Project on Women entrepreurnship

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This report is an attempt to analyze the role played by Confederation of Women
Entrepreneurs (COWE) - a NGO which helps the women to face and tackle various problems
and the factors which prevent growth and development of women to start their business .This
project also throws light on the role of this organization in promoting women
entrepreneurship in Hyderabad.

Women empowerment has been increasing so rapidly all over the world and women are
starting their own business to seek greater control over their personal and professional lives.
The rapid change in socioeconomic circumstances has led to the emergence of women
entrepreneurs.

Over the last decade, the role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in development
of the women has been widely recognized. The NGOs play an important role in bridging the
gap between the human and physical resources. Thus creating appropriate entrepreneurial
environment and generating new opportunities. Recent studies suggest that women face more
hurdles of different magnitude when compared to men entrepreneurs.

The NGO‟s should strive to help the women in less developed countries especially those
women who are seriously faced with poverty and for these women entrepreneurship is one of
the practical solutions to survive. The NGO‟s and the private sector should take up this
objective domestically as well as globally to promote women entrepreneurship.

COWE provides vivid illustration of financial assistance, training and emotional support to
women entrepreneurs. The goal of the organization is to expand women's opportunities
through the promotion of access to and participation in economic processes like their Trade
Carnivals. NGO‟s such as COWE are simultaneously strengthening Indian society by helping
the socioeconomic circumstances and autonomy of women.

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1.1 RESEARCH PROBLEM

The research problem in view is the role of the NGO in promoting women
entrepreneurship. The activities performed by COWE in solving the problems of women
in setting up the business. The project also determines the motivators for women in
venturing into entrepreneurship.

1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

This report gives an overview on the role of a NGO in promoting the women
entrepreneurship. The report analyses the problems faced the women in setting up a
business and also the motivational factors for the women. The significance of this report
is that it will help COWE in better understanding the women and empowering the
women.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
a. To know the historical background of COWE
b. To understand the role of the organization in encouraging the women
c. To determine the marketing strategies and awareness of COWE
d. To analyze problems unique to women in setting up and running their enterprises.
e. To give relevant suggestions and conclusions

1.4 METHODOLOGY

In view of the objectives of this report which are listed above, a simple random
sample as research design has been adopted to study the problems faced by women
entrepreneurs, a structured questionnaire covering different aspects of women
entrepreneurs was shaped and sent to the sample women entrepreneurs.

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1.4.1 SAMPLE DESIGN
Out of the 500 women registered with COWE, only 150 women were approached by
the way of questionnaire, out of which 100 responses were recorded. The research
methodology by the way of the questionnaire was hindered by the reluctance of the
women to receive any E-Mails and also the remaining women could not be
approached due to lack of technical know-how, i.e. E-mail.

1.4.2 SOURCES OF INFORMATION

This report includes collection of data from both primary and secondary sources. The
primary data has been collected by conducting a survey among the sample women
entrepreneurs with the help of a well-structured questionnaire.
The secondary data has been collected from various NGO‟s journals, newspapers,
research projects, research papers, articles and internet.
1.4.2 TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES OF ANALYSIS

The data collected for this report has been analyzed to arrive at meaningful
conclusions. The statistical tools like simple percentages have been used to prepare
various graphs and pie-chart. Three factors have been structured in the questionnaire,
which are the obstacles faced by the women in staring their enterprise, the role of the
NGO and the problems faced by the women presently in running their business. Then
these factors with their sub classification are rated on Five point Likert rating scale
(invented by Rensis Likert), where 1 denotes least important & 5 denote most
important.

1.5 SCOPE

This report is mainly limited to the women entrepreneurs engaged with COWE in Hyderabad.
It provides the details of the problems faced by women in starting an enterprise and the
factors motivating women to become women entrepreneurs. The NGO has around 500
members out of which only 100 responses were collected for this project.

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CHATPER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter will give an overview of the women entrepreneurship, the problems faced by the
women in starting a business and the different motivational factors which influence the
women to start their own business. This chapter also includes one of the report‟s objectives,
which is to know the historical background of the NGO.

The word „entrepreneur‟ first appeared in the French language at the beginning of 16th
century and was applied to leaders of military expeditions. Richard Cantillon, the first person
who introduced the term, „entrepreneur‟ to mean “an agent who buys means of production at
certain prices in order to combine them into a product, which he is going to sell at prices that
are uncertain at the moment at which he commits himself to his costs”.

“You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women”
- Jawaharlal Nehru

The emergence of women entrepreneurs and their contribution to the national economy is
quite visible in India. The number of women entrepreneurs has grown over a period of time.
While women entrepreneurs have demonstrated their potential, the fact remains that they are
capable of contributing much more than what they already are as women contribute
significantly to the running of family businesses mostly in the form of unpaid effort and skills
In most of the countries, regions and sectors, the majority of business owner/managers are
male. However, there is increasing evidence that more and more women are becoming
interested in business ownership and actually starting up in business, especially in countries
like Asia.

The motivational factor to start a business enterprise differs from woman to woman. Women
face a lot of problems in starting a business and there are many NGO‟s which help these
women to eliminate the obstacles.

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Motivational factors for women entrepreneurship

In recent years there has been a lot of debate about the development of entrepreneurship
amongst women. Due to various cultural and social reasons, women in different parts of India
have different motives, aspirations, social status, needs and urges for starting a business.
Varied motivation needs and interests force women entrepreneurs for establishing an
enterprise. The main motives are fulfilment of ambition and pursuits of own interests which
is evident in almost all women entrepreneurs. Factors that normally make women to be
entrepreneurs include:

1. To earn money,

2. Power and Self Achievement

3. Family occupation (Second generation entrepreneurs)

4. Social Status

5. Did not want to work for others

6. Want to take independent decisions

It is essential for every women entrepreneur to assess the business management skill before
she starts her business as it provides the knowledge of one‟s strengths and weaknesses.
Management skills required for women entrepreneurs are she need to know how to deal with
people (especially the trade unions), manage day to day operations, organizing and planning
business strategy, be good at idea generation and product innovation. The other things which
are required are securing the capital required for the business, product promotional strategies
with proper market research and management development and training.

