Effect of Gender on Inception Stage of Entrepreneurs: Evidence from Small and Micro Enterprises in Indore

Entrepreneurship comes with a host of challenges, rewarding challenges. This study aims to analyze the obstacles faced by entrepreneurs at the inception stage of their business and the gender related distinctiveness in the same. The research design is descriptive in nature and has been carried out primarily by using survey method. The universe of the study is based on the list of all small and micro business units initiated and developed by male and female entrepreneurs in Indore city and the sample size is 500. The ‘Obstacles faced at inception stage’ included eleven variables; not faced any obstacle, question of self-confidence, difficulty in raising start-up finance, lack of information/advice on how to start a business, difficult to find right contacts for business, no awareness/access to business support, lacked management skills, lacked entrepreneurial skills, lacked intercultural and language skills for foreign markets, difficult to combine family and work life and faced gender discrimination. Percentage analysis was used to analyze the ‘Obstacles faced at inception stage’ faced by male and female entrepreneurs and ANOVA was run for “Gender” of entrepreneur and eleven variables of ‘Obstacles faced at inception stage’ to ascertain the effect of gender on these variables. Maximum number of entrepreneurs have attributed “difficulty in raising start-up finance” as the biggest obstacle. Alongside, there is a drastic difference in the number of female entrepreneurs, as compared to their male counterparts, who believe that they were unable to strike a work/life balance while starting their business. Therefore, public policy to promote entrepreneurship needs to be tailored carefully to different groups.