Women entrepreneur’s visionaries are more enthusiastic with regards to their work and energy when contrasted with their male partners. Women are better pioneers due to their impassionated solidness, and women can shuffle between the diversity of assignments than men. Nevertheless, most women neglect to comprehend the subtleties of finance, which is the place where the issue begins.
According to reports, women have a hard time understanding fundamentals concepts, i.e. inflation and interest. These ideas are crucial to settle on strong monetary choices. In the research, hardly 61.9 per cent of the women were able to address the questions concerning these ideas effectively. Besides, the research additionally guaranteed that not over 48 per cent of the women addressed comprehended the risk akin to investing.
Importance Of Financial Literacy For Women Entrepreneurs:
Entrepreneurs, be it men or women, are relied upon to settle on precise and productive decisions. Additionally, entrepreneurs need to estimate future demand. In this manner, an entrepreneur should comprehend the numbers, formulae, terms, and fundamental financial variables associated with the process. Without financial education, an entrepreneur won't comprehend the patterns and the approaching risks.
Commenting on finance importance Mugdha Pradhan, Founder at iThrive said, “The purpose of a business is to grow- growth comes through increased revenues if a business owner doesn't have financial literacy the entire businesses growth can get impacted due to revenue leaks, poor planning, and utilization of funds and not sufficient focus on reinvesting profits into growth”
Radhika Ghai, Founder, Shopclues & Founder and CEO of Kindlife.in said, ''Business needs to make sufficient profits to survive and thrive. The main goal of a business is to build value. Value is mostly defined in monetary terms and to provide that business owners have to understand financial management well. Taking risks is also a significant aspect of running a successful business. However, a lack of judgment on how to enhance revenue may leave your business in an unstable position in the long run. Not being aware of financial management systems will not let the entrepreneur be self-dependent."
How Entrepreneurs Can Gain Financial Literacy:
Now the world has evolved so much, there are websites that have a huge number of courses focused on students, all things considered. Women entrepreneurs, or rather, anybody can start their excursion towards better finances utilizing such resources.
''For starters, apart from online research, entrepreneurs can enrol themselves in financial literacy courses that are available on multiple platforms. They can also get assistance from financial advisors from their banks that can help them to mobilize their finances and invest in the right platforms. And lastly, they can speak to other business owners who can share knowledge on mistakes to avoid and opportunities to consider.'' Said Ghai.
Presently, there are many tools that can help with this. Asking for help and self-educating is the most effective way to overcome this mental block. Find mentors who can help you gain a better understanding, take up online courses, speak to fellow entrepreneurs, and be closely involved in all the financial aspects of your business, said Madhavi Shankar, CEO, and Co-Founder, SpaceBasic.
Challenges Faced due to Lack of Financial Literacy:
In 2020, the world literacy rate was 86.3 per cent among which men 90 per cent and women simply 82 per cent are proficient. The Indian situation is a bit horrid where 75.3 per cent of males are educated and 53.7 per cent of women are proficient in appearance. A crack of 21.6 per cent rate focuses on the genders at the national level.
Anika Parashar, Founder & CEO, The Woman's Company shared her views on challenges she stated 'There are numerous issues that arise as a result of a lack of financial literacy."
1- The ability to comprehend your firm, its revenue, growth, and the development of your own models and P&L.
2- To be able to comprehend your company's structure in terms of equity, shares, attracting investment, and investors.
3- The ability to comprehend expenditures to the point where they may be reduced, the significance of mid-level costs, and the topline growth of your revenue.
From every angle, it is extremely difficult for women to run a business if they do not understand finances.
Financial literacy is relatively a new phenomenon among millennials. With today's generation being bold and vibrant, they must develop expertise in managing finances irrespective of gender. Better financial planning, and ultimately financial independence enables you to gift yourself the most precious thing - the freedom to follow your dreams and passions. added Ghai.
Government's Role in Building Financial Literacy:
With an expectation to make a financially aware populace, the Central Bank of India recently launched the National Strategy for Financial Education (NSFE) 2020-25. The strategy targets instilling monetary proficiency literacy among individuals, empower their dynamic investment funds management and lift participation in monetary business sectors. The NSFE will detail the substance for monetary literacy and foster limit and foster limit and set of principles for the suppliers.
Ghai on the government's role said, 'Financial literacy at an early age is the ideal way to prepare future entrepreneurs, especially women who concurrently have to break the stereotyped beliefs. As the importance of financial literacy is getting more acknowledgement in the present times, incorporating financial literacy in the education system can be a good start."
Meanwhile, Shankar commented, "The current government is doing a great job with women empowerment. I believe educating women about financial independence and money management from a young age will lay the foundation to successful financial literacy."
Anika Parashar, Founder- The Women's Company said, "I think it’s every woman to their own, it is every family encouraging their daughters/sisters to go out there and gain financial literacy, it’s not just important for business owners it’s important for every woman regardless of what she does."