A woman with challenging attitude and firm determination will certainly manage her
enterprise successfully. Women are dreamers and confident of their abilities to deal with
problems and they believe that hard work is a sure ingredient to success in entrepreneurial
ventures. Successful women entrepreneurs have high need for achievement; they are risk
takers and have high personnel efficiency. Women are initiative and independent with
commitment of conviction.

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Success depends on one‟s ability to prove the best by putting more efforts to succeed. Though
women have the traits of being an entrepreneur such as achievement-oriented, responsible,
moderate risk factor, success-oriented, energetic, forward looking, organized, still the number
of women entering the entrepreneurship is very low. The reason for the minimum number of
women entrepreneurs is because a woman is given lower status in the society. Though
women are considered as weaker gender physically, mentally they are more capable and alert
in managing things. Women are easily accessible to management techniques and they adopt
them quickly with utmost sincerity and honesty. The Governments is also utmost importance
to the enhancement of women status in all sectors and walks of life. Effective strategies,
policies are being formulated and implemented to encourage women entrepreneurship.

Problems faced by the women

Women entrepreneurs face a series of problems right from the beginning till the enterprise
functions. Being a woman itself poses various problems to a woman entrepreneur.
The problems of Indian women pertain to her responsibility towards family, society and
work. The tradition, customs, socio cultural values, ethics, motherhood, subordinates,
physically weak, feelings of insecurity are some peculiar problems that the Indian women are
coming across while they jump into entrepreneurship.

1. Family ties: Women in India are very emotionally attached to their families. They are
supposed to attend to all the domestic work, to look after the children and other
members of the family. They are over burden with family responsibilities which take
away a lot of their time and energy and hence it becomes difficult for the women to
devote more time to the business.
2. Male dominated society: Even though our constitution speaks of equality between
sexes, male chauvinisms still the order of the day. Women are not treated equal to
men. All these factors put a break in the growth of women entrepreneurs.
3. Lack of education: Women in India are lagging far behind in the field of education.
Most of the women are illiterate. Due to lack of proper education, women
entrepreneurs remain in dark about the development of new technology, new methods
of production, marketing and other governmental support which will encourage them
to flourish.

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4. Social barriers: The traditions and customs prevailing in Indian societies towards
women sometimes stand as an obstacle for them to grow and prosper.
5. Problem of finance: Women entrepreneurs suffer a lot in raising and meeting
the financial needs of the business. Financial institutes don‟t come forward to provide
financial assistance to women borrowers on the ground of their less credit worthiness
and more chances of business failure.
6. Low risk-bearing capacity: Women in India are by nature weak, shy and mild.
They cannot bear the amount risk which is essential for running an enterprise.
7. Limited mobility: Women mobility in India is highly limited and has become a
problem due to traditional values and inability to drive vehicles.
8. Exploitation by middle men: Since women cannot run around for marketing,
distribution and money collection, they have to depend on middle men for the
above activities. Middle men tend to exploit them in the guise of helping. They add
their own profit margin which results in less sales and lesser profit.
9. Lack of self confidence: Women entrepreneurs because of their inherent nature, lack
of self-confidence which is essentially a motivating factor in running an enterprise
successfully.

There has been a tremendous change in the women entrepreneurs in last five decades, the
women entrepreneurs of the fifties where compulsive factors led to the creation of women
entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs of the sixties were where women began to aspire but
also accepted the social cultural traditions. In the seventies, the women opened up
new frontier as they had not aspirations but ambition. In eighties women were educated in
highly sophisticated technological and professional education and they became equally
contributing partners. In the nineties the concept of women heir was talked about for the very
first time. And women entrepreneurs of the 21stcentury are considered to “Jill of all trades”.

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs (COWE), a Hyderabad-based national level
organization and country's premier institution for women thoroughly devoted towards
entrepreneurship development.

COWE was inaugurated on 22nd November, 2004 by honorable chief minister of Andhra
Pradesh then, Dr. Y.S.R. Reddy. The NGO has emerged as a well organized and established
organization working towards their goal of liberating women by making them financially
independent and vibrant.

COWE in a short span has achieved recognition with Government, bankers and industrial
associations & bodies. From 20 members as on the date of commencement, today the
membership is over 500 women. Altruism or selfless concern for the well being of women
prompted the founders to come together and start the organization. The NGO is a not for
profit organization was launched to empower women through entrepreneurship, believing in
the philosophy „Of the women, for the women & by the women‟.

The women achieve the following as the members of the organization.

Networking amongst members

Negotiating with large retailing chains

The best incentives from the state & central governments which help the women

to reach world markets.

By being a part of COWE portal the women earn global mileage.

The main objective is to enhance women‟s opportunities in achieving the vision by creating a
resource base of technical know-how, management, marketing skills, finance, infrastructure
and equipment to promote entrepreneurship. COWE is in the process of strengthening the
data base by setting up a Business Consultancy Cell at Hyderabad.

The vision of COWE is to build a women force that is economically empowered, valued
citizens of the nation. By pooling the dormant talent, skills, practical knowledge and
resources of a woman and combining it with her intrinsic quality of dedication and
commitment, we will achieve this. They reach out to women from all sectors and all

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segments and all ages by awareness building workshops both in the COWE office and in
colleges.

COWE, with an unstinting support from the government of Andhra Pradesh, banks like SBI,
SBH, SIDBI, ZDH /SEQUA partnership program of Indo German Chamber of Commerce
has conducted many training programs, seminars / conferences, exhibitions. Some mega
projects like developing industrial clusters for engineering and food sectors in model
industrial estates are also being a reality with COWE.

