We grew a facility management company from 1 to nearly 600 employees between 2003 and 2015 and restarted for 2 years on the same road with an energy-efficiency firm.
For me, entrepreneurship is intertwined with my life, and from this perspective I want to share some ideas about female entrepreneurship. Numerous studies show that its evolution is deficient in many countries, even in the European Union.
Recently released, the results of the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs 2018 show that 28.9% of all businesses in Romania are owned by women. Romania has grown to this category, now ranked 9th in the world, as it ranked 13th last year, with 27.5% of the total number of women's businesses.
A study by EY and Kennesaw State University globally shows the importance of women in family businesses as well. Specifically, some of the significant results of this report include the following:
• On average, family businesses with about five women in executive management
• Women make up 22% of the average family business leadership team
• 55% of family businesses have at least one woman in the board of directors
• The 8% management boards of the families have 50% or more women in their composition
• 70% of family businesses are considering a woman to be the next CEO
Returning to Mastercard's study, it shows very clearly that although we are ranked 9th in the world as a percentage of women's entrepreneurial entrepreneurship in total entrepreneurial businesses, we still have much to do in the following two directions:
• We are ranked 24th out of 57 economies analyzed in terms of entrepreneurship (business and financial) education for women
• We are 29th out of 57 in terms of creating a business environment to support female entrepreneurship
We therefore confirm that the current regulatory framework and entrepreneurship support programs seem to disregard the specific needs of women in general and women entrepreneurs in particular - the burden of combining family and professional life. There are also the sexist stereotypes that show that the collective mentality regarding the involvement of Romanian women in business is still far from being integrated as a career development option.
Throughout my business as a contractor, I have always focused my experience, expertise and energy on helping people reach their potential, make a selection of values, achieve excellence, have the courage to make a change when it is in line with their mission of life.
From this perspective, I think there are certain things that we can do together as members of this community of entrepreneurs in Romania to support women's entrepreneurship, namely:
• Ask for the integration of specific aspects of female entrepreneurship into SME policies, from the design phase of these policies to the separate monitoring of their outcomes on female entrepreneurship in Romania.
• Engage in business development programs, management, finance dedicated to entrepreneurs, and bring valuable examples and case studies from personal entrepreneurship experience
• Let's talk about this theme, look at it to see how it evolves (Mastercard congratulations on the 2-year index initiative and the data for Romania) and to bring forward the success stories, the models of the Romanian female entrepreneurship.
