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Crowdfunding For Women Entrepreneurs Can Help Overcome Obstacles

By Lelia Hall


Numbers do not lie, and the same can be said of the statistics in the Wall Street Journal Reports. In these reports, females are clearly lagging behind males in most areas of business, but this is not true when it comes to crowdfunding. In these campaigns, the ladies are simply smarter than the gents, and this is for nothing other than the way we are naturally created. In order to succeed in these areas, you are required to clearly express and communicate your idea in a way that captures the emotions of the contributors and the backers. Females are better in this, and this explains why crowdfunding for women is a better way of raising funds for female entrepreneurs.

The statics from the Wall Street Journal Reports seems to paint business as a male dominated field. Of the 100 chief executives of venture-backed companies, only 8 are female (8%). Worse still, only 17% of the board seats in the Fortune 500 companies are occupied by females. Nationwide, 30% of the companies are female owned. This is clearly a scary picture to the female entrepreneurs, especially the startups.

However, there is positive news. One research pointed out that ladies have up to 13% chance of succeeding in crowdfunding than males. This can be a very powerful source for the seed capital necessary for the business success. It is a funding method through which an entrepreneur tap into a crowd made of known and unknown individuals with diverse backgrounds each contributing a small amount towards the business capital.

Although the major sites for online crowdfunding such as RocketHub, Indiegogo, and Kickstarter are broad-based, there are a few ones that target women as the niches. A good example is the Plum Alley that specializes in rewarding the contributors with good or services currently or in the future. This site is made of a group of ladies who are supporting their fellow ladies to succeed.

There are two major alternatives in achieving this, a social network or a virtual network. Some sites have come up to dominate the virtual network area. These are the Indiegogo, Kickstarter, and the RocketHub. In these sites, all entrepreneurs are given equal opportunities regardless of gender. The good news for the ladies is that there are sites that target women as the niche. Plum Alley, for instance, is run by women for women.

The main advantage of crowdfunding is the benefits it offers to the female entrepreneurs. Although very competitive, it offers a very transparent way of raising the capital. As such, it over the sexual harassment that is common when exploiting alternative methods. Several stories have been published where the female entrepreneur ends up getting unwarranted sexual advances from the prospective male investors when pitching their business ideas.

There are several advantages of crowdfunding, particularly for ladies. In this method, they have the chance to raise capital in a more transparent method without having to go through situations in which sex pests can take advantage of them. There are several published and unpublished stories where ladies narrate how they get unwarranted sexual advances from a few rogue male investors pretending to help them pitch their businesses.

The best advice to the female entrepreneurs is that they must be ready and willing to take the opportunities as they arrive. This is a much easier alternative for getting the capital you are after. You can also use the network of friends, colleagues, family members, and vendors as a marketing force for your goods or services.




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