COWE has 30 Acres of industrial estate near Medchal, Medak District, 1000 sq yards &
2000 sq yards plots are available for general industries. It is the first of its kind in Asia and in-
turn COWE completing the Sale Agreement with all the women entrepreneur allottees of the
individual plots in COWE‟s industrial and engineering estate.

COWE has received the In-Principle sanction from the department of MSME for a grant
applied under the Integrated Infrastructure Development (IID) scheme to develop the
engineering Park at Toopran, Medak District. COWE earning a member seat on the Board of
Department of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME) Ministry of MSME, and
Government of India. The NGO has signed an MOU with National Small Industries
Corporation (NSIC) on 12th October 2010. University of London and COWE are joining
forces to create a trusted circle of cooperation to support female ventures to trade in the
global market place. The successful female owned venture DegreeArt.com in London (UK)
has donated the fully functioning online innovative platform to support the cooperation of
COWE and the BRIC centers of excellence, to ensure access to the global market place for
female designs, artifacts and or services. COWE has also extended a Branch at New Delhi.

COWE Umbrella constitutes the activities initiated since inception with certain ultimate
objectives for the benefit of women. Some of them are briefed below.
COWE members participated in many seminars, both National and International. They have
interacted with CII, BYST, ZDH-SEQUA, GOAP-IT, NCEAR, World Bank, HYSEA,
NASSCOM and so on.
COWE has conducted International seminars in big forums like GITEX which was supported
by IT&C department. Government of Andhra Pradesh, parallel to sessions being conducted
by NASSCOM, HYSEA, & CII.

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Delegates have visited other countries to participate/learn from the workshops, seminars and
trade fairs there with the support of ZDH-SEQUA, MSME & NSIC. COWE members have
made their presence in Australia, Germany, Italy, Srilanka, Egypt, Malaysia, Thailand,
Slovenia, Spain and United States of America. The varied profile of the delegates has been
appreciated. COWE members also benefited from the B2B contacts, meeting with various
chambers and officials of important government bodies of the respective countries. The
wealth of information is passed on to the COWE office and it percolates down to members
who want specific information.
One of the major activity of the COWE is a yearly Trade Carnival which is a platform for
Women Entrepreneurs to display and market the products to a wider and large section of the
society. The trade carnival has been a great support to small women entrepreneurs. The major
feature of this trade carnival is that it not only is a platform to exhibit & market the products,
but it also creates an environment to interact with the people who can guide and lead them to
be a leading entrepreneur. They have conducted the carnivals successfully from 2007 to
2011. The amount of the stalls was subsidized for COWE Members enabling even small
traders/manufacturers to participate. This facilitated a market for the products and provided
year long B2B contacts. Promotion and publicity improved their visibility. Other states have
also participated and women organizations have sent their delegates to study the organization
of Trade Fairs.
Bio-Technology Park and Food Park are in the offing. COWE assists members by providing
incubators. A few members started their business through these incubator facilities and later
shifted into their own offices. Incubator facilities have facilitated easy start-ups.
COWE initially financed 5 looms in Dharmavaram and they have with their repayments set
up 24 more looms. The NGO also provided marketing support to them besides giving them
the designs and advice. COWE also facilitated micro-finance in Jadcherla.

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2.1CITING OF PAST WORK

The first part of the literature review provides a glimpse of the socioeconomic factors that
hinder the growth of women entrepreneurs. The second part reviews studies on the role of
NGOs in promoting and helping the women entrepreneurship development. It also gives an
insight on the motivational factors for women to start an enterprise.

OBSTACLES

Rathore and Chabra,1 (1991) in the paper on “Promotion of Women Entrepreneurship
Training Strategies” states that Indian women find it increasingly difficult to adjust
themselves to the dual role that they have to play as traditional housewives and compete with
men in the field of business and industry. Working women are often tossed between home
and work and experience mental conflicts as they are not able to devote the necessary amount
of time and energy to their home and children and find it mostly difficult and sometimes
impossible to pursue as a career. It showed that the married migrated women entrepreneurs
coming from nuclear families experience greater role stress than the unmarried local women
entrepreneurs coming from joint families. The paper also lists economic backwardness, lack
of family and community support, ignorance of opportunities, lack of motivation, shyness
and inhibition, preference for traditional occupation and preference for secure jobs as the
factors that inhibit promotion of grass root entrepreneurship among rural women.

Carter et al2 (2001) in his “Women Business Ownership: A Review of the Academic” states
that women entrepreneurs experience many obstacles, which include traditional cultural
barriers. They are treated differently and the level of their education, way of life and position
given to them also varies than men. Women in India are confined to household activities and
their involvement at workplace is also limited. In our society, the male child is given more
priority; hence, there is lack of schooling and proper training of females. Also, women face a
lack of confidence as they do not get the appropriate support from their friends and family
which obstructs their growth in the corporate world. They do not get access to many
resources such as transportation, education and literacy, technology and financial resources
for carrying on their entrepreneurial activities. According to the article, the main barrier faced
by women entrepreneurs is male domination, excluding the women from various
communication networks, due to which they are not able to develop contacts with other

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individuals and organizations which affects their working. Also, family responsibilities upon
them adds to the lack of experience in the particular field and also gets in the way of the
growth female entrepreneurs

ROLE OF NGO’S

Kirve and Kanitkar3 (1993) the article "Entrepreneurship at the Grass Roots: Developing the
Income Generating Capabilities of Rural Women", talks about the experience of a Pune-
based Non-Government Organization (NGO) Jana Probodhini (JP) in helping the rural
women through skill training in technical and business areas. The study revealed that the
techniques, which were incorporated as part of the training input, proved extremely useful for
the trainees. Later interactions with trainees during the evaluation showed a definite change
in most of the trainees. It was also found that certain issues, apparently small, assume
significance in the dynamics operating in the villages, for example the refusal of the family
members to encourage the purchase of an asset by unmarried women in the house points to
slight but invisible gender-related discrimination. In conclusion the author recommends that
Entrepreneurship Development Agencies need to get involved in income-generating
activities. Nothing else would serve the cause of entrepreneurship better than the
development of the rural sector.

