Can women entrepreneurs achieve success without losing families?

02 March, 2012

To foster entrepreneurship globally by creating a growth oriented platform, TiE held a session at Mindcafe in Gurgaon in which aspiring, budding and established entrepreneurs deliberated on the challenges, women entrepreneurs face in a society where women's primary role had been to look after the family.

IN A unique women entrepreneurs' meet, the speakers had only a one-point agenda – how to strike a balance between work and family as all the aspiring, budding and established entrepreneurs expressed their opinions to allay the fears of losing the family while starting and running an enterprise.

An initiative of The Indus Entrepreneurs’ (TiE) Special Interest group Women Entrepreneurs (SIGWE), the session, held at Cross Point Mall in Gurgaon today started with an energetic speech on creative living with Dr Harbeen Arora who deliberated on ten ways to become a successful entrepreneur. In her hour-long speech, Arora enthused participants with a lot of positive energy as she likened her approaches to ten symbols of Lord Ganesha. Maintaining that life was not easy she suggested that women entrepreneurs have ‘not only be good entrepreneurs but also good mothers, daughters, sisters, wives and daughters-in-law.’

Rashmee Kaushal, who is a co-owner of Mindcafe, a place where ‘people enjoy playing board games over a cup of coffee’ opined that women should prioritise their work, only then they can achieve success. “I don’t take my work home as kids are my priority there. Whenever there is anything urgent to deal with, I ask my husband to help as I don’t want my kids to suffer," informed Kaushal.

While Arora’s informed ways to achieve success caught the attention of aspiring entrepreneurs, her positive attitude boosted their morale. Sumit, who hails from Rohtak wants to become an entrepreneur and was attending third entrepreneur meet. “I have made it a point to listen to all the expertise of the established entrepreneurs in such meets, only then should I start my enterprise,” said Sumit.

At the end of the session, around 30 participants expressed their fears, while asking Kaushal about her business and its success in an informal question-answer session. Sangita, one of the budding entrepreneurs asked about the impact on the family when you reach home after a lousy day’s work. Kaushal replied that it did affect the psyche but maintained that was a general phenomenon and was part and parcel of life. “We should try to minimise its effect as much as possible but we shouldn’t in any case, let it suffer our kids. If I couldn’t finish my work, I try to finish it after making sure that my kids have the dinner and are asleep properly,” informed Kaushal.

Sudha Sastri, who has been successfully running Input India, an HR company for last two decades believes that women can do wonders, when it came to entrepreneurship. “They just need to remove some self-made obstacles and march ahead on the path to success. Besides you need to show loyalty to your profession,” maintained Sastri.