% respectively, but remained “well below” in projects with a higher technological level. The GEM 2021-2022 report is a study by the Spanish Entrepreneurship Observatory and the publicly traded company Enisa.

Soraya Cadalso, co-founder of Uttopian, just during the pandemic, identified a need arising from incarceration. “Many events online Some of what was done at the time did not have the proper platform to celebrate them, so we decided to start a project to optimize meeting rooms or organizing concerts over the internet.”, Explain. This was the seed of the Uttopian enterprise, now ready to ride the wave brought by the meta-universe.

In Cadalso’s case, it wasn’t the first time he’s undertaken. “I’ve had the privilege of running several projects and never had a problem talking to investors”, he assures, but also admits that in some cases he is beset by ‘the impostor syndrome’. This project belongs to 10% of high-medium technological entrepreneurial ventures managed by highly educated entrepreneurs.

Spain remains one of the European countries. when there is a lower perception of opportunity and a greater fear of failure, according to the GEM study. Entrepreneur profile corresponds to the profile of male or female, aged 35-54, with a secondary or higher education level, who received special training to start their business and manage their company. The reasons for starting a business are diverse, but more than 70% of people who do so think that one of the main reasons for doing so is lack of employment. Most startups start with a group of less than five people.

For Alicia Zurita, entrepreneurship has always been with you. “There was always a very entrepreneurial atmosphere in my home and since 2005 I have focused on running different business projects,” he explains. His latest business venture is Lubets, a brand of specialty lubricants and gels that combine health with pleasure. Zurita warns that starting a business is very difficult and takes hours. Motherhood is the biggest obstacle women entrepreneurs continue to face. “I started Lubets when I was pregnant and the truth is I don’t know how to put everything together,” she adds, noting that the most important thing for any entrepreneur is to be accompanied.

That was exactly the idea of ​​Natalie Batlle when she took on the Juno House project. “Entrepreneurship is a very demanding thing and doing it in a feminine way is so much more”Batle says. After investing over two million euros with his two partners, Liana Grieg and Eva Vila-Massana, They succeeded in illuminating a meeting point for women whose main goal was to advance their professional careers and facilitate family and work reconciliation..

“Compromise remains the great task pending, because it worsened by 3.2% compared to last year, from 44% to 40.8%. During this period, due to the pandemic, there was an increase in part-time wages for more compromise than men. Anna Quirós, Director of Culture and Development at Caixabank, said: “These data show that women do most of the unpaid work, contributing greatly to the widening gender gap in Spain, which has grown from 35.9% in 2020 to 36.7% in 2021. ” .

“Getting the support of other women is essential, women Our commitment to work is always more questioned and being surrounded by people who are going through the same things as you helps a lot.”, explains Batlle, drawing attention to one more problem faced by women entrepreneurs. “You have the intention to achieve everything at once, and that’s often not possible,” she says. “We are not superheroes and we shouldn’t be. You have to be around people who help and accompany you along the way. mentoring they are the key,” says Anna Quirós of Caixabank.

Same advice given by Marisa de la Fuente, founder of EurcoinPay. His project is related to the cryptocurrency world and allows for transactions anywhere in the world in less than six seconds.. Your company is regulated and supervised by the Bank of Spain. “More entrepreneurship education is needed. I was lucky to have an entrepreneurial father who encouraged me to be my own boss,” he concludes.

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