Arvinda4 (2001) in the report “Women Entrepreneurs: An Exploratory Study” takes a sample
of 100 women entrepreneurs who were selected by random sampling technique. The twin
cities Hyderabad and Secundarabad were chosen for the study, as the area is the capital of the
state. The report covered women entrepreneurs who are involved in different kinds of
enterprises. The selected respondents were divided into three basic groups – service, trading
and manufacturing sector. The results concluded that 37 respondents were in service and
trading sectors, 26 respondents were in the manufacturing sector. The responses obtained in
this study in a way suggest that there is an absolute need for more entrepreneurship
development programmes and societal support for women. Women entrepreneurs in general
face conflicts of work and home roles. The main conflicts in work role pertained to, failure to
expand the enterprise and utilize optimum skills which are available. Non-availability of time
to spend with family and being a good spouse were the conflict areas faced by many of the
women. The report concluded that women entrepreneurship requires help from the

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government in the form of NGO‟s to help the women in motivating and facilitating them to
take up entrepreneurial careers.

MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS

Eleanor Brantley Schwartz‟s 5 (1976) the article, “Entrepreneurship, A New Female Frontier”
is based on the interviewing 20 female entrepreneurs. In the article Eleanor combined
exploratory and descriptive research in her efforts to identify individual characteristics,
motivations, and attitudes that these women had in common. She concluded that the
motivators for the women to start a business in this sample were the need to achieve, job
satisfaction, profit generation and independence to take own decisions. This was the first
notable article on women‟s entrepreneurship which appeared in the mid-1970.

Rani6 (1986) in her study “Potential Women Entrepreneurs”, found that the desire to do
something independently was the prime motivation factor to start a business activity amongst
the 30 sample respondents. For study purpose the respondents were selected during a training
programme for potential wom]]raen entrepreneurs, held at Hyderabad in October 1985,
organized by APITCO. The respondents were mostly from the twin cities of Hyderabad and
Secundarabad. Most of the respondents were in the age group of 21-30 years and the
respondents came from middle class families. The objective of her study was to find out the
factors that prompted women to start their own businesses. She concluded that the desire to
do something independent was observed as the prime motivating factor, some women viewed
entrepreneurship as a tool for earning money. Other factors were that women wanted to take
independent decisions.

It can be concluded that the women face a lot of problems for starting an enterprise. Some of
the problems are lack of family support, lack of motivation and securing finance. NGOs play
a major role in helping the women in motivating and facilitating them to take up
entrepreneurial careers. Also the prime motivating factors many women took up
entrepreneurship for earning money and also take independent decisions.

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CHAPTER III

COMPANY PROFILE

This chapter gives the profile of the NGO- COWE (Confederation of Women
Entrepreneurs).It also gives an insight to the role of the organization and the different
marketing strategies adopted by the organization. Later in the project the data analysis also
show the extent to which the organization helps the women in setting up a business
enterprise.

COWE is a benchmark platform for women entrepreneurs in the country. The objective of the
organization is to foster the 'Economic Empowerment of Women', particularly the SME
segment, by helping them to become successful entrepreneurs and to become a part of the
main stream industry. The NGO is engaged in the social and economic upliftment of women
through entrepreneurship. The slogan “Gearing women power” stands for the democratic
structure of COWE and stands for

“Of the women, for the women and by the women”

Entrepreneurs from varied fields and those dedicated to the promotion of entrepreneurship
amongst women, got together to form COWE. They work un-relentlessly towards providing
opportunities for women in Industry, Trade, Retail, Franchising and Service sectors.
Traditional professions are also encouraged and hand holding support is given wherever
required. The expertise and experience of seniors in the field is sought and passed on to the
members.

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The following table 3.1 gives an insight about the company profile.

Table 3.1 Company Profile

INAUGURATION 22nd November, 2004

LOCATION Hyderabad, India

Mission of the NGO is to enhance women's
opportunities in achieving the vision by
MISSION creating a resource base of technical
knowhow, management, marketing skills,
finance, infrastructure and equipment to
promote entrepreneurship.

The Vision is to build a women force that is
VISION economically empowered, valued citizens of
the nation. By pooling the dormant talent,
skills, practical knowledge and resources of a
woman and combining it with her intrinsic
quality of dedication and commitment.

MEMBERS Above 500

PARTNERS ZDH &SEQUA,SICAN and WECAN

The founding members of the organization are
Ms Shylaja Reddy, Ms Suman Kumar, Ms
FOUNDING MEMBERS Uma Ghurkha, Ms Sandhya Reddy, Ms P.
Soudamini, Ms P. Girija and Ms Sangeeta
Reddy.

*Source – Official COWE Website

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COWE was inaugurated by honorable chief minister of Andhra Pradesh then, Dr. Y.S.R.
Reddy. They have emerged as a well organized and established organization working towards
their goal of liberating women by making them financially independent and vibrant.

COWE has in a short span, achieved recognition with Government, Bankers and Industrial
Associations & Bodies. From 20 members as on the date of commencement, today the
membership is over 500 women. Altruism or selfless concern for the well being of women
prompted the founders to come together and start the organization.

COWE has partnership with associations to better help the women to enhance business
opportunities for them. COWE has partnership and MOU‟s with the following:

ZDH and SEQUA

The ZDH/SEQUA partnership programme in India supports the development of small and
medium enterprises (SMEs) by building up the capacities of business membership
organizations ‚ Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Associations and Federations of business
organizations to provide improved and sustainable services to their members especially to the
SMEs. COWE has been supported by ZDH through its programmes in strengthening COWE
by part funding its programmes – GITEX, Trade Carnival, Seminars and Workshops and
Study Tours. Experts in Consultancy and Training have been hired by ZDH in assisting and
upgrading the member partners.

