How do Female Entrepreneurs Stand Out in the Pack?

Six helpful tips on initiating a business as a woman

By: Marlon Gomez

What do Cher Wang (Co-Founder and Chair of HTC), Yang Lang (Co-Founder of Sun Media), and Weili Dai (Co-founder of Marvell Technology) all have in common? Aside from the fact that they are all remarkably successful, they have also figured out a way to stand out as female entrepreneurs in their respective fields. Not only are these women highly influential due to the roles they hold in their companies, moreover, they are also incredibly important because they still represent a minority in the world of entrepreneurs.

“The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project is an annual assessment of the entrepreneurial activity, aspirations and attitudes of individuals across a wide range of countries.” (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) In 2012, GEM conducted a world-wide study of 126 million active female entrepreneurs, in order to try and comprehend the entrepreneurial activity of women across the world. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor)

While the study found numerous regions including the Sub-Sahara Africa, Latin America, and the United States where a high percentage of female entrepreneurial activity exists, the reality is that there is still a long way to go before the scale is evened out.“In nearly every economy there are fewer female than male entrepreneurs, and they appear to show reluctance to scale their businesses or to enter new and less tested markets.” (Donna J. Kelley)

With this information in mind, you and many other entrepreneurs may have pondered the following question for several hours: “How do I stand out as a Female Entrepreneur?”

Quite frankly, the news are good! Of course that is assuming you are truly passionate and determined to work as hard as the ladies we mentioned at the beginning of this article. There is no such thing as a direct route to success. However, you may want to consider Arbitrage’s research and tips if you want to stand out from the pack.

1. Embrace the idea of being a female in the entrepreneurial world.

In case you have already forgotten a few of the facts we mentioned earlier on, being a female already means you stand out! So next time you find yourself in a meeting or waiting room full of men, remember that you already have an advantage to being noticed from the crowd.

As a female, you are privy to information that men may not be able to see or understand, even if it is right under their nose (And trust me, as a male it is not easy to admit that…but it is true.) Having an insight to how women may view technology, or how women may react in specific scenarios puts you a step above the competition.

If you have not bothered to research and read studies about female entrepreneurs, Arbitrage Magazine highly suggests you begin to do so. Why? Well for starters it helps to know the challenges that other female entrepreneurs are facing. More importantly, being aware of this type of information can make the difference between having zero investors and no support, to having the initial capital and plenty of encouragement to get your business on the ground. Being actively aware of your situation shows character and initiative to future partners and employees. It shows that you have looked into the many ins and outs, in order to make your business a long lasting success.

2. Make the effort to work for a start up.

If you are really serious about becoming an entrepreneur, then what is a better way to learn than by working for a small business? By doing so, you might have to tackle the same problems that you could potentially run into with a future launch of a business.