Do we lack growth ambition?

I often hear discussed that there are not enough women-led high growth businesses in Africa. That women are reluctant to scale. That women are risk averse. That women lack the ambition to go big. So I put these questions to a panel of successful, high growth women entrepreneurs at the recent Women and the Changing Face of Entrepreneurship in Africa Conference that we cohosted with Harvard University’s Center for African Studies. Each of my panelists were already great examples of women entrepreneurs demonstrating the counterpoint to all these questions, having successfully taken their ambition for their businesses and scaled them to enviable heights. However, they all had interesting insights to share on the subject of scaling. The consensus of opinion was that, although many women entrepreneurs today start out with a big dream for their businesses and with growth on their minds, the reality is very different. Often the barriers to scaling a business can be just too great, meaning that all too many women owned businesses never fulfill their growth and impact potential. The flip-side to this situation is that there are also many women entrepreneurs who are quite content with staying small, building a business that fits around their family life, without necessarily a vision to take it bigger. This is particularly the case with women solopreneurs who choose to build a business that employs just themselves and not other people. The fact is that growth and ambition mean different things to different women entrepreneurs, and there is room for everyone to follow their own individual path to success, however that looks to them.

Have yourself an inspired entrepreneurial day! — Melanie