SEQUA - The main project focus is the promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises,
the development of private sector organizations and the support of vocational training in the
partner countries. ZDH-SEQUA Partnership programmes have been immense support to
member associations and chambers like COWE.

SICAN

COWE is in the forefront to form a group of 14 partners association – South Indian Chambers
and Associations Network (SICAN) and start a common portal, which will promote exchange

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and interactive communication and programmes and provide a marketing tool to reach out.
This is aimed at facilitating not only intra and inter communication between and amongst
members but would enhance the opportunities for individual entrepreneurs in each by
reaching out to a wider segment. Common problems would be addressed and solutions
worked at as a group utilizing the experience and expertise of the chambers and association.

WECAN
Women Entrepreneurs & Associations India (WECAN) is a consortium of 4 woman
association partners of ZDH – COWE (Hyderabad), AWAKE (Bangalore), FKCCI
(Woman‟s wing, Bangalore) and GCCI (Woman‟swing, Goa). The objective is to create a
training and development institution fostering and nurturing entrepreneurial abilities of
women and promoting entrepreneurship growth and excellence. To maximize the efficiency
of these organizations and to have a collective voice on issues that concern women in forums
that discuss policy formulations, is the primordial objective of WECAN.

MOUs

COWE has many Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) with different associations in
order to help the women in promoting their enterprises and help them start an enterprise. The
MOU‟s of COWE are as follows:

Federation of Madhya Pradesh Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FMPCCI)

Faridabad Small Industries Association (FSIA)

Indian Industries Association(IIA)

Mohali Industries Association(MIA)

Ramky Group(ADRASL)

National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC)

Ceylon Chamber Of Commerce

AWAKE, FKCCI & GCCI

Galle Chambers of Commerce, Srilanka(Women‟s Wing)

Egyptian Business Women Association (EBWA) , Egypt

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Role of the NGO in encouraging the women

COWE has various schemes which help the women in starting a business, helping them to
develop entrepreneurial skills and it also acts as a medium to reduce the problems faced by
the women.
Rajiv Gandhi Udyami Mitra Yojana (RGUMY)
COWE has been empanelled as Udyami Mitra under RGUMY; it is a scheme by Ministry of
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Government of India. This scheme helps and
guides the potential first generation entrepreneurs as well as existing entrepreneurs by
supporting them, particularly during the initial stages.

Marketing Intelligence Cell
The objective of this cell is to collect and distribute both domestic as well as international
marketing intelligence for the benefit of MSMEs. This cell maintains database and distributes
information of bulk buyers, contractors, Indian exporters, international buyers and technology
suppliers.

Goldman Sachs 10000 women initiative
This is a social initiative of Goldman Sachs which aims at training 10,000women in 20
different countries free of cost. The training is conducted at ISB for a period of 16 weeks.
The training is a partial class room type which is balanced through mentoring.

MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises)
The focus on MSMEs has been increasing rapidly and various institutions and banks are
encouraging the MSMEs through finance and counseling support.

The New Industrial Policy of Andhra Pradesh 2010
The new Industrial Policy 2010-15 of the Andhra Pradesh Government has given a big boost
to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Manufacturing and Food Processing
Sectors. This has increased the employment rates in Andhra Pradesh.

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The NGO provides the women with different entrepreneurial development programmes
which help these women in better running of their enterprises. COWE provides the women
with training sessions, seminars, study tour, entrepreneurial development program and trade
carnival.

The NGO‟s major activity which helps the women is the trade carnival which is organized
every year end in people‟s plaza, Hyderabad. This carnival helps provides women
entrepreneurs opportunities and guidance under one roof through Business to Business (B2B)
meetings with public and private sector giants. The activities of the organization are as
follows:

EDP
Entrepreneurial Development Program provides the knowledge and the ability of being a
successful entrepreneur. EDP has become a basic requirement for every entrepreneur before
starting an enterprise. EDP is one of the main activities conducted by COWE, beside the EDP
course, the organization also counsels and provides financial support. EDP has become
compulsory for anyone who is starting an enterprise and it is also useful for existing
enterprises as it helps the entrepreneur to have proper training in the field.

EDP‟s are for a time period of 4-6 weeks and the organization has an experienced faculty,
representing various reputed institutions. At the completion of the program the participants
are validated with the certificate of completion. COWE has successfully conducted EDPs on
the following fields since its foundation. The areas are as follows:

 Medical Transcription

 IT & IT support services

 Food

 General EDP

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Seminars

Seminar generally is a form of bringing together small groups for frequent meetings, focusing
each time on some particular subject and in which everyone‟s participation is required.
COWE has conducted regular seminars on subjects of prominent interest and requirement for
its members and anyone who wishes to gain more information and knowledge. The seminars
which have already been held by the NGO are as follows:

 Information Technology

 Building Market Linkages through Exhibitions

 Quality Control Seminar

 Seminar on Lean Manufacturing

 Seminar on Franchising Opportunities

 Retail Seminar

Trainings

One of the core believes of COWE is updating knowledge base of its members. Besides the
ongoing EDPs, COWE conducts trainings in different fields and the organization also takes
major steps in encouraging members to participate in the training workshops. The NGO has
conducted training sessions on the following:

 Training on IT & ITES

 Training on Capacity Building

 Training on Team Building

 Training on Quality Control

 Lean Manufacturing

 Training on Franchising Opportunities

 Building Market Linkages

 Workshop on Retail Management.

