Women access capital for their businesses differently

A new report has just been published in the US by The National Women’s Business Council “Understanding the Landscape: Access to Capital for Women Entrepreneurs.” It’s findings are relevant to all women entrepreneurs and there are definite lessons to be learned if the funding landscape is to change for women business owners. It seems that although women business owners continue to make significant contributions to the economy, they continue to struggle to access capital, which in turn restricts their growth. Compared with men, women business owners raise smaller amounts of capital to finance their businesses and are more reliant on personal sources of financing. Women still continue to choose bootstrapping instead of overdrafts. They also have networks with fewer connections with ties to resources like financial capital in comparison to their male counterparts. They are also more risk averse, and more likely to keep their businesses small and manageable avoiding external sources of financing because it leads them to give up control or take on higher levels of risk. So, perhaps it’s not just the funding landscape that needs to change to be more women entrepreneur friendly, but also the attitude to going after different types of funding on the part of women entrepreneurs.