20

Exhibitions

COWE‟s trade carnival is one which strives to facilitate trading opportunities for its
members. The organisation saw its first annual trade carnival in the year 2007. The three day
trade fair held by the organisation have helped in opening up new territories and segments
there by increasing the opportunities for the women. The exhibition is usually conducted in
the last quarter of every year and till now COWE has organised 5 annual trade carnivals.
COWE saw its first trade fair in the year 2007. COWE assists its members to participate in
other trade carnivals by taking COWE Pavilion and providing it to its members for free of
cost. The members of the organisation have participated in International Trade Fairs. The
NGO also has a strong networking link with other organisations and it interacts with Women
Associations across the world, this helps act as a catalyst for facilitating trade linkages and
improves import and export relations for its members.

Study tour

COWE believes in enhancing the opportunities for its members and it provides its members
with opportunities overseas through study tours. These study tours emphasize on experiential
learning and self-directed activities that enable the women to explore new territories, cultures,
and people. This kind of exposure has widened the vision and has helped the women to deal
better. Another importance of study tour is that it maximizes the opportunities and narrows
the time-length for firming trading contracts. So far, the study tours that COWE delegates
have participated in, with the support of ZDH, were at Australia, Germany, Srilank, Egypt,
Bangkok and Kaula Lumpur

21

CHAPTER IV

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

This chapter will bring about the analysis of the questions in the questionnaire which was
sent to the women registered with the organization. Bar graphs, pie diagrams, statistical
formulas and Linker‟s rating scales have been used to analyze the responses from 100
women. The different parameters used in the questionnaire are the present age of the women,
the age at which they started their business, family status, marital status and the educational
background of the women.

4.1 Present Age Category of the women

Graph 4.1 Age Category

Age Category
45
40 40%
35
30
25 26%
24%
20
15
10
9%
5
1%
0
Under 20 years 20-29 years 30-39 years 40-49 years 50+ years

*Source – Questionnaire (Fieldwork)

The above graph 4.1 depicts that 40% of the women in my sample survey are of the age
category 30-39 years. 26% of the women belong to the category of 20-29years, 24% of the
sample size women fall in the 40-49 years category. 9% of the women fall in the range of 50
years and above. Out of the 100 respondents only one woman belongs to the category of
under 20 years.
This analysis shows that the rate of young entrepreneurship is increasing with the years and
entrepreneurship demands dynamisms and innovation.

22

4.2 The age at which the respondents started their ventures.

Graph 4.2 At what age did you start your own venture?

At what age do you start your own venture?
60
55
50

41
40

30

20

10

1 3
0
10 -20 Years 20-30 Years 30-40 Years 40-50 Years


From the above graph 4.2 we can conclude that the 55 women who fall in the age group of
20-30 years are the maximum number of women from the sample who have started their own
venture. In the age group 30-40 years 41 of the total women have started their enterprise and
3 women in the age group of 40-50 years. The analysis brings out there is only one women
who in the age category 10-20 years.

Using the statistical formula the mode of the data has been calculated. Mode depicts the most
frequently occurring value in the data. Out of the 100 respondent‟s majority of the women
have started their own enterprises when they were 26 years old.

23

4.3 The family status of the women

Figure 4.3 Family Status

Family Status
Joint Family
34%

NuclearFamily
66%

*Source- Questionnaire (Fieldwork)

The above figure 4.3 shows the family background of the women. Out of the 100 women
surveyed 66% of the women come from nuclear families and the remaining 34% of the
women belong to joint families.

24

4.4 Marital Status of the sample size

Figure 4.4 Marital Status

Marital Status
Single Parent
Unmarried 4%
Widow
50% 3%

Other
4%

Divorced
Married 1%
42%


Figure 4.4 depicts the marital status of the sample women. Out of the 100 recorded
questionnaires 50% of the women are unmarried whereas 42% of them are married. The other
4% of the women are single parents and out the remaining 4% women 3 women are widows
and one woman is a divorce.

One of the main reasons for the major percentage of unmarried women who are into their
own business is because they can focus and devote their maximum time in developing their
enterprise.

25

4.5 Educational Background of the respondents

Figure 4.5 Educational Background

Educational Background
3% 3%

Basic Schooling

43%
Secondary Education

51%
Graduation (College
Education)
Post Graduation


The above diagram 4.5 illustrates the educational background of the surveyed women and
according to the graph 51% of the total respondents have done a graduation, where as 43% of
the women have gone further more and completed their post graduation and acquired a
University Degree. Whereas 3% of women have done just basic schooling and other 3% have
stopped school after secondary education.

26

4.6 Is the present enterprise the first enterprise of the respondent?

Graph 4.6 First Enterprise

First enterprise?

80
60 76%
40
20
0
24%
Yes

No


The chart above shows that 76% of the respondents stated that their current enterprise is the
first one they owned and the remaining 24% of the women stated that they had previous
enterprise ownership experience.

The 24 women who responded with a no to this question had to further answer another
question which is related to the reasons for the closure of the previous enterprise.

27

4.7 If No, what happened to the previous business?

Graph 4.7 What happened to the previous business?

Previous business

33 %

63 %

46 %

21 %

4%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Went of out business Financial Problems(Losses) Has been sold Lack of manpower Others


Graph 4.7 is a bar graph which is used to observe what happened to the previous business of
the women, whose present business is not their first business they owned. Out the total
questionnaires recorded 63% of the women had financial problem with the business. 46% of
the women had to sell their enterprise, 33% of the women mentioned that they went out of
business and 21% of the women faced lack of manpower. The remaining 4% of the total data
said that they had other reasons for the closure of the business, the reasons being new idea
generation, trade unions issues and destruction of the business premises.

28

4.8 The sector of the business ventured in by the respondent

Graph 4.8 Sector of the business

Sector

46%
50

40 28%

30 16%
20
10%

10

0
1

Primary Sector Secondary Sector Tertiary Sector Other


The above graph depicts the different sector of business which the women have adopted. This
analysis reviles that 46% of the women have ventured into tertiary sector, which includes
Retail and wholesale sales, transportation and distribution, entertainment, restaurants, clerical
services, media, tourism, insurance, banking, healthcare, law and so on. Whereas only 28% of
the women surveyed have a business in the secondary sector, which includes Automobile
production, textile production, chemical industries, aerospace, construction and 16% of the
women have a primary based business, which includes Agriculture, mining, forestry, farming,
grazing, and fishing. And the remaining 10% of women have ventured into other business
sector, like ITES, fashion house, Home décor.

29

4.9 The size of the business which the women own

Figure 4.9 Size of the business

Size of the business
Large(Over 250
Employees)
10%
Micro(1-9
Employees)
38%

Medium(50-249
Employees)
21%

Small(10-49
Employees)
31%


Figure 4.9 shows the size of the business using the pie chart. According to the overall
summary of replies received, majority of women entrepreneurs have micro enterprises (1-9
employees) which amounts of 38% of the total responses. 31% of the women from my
sample have small companies (10-49 employees), 21% of the women have medium sized
companies with employee‟s size of 50 to 249 and only 10% of the total respondents have a
large scale business with over 250 employees.

30

4.10 The ownership details of the women in the sample size

Figure 4.10 Ownership details

Onwership Details
5%
8%
Sole Proprietorship

Partnership

32% 55%
Joint

Corporation


According to figure 4.10 we can observe that 55% of the women in sample are sole
proprietors of the business. 32% of the women have a partnership and the other 8% of the
women have a joint business venture. The remaining 5% of the women have a corporation.

31

4.11 The factors which motivate the women to start their own business

Graph 4.11 Motivation for starting the business

Motivation for starting the Buisness
60
52%
50 48%

40%
40 38%

30 27%

20

10
3%
0
1

Self Achievement Social Status

Money Making Did not want to work for others

Want to take independent decisions Other


The above graph 4.11 depicts the reasons for starting the business. When questioned the
reasons for starting their business, 52% women quoted generating profits (money making) as
being the most important factor which motivated them to start their business. Other 48% of
the women surveyed started their business as a part of self achievement and the 40% women
did not want to work for others. 38% of the women quoted that they wanted to take
independent decisions and hence started a business whereas 27% of them have started a
business in order to gain social status in the community. The other 3% of the women have
responded with other reasons to start their businesses.

32

4.12 The initial amount invested by the surveyed women

Graph 4.12 Initial Investment

Initial
35
30
25
20
15 30%
25% 23%
10
5 18%
4%
0
Less than 10,000 10,000-50,000 50,000-1,00,000 1,00,000-5,00,000 More than 5,00,000


From the above graph 4.12 it is clear that 30% of the surveyed women started their business
with an amount lying between the range of 1, 00,000 to 5, 00,000 rupees. 25% of the
women‟s initial investment was around 10,000 to 50,000 rupees, 23% of the women invested
around 50,000 to 1, 00, 000 rupees initially. Only 18 women out of 100 respondents invested
more than 5, 00,000 rupees to start the business and the remaining 4% of the women have
started their business with just about 10,000 rupees or less.

33

Table 4.1 To what extent did you face the following obstacles when you started your own
business?

Particulars Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Total
Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
Financial Problems 1% 5% 15% 56% 23% 100
Lack of 4% 5% 21% 55% 15% 100
information/advice
on how to start a
business
Finding the right 1% 7% 16% 57% 19% 100
contacts for starting
the business
Managing family and 14% 14% 10% 36% 26% 100
work life
Lack of self 34% 24% 12% 20% 10% 100
confidence
Gender 60% 17% 8% 11% 4% 100
Discrimination
Total 114 72 82 235 97 600

For the purpose of evaluating this question Likert‟s rating scale has been used, in which
strongly disagree is rated as 1, disagree as 2, neutral as 3, agree as 4 and strongly agree as
5.According to the above table 4.1, 56% of the women agree that financial problems were
faced by them. 55% of the women agree that the main problem they faced was lack of
information or lack of advice on how to start a business. Also 57% of the women responded
that finding the right contacts for starting the business was the main obstacle. Only 36% of
the total women find managing family and work life as the main problem. 34% of the women
respondents strong disagree with the fact that lack of self confidence is not a obstacle to start
a business. And the remaining 60% of the also strongly disagree with gender discrimination
to be an obstacle.

34

Table 4.2 To what extent did COWE help you in starting up the business?

Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5

Financial Support 1% 6% 12% 44% 37% 100

Legal Advice 0% 2% 12% 50% 36% 100
Market Research 0% 3% 14% 44% 39% 100
0% 5% 7% 47% 41%
Promoting Activities 100
Guidance 3% 3% 14% 42% 38% 100

Training & Development 1% 2% 8% 50% 39% 100

Providing land 5% 14% 31% 26% 24% 100

Technological Support 3% 6% 26% 37% 28% 100

Personal Development 4% 8% 15% 39% 34% 100

Total 17 49 139 379 316 900


strongly disagree is rated as 1, disagree as 2, neutral as 3, agree as 4 and strongly agree as
5.Above table 4.2 depicts that 44% of the women surveyed agree that COWE helps them
financial, 50% agree that COWE helps the women with legal advice, 44 % of the surveyed
women agree that the NGO helps the women in market research and 47 % of them agree that
the organization helps them with promoting their products. 42% women from the sample
agree that COWE provides them with guidance and mentorship and 50% of them agree that
the NGO plays a major role in training and developing them only 26% of the surveyed
women are of the view that the NGO provides them with land. 37% of the women agree that
the technological support and personal development is provided by COWE.

35

Table 4.3 What are the main obstacles you are facing presently in running of your business?

Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5

8% 28% 42% 22% 0%
Lack of awareness 100
5% 32% 50% 13% 0%
Low of manpower 100
8% 37% 45% 10% 0%
Lack of resources 100
6% 9% 28% 38% 19%
Competition 100
Financial/ Liquidity 16% 45% 29% 9% 1%
100
Problems
Gender 69% 15% 10% 5% 1%
100
Discrimination
Family and work life 38% 19% 18% 14% 11%
100
balance
Technological 28% 28% 26% 16% 2%
100
Problems
Total 178 213 248 127 34 800


strongly disagree is rated as 1, disagree as 2, neutral as 3, agree as 4 and strongly agree as 5.
The above table 4.3 observes the different problems the women face presently in running of
the business. There was a neutral response from 42% of the women regarding lack of
awareness of the present business.50% of the women neither agreed nor disagreed with the
fact that lack of manpower is the present obstacle. Also 45% of the women surveyed have a
neutral response for lack of resource being a problem for running their business. 45% of the
women disagree with the factor of financial problem being an obstacle in running their
business presently. 69% of the women strongly disagree with gender discrimination as a
problem and also 38% of the women strongly disagree that family and work life balance
being a problem. 28% of the women strongly disagree that they face any technological
problems in running their present business.

36

4.13 The marketing strategies of COWE

Figure4.13 Marketing Strategies of COWE

Marketing Strategy
Newspaper
20% Friends
24%

Other
68%
Exhibition
Family 44%
8%

Internet
3%
Magazine
1%


The above figure 4.15 depicts the marketing strategies adopted by COWE to reach to the
women in Hyderabad. 44% of the women came to know about COWE through the trade
carnivalsexhibitions the NGO conducts at the end of each year. 24% of the total women
surveyed answered that they came to know about the NGO through their friends and 8% of
the women said through family. The remaining 20%, 3% and 1% of the women respondents
said that newspaper, internet and magazine respectively were the medium of communication
for them about COWE.

37

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

The NGO‟s role in the development of women is has been analyzed in the project. The
women agreed that the organization helps the women financial, gives them legal advices, and
helps the women in market research as well promoting their products in market. COWE also
trains the women, supports them in technological matter, mentors them with proper guidance
and also develops their personal skills.

The summary of the analysis gives rise to the following :

Out of 100 respondents 40% of the women fall in the age category 30-39 years.
Majority of the women have started their own enterprises when they were 26 years
old.
66% of the total women come from nuclear families whereas the rest are from joint
families.
According to the marital status maximum number of women are not married which
accounts for 50% of the sample size.
The survey resulted that 51% of the women have earned a graduation certificate.
76% of the respondents stated that their current enterprise is the first one they owned
and the remaining 24% of the women stated that they had previous enterprise
ownership experience.
The tertiary sector is the major area ventured into by 46% of the women.
In the total sample size 38% of the women own micro enterprises (1-9 employees)
and 55% of the women in sample are sole proprietors of the business.
The major motivational factor for 52 women has been to generate profits (money
making).
The analysis shows that 30% of the women‟s initial investment, with which they
started the business ranges from 1, 00,000 to 5, 00,000 rupees which amounts to the
highest.
Majority of the women surveyed agreed that they faced financial pproblems, lack of
information/ advice on how to start a business, finding the right contacts for starting
the business and mmanaging family and work life. And the other women strongly
disagreed that lack of self confidence and gender discrimination were not faced by
them while venturing into entrepreneurship.

38

All the women respondents agreed that COWE helps them financially, provides with
legal support, it helps in market research and also helps with promoting the products
of the women. The NGO also gives the women sessions on training and development,
guides them throughout and provides them with the required technology and land.
One of the major marketing strategy used the NGO is the trade carnival which is
conducted at the end of every year.44% of the respondents surveyed came to know
about COWE through the exhibitions.

SUGGESTIONS

One of the project‟s objective about giving suggestion and recommendations are given as
below. Right efforts from all areas are required in the development of women entrepreneurs
and their greater participation to take up entrepreneurial activities. The following measures
can be suggested to improve the role of the NGO to empower the women to grasp various
opportunities and face challenges in business.

COWE should organize training programmes to develop professional competencies in

managerial, leadership, marketing, financial, production process, profit planning,

maintaining books of accounts and other skills.

Vocational training to be extended to women community that enables them to

understand the production process and production management.

On the job training should be provided to the women in fields which are included in

manufacturing industry or any process oriented job.

To establish all India forums which will discuss the problems, grievances, issues, and

filing complaints and giving suitable decisions for the women entrepreneurs.

The NGO should take measures to spread information about the schemes and

activities which it provides for the development of the women.

Thus by adopting the above measures the problems associated with women can be solved.

39

In conclusion the project gives the role of COWE in promoting women entrepreneurship. The

issues have been identified through various review of literature.

It is evident that promotion of women entrepreneurship motivates the future generation of

women and it will also solve tomorrow‟s unemployment problems. The project reveals that

women are ready to face any kinds of challenges associated with setting up of business.

Women are not into business for survival but for acquire self achievement needs and to prove

their capabilities. Women education is contributing to a great extent to the social

transformation. The future will see more women venturing into areas traditionally dominated

by men. The socio background including factors, type and sector of business, training

programmes of the NGOs are the important factors influencing the emergence of women into

entrepreurship.

The greatest revolution in a country is the one that affects the status and living conditions of

its women. Promotion of women entrepreneurship ensures economic independence. Social

liberation of women gains social status. It makes women conscious of their rights and gains

equal status. It creates more respect in the family and gives self prestige, avoids gender bias

and it eliminates dowry deaths. It promotes leadership qualities among women and swells

the family income. Indian women have travelled with the times for centuries and have proved

to the world that the hand that rocks the cradle can rule the world.

It is worthwhile to conclude by quoting the words of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,

“When woman moves forward, the family moves,

the village moves and the country moves”.

40

Project on Women entrepreurnship

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